Yeah, most of the accusations of "Mary Sue!" I've come across seem to be leveled at Anna merely because she's kind and pretty (and the main character?). Which...hardly washes for me, to say the least. I do think the term has a distressing tendency to be thrown around too liberally when discussing characters from original fiction (and towards female characters in particular, which carries its own set of Unfortunate Implications). I will occasionally use the term, myself, in the context of original work, but only when the character is, as you said, a great sucking black hole at the center of the story.
Ugh, the uncle. I'd forgotten about him (or maybe blocked the memory out?). At least now it won't take me by surprise, when I do get around to rereading it?
Re: Avi, that's interesting to hear. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle was the first book I read by him, and enjoyed it enough to seek out some of his other stuff, but it never grabbed me the way Charlotte Doyle did, and I would inevitably give up after a couple chapters. It might be the era and setting of that book that held my attention more than anything, as I admittedly have a Thing for the Age of Sail.
(Kind of random, but I remember coming across some promotional info years ago, about a possible film adaptation that was to star Dakota Fanning as Charlotte and Pierce Brosnan as Jaggery. Obviously that never happened, and Fanning is too old for the part now, but a nostalgic part of me still wants to see that film.)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2014-04-24 01:53 pm (UTC)Ugh, the uncle. I'd forgotten about him (or maybe blocked the memory out?). At least now it won't take me by surprise, when I do get around to rereading it?
Re: Avi, that's interesting to hear. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle was the first book I read by him, and enjoyed it enough to seek out some of his other stuff, but it never grabbed me the way Charlotte Doyle did, and I would inevitably give up after a couple chapters. It might be the era and setting of that book that held my attention more than anything, as I admittedly have a Thing for the Age of Sail.
(Kind of random, but I remember coming across some promotional info years ago, about a possible film adaptation that was to star Dakota Fanning as Charlotte and Pierce Brosnan as Jaggery. Obviously that never happened, and Fanning is too old for the part now, but a nostalgic part of me still wants to see that film.)