Emily's second sight is of a piece with her pointed ears and her occasional comparisons to the fairy folk. She's in this world but not fully of it.
Mary Stewart's Touch Not the Cat has a different dynamic, since it's definitely written and marketed as a fantasy novel. In Emily or Billabong, the books are framed as completely realistic fiction, but the heroine just occasionally has a flash of clairvoyance that happens to save someone's life.
I will keep the Barney-Dean parallels in mind as I read The Blue Castle! May perhaps expand on the theme when I make my Blue Castle post.
Are you thinking of Emily's Quest perhaps as the novel that doesn't work for you? There's actually very little Dean in Emily Climbs - he's mostly abroad while Emily's in high school in Shrewsbury. But in the third book (Emily's Quest) he's going to come sweeping back in to crush her dreams by telling her that her book A Seller of Dreams is no good, and nearly marrying her during her resultant depression, and then admitting the book was good after she's thrown him over etc. etc.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2024-04-09 01:07 pm (UTC)Mary Stewart's Touch Not the Cat has a different dynamic, since it's definitely written and marketed as a fantasy novel. In Emily or Billabong, the books are framed as completely realistic fiction, but the heroine just occasionally has a flash of clairvoyance that happens to save someone's life.
I will keep the Barney-Dean parallels in mind as I read The Blue Castle! May perhaps expand on the theme when I make my Blue Castle post.
Are you thinking of Emily's Quest perhaps as the novel that doesn't work for you? There's actually very little Dean in Emily Climbs - he's mostly abroad while Emily's in high school in Shrewsbury. But in the third book (Emily's Quest) he's going to come sweeping back in to crush her dreams by telling her that her book A Seller of Dreams is no good, and nearly marrying her during her resultant depression, and then admitting the book was good after she's thrown him over etc. etc.