Book Review: Flora’s Dare
Jan. 19th, 2014 12:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerYsabeau S. Wilce’s Flora Segunda books suffer from one of the same difficulties as the Harry Potter books: while the children are having exciting adventures, the backstory tells us that the parental generation clearly lived an epic tragedy. Their nation, Califa, was invaded by the Huitzil Empire! They managed to stave off utter defeat only by becoming a client state! All while accruing complicated and tragic backstories!
Flora’s parents are Hotspur, who was captured by the Huitzils and driven mad, and Buck, who is the commanding general of the Califan army and generally runs Califa because the Warlord is old and incompetent. They love each other very much.
But! Hotspur was also in love with his other commanding general (clearly he has a type), the Butcher Brakespeare, who when she was but fifteen was married off to General Hardhands, who she eventually poisoned to death.
And it turns out that in fact the Butcher Brakespeare is Flora’s mother! Flora is the child of Hotspur’s adulterous pre-captivity liaison with his commanding general! Flora was born on military campaign, and when Brakespeare realized capture was imminent, she decided to send Flora...to her lover’s wife, Buck. Because that seemed like a good idea?
Clearly it genuinely did seem like a good idea to Brakespeare, and indeed Buck raises Flora as her own daughter, so...that worked. But clearly they all have a very interesting relationship to each other for this to seem like a good idea.
And then the Huitzil capture Brakespeare and Hotspur, and tear out Brakespeare’s heart because they think she’s a war criminal, and also they keep Hotspur captive for years and drive him mad. And ALSO ALSO for some reason Hotspur had his six-year-old daughter along on this adulterous military campaign: the first Flora, the girl Flora is named after, the reason our Flora is Flora Segunda. Flora Primera has DISAPPEARED and will almost certainly show up in the third book, Flora’s Fury.
Possibly accompanied by Brakespeare! Who, Flora realizes at the end of Flora’s Dare, is not dead! So possibly Brakespeare has been raising Buck’s daughter Flora while Buck has been raising Brakespeare’s daughter Flora?
I am filled with a burning desire for prequels.
But I am also curious what happens to Flora next in the present-day storyline. But I feel a little trepidation about book three, because of certain events in book two... I love Flora lots, and I’m also fond of Udo, but unfortunately I’m not very fond at all of Flora/Udo, because I just don’t see the chemistry - to the extent that at the end of the first book, I was all “Flora is friends with a boy and there are no hints that they will ever get together, how refreshing!”
And then the second book happened and suddenly they started making out and I was most confused. Not least because this happened not long Udo’s body, under the possession of Spring-heeled Jack, a criminal spirit who resides in a pair of fiery red five-inch-heeled boots, attempted to rape Flora.
I mean, obviously this is not Udo’s fault, but it was still his body that did it, so surely Flora feels a bit twitchy about it afterward? And not only Flora. It must have been traumatizing for Udo, too, watching his own body under someone else’s control attempt to hurt someone he loves.
But really, I thought Flora had more chemistry with Valefor, the spirit of Flora’s house, who inadvertently almost kills them both when their souls become intertwined after Flora starts sharing her Anima with Valefor in order to give him the strength to do her chores. (It’s a big house. She had a lot of chores.) Soulbond of death! How can you possibly beat that?
Obviously this is not a healthy relationship, and actually I would prefer Flora not to get together with anyone (or at least with anyone we’ve met so far). But Valefor would be more interesting than Udo.
Flora’s parents are Hotspur, who was captured by the Huitzils and driven mad, and Buck, who is the commanding general of the Califan army and generally runs Califa because the Warlord is old and incompetent. They love each other very much.
But! Hotspur was also in love with his other commanding general (clearly he has a type), the Butcher Brakespeare, who when she was but fifteen was married off to General Hardhands, who she eventually poisoned to death.
And it turns out that in fact the Butcher Brakespeare is Flora’s mother! Flora is the child of Hotspur’s adulterous pre-captivity liaison with his commanding general! Flora was born on military campaign, and when Brakespeare realized capture was imminent, she decided to send Flora...to her lover’s wife, Buck. Because that seemed like a good idea?
Clearly it genuinely did seem like a good idea to Brakespeare, and indeed Buck raises Flora as her own daughter, so...that worked. But clearly they all have a very interesting relationship to each other for this to seem like a good idea.
And then the Huitzil capture Brakespeare and Hotspur, and tear out Brakespeare’s heart because they think she’s a war criminal, and also they keep Hotspur captive for years and drive him mad. And ALSO ALSO for some reason Hotspur had his six-year-old daughter along on this adulterous military campaign: the first Flora, the girl Flora is named after, the reason our Flora is Flora Segunda. Flora Primera has DISAPPEARED and will almost certainly show up in the third book, Flora’s Fury.
Possibly accompanied by Brakespeare! Who, Flora realizes at the end of Flora’s Dare, is not dead! So possibly Brakespeare has been raising Buck’s daughter Flora while Buck has been raising Brakespeare’s daughter Flora?
I am filled with a burning desire for prequels.
But I am also curious what happens to Flora next in the present-day storyline. But I feel a little trepidation about book three, because of certain events in book two... I love Flora lots, and I’m also fond of Udo, but unfortunately I’m not very fond at all of Flora/Udo, because I just don’t see the chemistry - to the extent that at the end of the first book, I was all “Flora is friends with a boy and there are no hints that they will ever get together, how refreshing!”
And then the second book happened and suddenly they started making out and I was most confused. Not least because this happened not long Udo’s body, under the possession of Spring-heeled Jack, a criminal spirit who resides in a pair of fiery red five-inch-heeled boots, attempted to rape Flora.
I mean, obviously this is not Udo’s fault, but it was still his body that did it, so surely Flora feels a bit twitchy about it afterward? And not only Flora. It must have been traumatizing for Udo, too, watching his own body under someone else’s control attempt to hurt someone he loves.
But really, I thought Flora had more chemistry with Valefor, the spirit of Flora’s house, who inadvertently almost kills them both when their souls become intertwined after Flora starts sharing her Anima with Valefor in order to give him the strength to do her chores. (It’s a big house. She had a lot of chores.) Soulbond of death! How can you possibly beat that?
Obviously this is not a healthy relationship, and actually I would prefer Flora not to get together with anyone (or at least with anyone we’ve met so far). But Valefor would be more interesting than Udo.
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Date: 2015-07-18 02:01 am (UTC)I read the first two books closer to when Dare was published and only just in the last two days reread them and read Fury, so I'm interested to see what you think of what happens with Udo in that book heh.
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Date: 2015-07-21 03:10 am (UTC)