Fluff Factor: Mamma Mia! and The Hero Strikes Back

[osprey_archer]

I saw Mamma Mia! yesterday. I enjoyed it—it reminds me a bit of Enchanted, in joie de vivre and ecstatically immoderate use of color and dance—and it was fun hearing all these songs I know (although in their A*Teens versions, not ABBA, which probably lowers my coolness quotient by four or five points).

I did yelp “Don’t marry him!” at the screen at one point (Donna, the idiot, did not listen), but there were only two people in the theater besides us five and they laughed, so that’s not too embarrassing.

***

And now for the book review.

Resenting the Hero really isn’t worth reading. The plot is predictable, the characters are generally thin on development—even the first person narrator, Lee. She at least ought to have some psychological depth or at least consistency, but no. Not so much.

The book’s big conflict is her dislike of her Source, Karish (they have a magic bond that enables them to tame natural disasters, which sounds like it ought to be interesting but isn’t). He has a bad reputation, she has to see past it to the upstanding young man that he is, it might have been interesting if were he not so very obviously wonderful.

Fortunately it isn’t at all necessary to read Resenting the Hero to understand The Hero Strikes Back. The plot is less predictable and the characterization, while still not good, is better, but the main draw of this book is its incredible fluff factor. It’s like a romance without the actual romance; it abounds with UST, except the oodles of unresolved and possibly sexual overtones aren’t tense.

They stroke each other’s hair, kiss each other’s foreheads, wrap arms around each other’s waists, and squeeze each other’s hands. At one point, Lee hurts her head so Karish has to stay in her room overnight; at another, Karish tells Lee all about his angsty childhood and they cuddle. They trust each other, adore each other, are all over each other, and yet never quite achieve a romantic relationship; in fact, Lee complains that everyone assumes they are sleeping together.

No, really. This book is like a really fluffy hurt/comfort fanfic.

Comments

[exuberantself.livejournal.com]

Colin Firth! ::swoons::

[girl-called-sun.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the review...I'll maybe get the books out of the library now, rather than buying them.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Save it for a bad day, when the fluff factor will overwhelm the flaws in the writing.

I really wish the author had done more with the "fighting natural disasters" things, but you can't have everything, I guess.

[visualthinker11.livejournal.com]

hah, i just saw mamma mia, which means i can read this post. why did you tell donna not to marry pierece brosnan? i mean he did the marlin brando "stella!" yell and everything.... overall though, that was a very hilarious movie. and who knew lily (from veronica mars) could sing?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

As a general rule, any guy who resembles Marlon Brando in Streetcar Named Desire is not worth marrying. Nothing but trouble! Besides, he's so self-righteous and arrogant and irritating.

Lily (a.k.a. Amanda Seyfried) was pretty amazing, though. It was great that she got to be alive this time--not that she didn't rock out as a dead girl, but living is clearly more her style.

[visualthinker11.livejournal.com]

you know, that makes a lot of sense. More and more, as i'm thinking about it. i'm normally rather good at noticing the self-righteous and arrogant guys in movies/tv and wanting to throw, i don't know, shoes at them or something. how did i miss him?

...though i have this odd feeling that i was probably distracted from all that by a)the musical numbers b)the musical numbers or c)colin firth.

being alive is probably the way to be as an actor... unless you're playing a vampire or something. and then you're still undead...