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Emily's Quest
Feb. 1st, 2013 12:02 amI have been putting off writing a review of Emily’s Quest, because my reaction to this book mostly falls into two completely incompatible lines of thought.
Thought #1: Dean Priest can DIE IN A FIRE how dare he tell Emily her book is bad when it is actually wonderful AND THEN SHE BURNED IT. OH EMILY. I am still mourning for her lost book!!!
Thought #2: I know he should die in a fire because he insulted Emily’s writing because he was jealous that she loved it more than him, and also he’s twenty years older than her and they first met when she was twelve...but I still find Dean & Emily way more interesting than Emily/Teddy. I am a failure at everything.
Also, I feel bad for Dean because I think partly Emily doesn’t like him because he’s a hunchback. Which, okay, she is under no obligation to find him sexually attractive, and I do not blame her for not digging the hunchback thing, but I still feel bad for him and his “I am too hideous to ever be loved” thing. Because the book proves his belief correct and it makes me sad.
I think with Dean, Montgomery is trying to say “Hey, don’t marry a man if you don’t find him sexually attractive (and also he’s the jealous type), even if you get along great otherwise,” which is fair. But I think also there is something to be said for not marrying a man, like Teddy, with whom you have awesome chemistry but can’t particularly talk to.
Emily and Teddy spend a lot of time pining from afar and being completely unable to talk to each other - not just in the “we’re torn apart by distance” sense, but in the “we simply cannot communicate” sense. And then Teddy almost marries Emily’s best friend Ilse (who is secretly in love with their other friend Perry, who keeps asking Emily to marry him - the romances in this book are so convoluted) -
While I liked the fact that Emily and Ilse’s friendship never became a festival of jealousy and pain, even though Ilse was marrying Emily secret One True Love...I felt like the narrative was protesting too much about how, no really, Emily wasn’t jealous! At all!
Whereas Dean and Emily, despite all the many reason that they are terribly mismatched, have a meeting of minds. We see lots of their conversations, and except for the ones that center on Romance, Emily always ends up feeling uplifted and more able to understand the world.
It’s not so much that I want Dean & Emily to get married, as I want them to go have adventures together, like Doctor Who and his companion, although without the time travel. Or maybe with the time travel. You could sell me on an AU. Because Dean is always going fun places! And Emily loves fun places! They could write travel books together! If he could just get over his stupid jealousy thing!
Thought #1: Dean Priest can DIE IN A FIRE how dare he tell Emily her book is bad when it is actually wonderful AND THEN SHE BURNED IT. OH EMILY. I am still mourning for her lost book!!!
Thought #2: I know he should die in a fire because he insulted Emily’s writing because he was jealous that she loved it more than him, and also he’s twenty years older than her and they first met when she was twelve...but I still find Dean & Emily way more interesting than Emily/Teddy. I am a failure at everything.
Also, I feel bad for Dean because I think partly Emily doesn’t like him because he’s a hunchback. Which, okay, she is under no obligation to find him sexually attractive, and I do not blame her for not digging the hunchback thing, but I still feel bad for him and his “I am too hideous to ever be loved” thing. Because the book proves his belief correct and it makes me sad.
I think with Dean, Montgomery is trying to say “Hey, don’t marry a man if you don’t find him sexually attractive (and also he’s the jealous type), even if you get along great otherwise,” which is fair. But I think also there is something to be said for not marrying a man, like Teddy, with whom you have awesome chemistry but can’t particularly talk to.
Emily and Teddy spend a lot of time pining from afar and being completely unable to talk to each other - not just in the “we’re torn apart by distance” sense, but in the “we simply cannot communicate” sense. And then Teddy almost marries Emily’s best friend Ilse (who is secretly in love with their other friend Perry, who keeps asking Emily to marry him - the romances in this book are so convoluted) -
While I liked the fact that Emily and Ilse’s friendship never became a festival of jealousy and pain, even though Ilse was marrying Emily secret One True Love...I felt like the narrative was protesting too much about how, no really, Emily wasn’t jealous! At all!
Whereas Dean and Emily, despite all the many reason that they are terribly mismatched, have a meeting of minds. We see lots of their conversations, and except for the ones that center on Romance, Emily always ends up feeling uplifted and more able to understand the world.
It’s not so much that I want Dean & Emily to get married, as I want them to go have adventures together, like Doctor Who and his companion, although without the time travel. Or maybe with the time travel. You could sell me on an AU. Because Dean is always going fun places! And Emily loves fun places! They could write travel books together! If he could just get over his stupid jealousy thing!
