Rating: 2/5
Spoiler Alert! If you haven’t read the book, this review will contain spoilers so it’s up to you if you continue…
So I've finally finished first three books of the Order of Darkness. Yes, the third one is as frustrating as the the first two.
But do you know why? Because I have figured out why I've kept going and why they're so frustrating.
Philippa Gregory is a good writer.
It's that simple.
She's a good writer but this is poor writing. Crude writing.
Everything is spelt out, multiple times, leaving no room for the reader to come to their own conclusions, or to guess how things might turn out. There's no subtlety in Gregory's YA writing.
And whilst it does mean there's no ambiguity of where the story is going - frustrating in itself - it also means that the writing feels like someone explaining the joke to you. It's not effective when it has to be explained, and there's no cleverness to it.
There's a section where Brother Peter and Isolde are talking about a woman defending herself and this is legit Brother Peter's response:
'A lady will find her defenders. The men around you will speak for you if needs be,' Brother Peter assured her, not realising that he was recommending a view of women which had kept them powerless for centuries, and would lead them to be victims of male anger and male power forever.
As if we didn't get that the series has an underlying feminist agenda (a phrase I'm using in a positive, not derogatory way) from the strong, independent female characters, Gregory feels the need to spell it out whenever one of the women has some kind of issue relating to gender.
Along with that, every 10 pages felt like the "Here's what you missed on GLEE" recaps which you don't need because you've been sat there for 6 hours binge watching the TV. It was really annoying.
I refuse to accept that this poor quality of writing is because The Order of Darkness is a YA series. There are hundreds of clever, subtle, thought-provoking YA books out there that don't feel the need to spell everything out to the reader.
The actual plot wasn't awful and, as with the first two, this only made it worse. I still like the characters, the introduction of the alchemists was a cool turn, and I thought the setting and world building was the best it's been throughout the series. Unfortunately, all the potential is unspent.
Whilst Fool's Gold was probably the most interesting of the lot, I won't be continuing the series. It has disappointed me throughout and the poor writing has let down good characters too many times. I know this is a hella short review but everything I have to say about the series has been said in my reviews of Changeling and Stormbringers, if you want to check them out.
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