I'm not a big fan of the term Mary Sue applied to a character in an original novel. There are characters in original fiction who are Mary Sue-ish in that they either ridiculously awesome at everything (Kvothe from the Kingkiller Chronicles comes to mind), or who become great sucking black holes at the center of a story - I have a pet peeve about supposed ensemble stories where the creators have an obvious favorite - but, after all, a main character should be at the center of her own story. So where do the traits of main character-hood shift over into the traits of Mary Sue-dom?
It also bothers me that whenever people pick on original fiction characters as Mary Sues, they pick someone like Anna rather than the aforementioned Kvothe or Sherlock (of Sherlock, not ACD's stories), both of whom are clearly their creators' darling pets and have far more extensive and unusual talents than Anna, whose skill set is not at all strange given her background. Her one striking and unusual skill is her kindness (and, okay, her eye color: I'm pretty sure her dark, sensitive, Byzantine eyes are described at least once a chapter).
If I were going to quibble anything in the book, it would be Uncle Sebastian, the hero's uncle who sometimes fondle the maids. One of the evil fiancee's evil acts is to limit his access to the maids by getting Uncle Sebastian a middle-aged nurse. All her other evil acts were pretty awful, but that...did not strike me as bad.
(Uncle Sebastian never laid a finger on Anna. The impression I got was that in Ibboton's mind Anna, as a lady, would of course have minded, but maids don't mind being goosed. O.o)
As for The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, I had the same problem with it I have with Avi's books generally: his people just don't seem to pop for me. I couldn't tell most of the secondary characters apart, and even the characters I remember - Mr. Jaggery, mostly - I couldn't begin to say what makes him tick.
I did like Charlotte, and I think if I read the book when I was younger the awesomeness of Charlotte might have outweighed anything else the book lacked.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2014-04-23 09:55 pm (UTC)It also bothers me that whenever people pick on original fiction characters as Mary Sues, they pick someone like Anna rather than the aforementioned Kvothe or Sherlock (of Sherlock, not ACD's stories), both of whom are clearly their creators' darling pets and have far more extensive and unusual talents than Anna, whose skill set is not at all strange given her background. Her one striking and unusual skill is her kindness (and, okay, her eye color: I'm pretty sure her dark, sensitive, Byzantine eyes are described at least once a chapter).
If I were going to quibble anything in the book, it would be Uncle Sebastian, the hero's uncle who sometimes fondle the maids. One of the evil fiancee's evil acts is to limit his access to the maids by getting Uncle Sebastian a middle-aged nurse. All her other evil acts were pretty awful, but that...did not strike me as bad.
(Uncle Sebastian never laid a finger on Anna. The impression I got was that in Ibboton's mind Anna, as a lady, would of course have minded, but maids don't mind being goosed. O.o)
As for The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, I had the same problem with it I have with Avi's books generally: his people just don't seem to pop for me. I couldn't tell most of the secondary characters apart, and even the characters I remember - Mr. Jaggery, mostly - I couldn't begin to say what makes him tick.
I did like Charlotte, and I think if I read the book when I was younger the awesomeness of Charlotte might have outweighed anything else the book lacked.