Hirondelle's Reviews > The Brides of High Hill
The Brides of High Hill (The Singing Hills Cycle, #5)
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Hirondelle's review
bookshelves: fantasy, shut-up-and-take-my-money, 2024-mights, 2024-sf-f-publications
Jul 18, 2024
bookshelves: fantasy, shut-up-and-take-my-money, 2024-mights, 2024-sf-f-publications
So, this was a letdown. Not totally unexpected due to reviews from friends (thanks! For all its many bugs, that is something Goodreads is unbeatable at, finding people whose taste you trust), but hope springs eternal, and surely it would work for me. But even with lowered expectations, this was odd.
An Asian (Vietnamese?)-inspired gothic-tinged fantasy, the further adventures of cleric Chih. The gothic bits are there, but I would say this goes more strongly into straight-out horror themes. There was a frustrating vagueness to Chih and the story here, Chih seemed out of character compared to how they were defined in previous stories, though that ends up being less objectionable than I thought it was going to be. It also ends up tying up better with the themes of the rest of the series. Her writing quality, which is usually so dazzling for me, was not as sparkling as usual.
I noticed an unusual part of the acknowledgements: "Usually this is where I talk about something in my life that’s relevant to the novella you hopefully just read. However, given that The Brides of High Hill is specifically about lies, I decided that for legal reasons, I’m going to stick with a few useful truths, and then thank everyone who made this book what it is.". Ok, then.. It sounds like there might be personal backstory to the difference in tone and themes of this book, but without knowing that context, I can only judge it for what was in front of me, and I decrypted nothing and did not much get the book as it was.
An odd story, that I did not like. The rating is probably 2.5 stars, but considering how good the rest of the series is and how well Vo can write and plot, sorry, but I am rounding it down. Though I am aware I might just not be "getting" what this was really about.
An Asian (Vietnamese?)-inspired gothic-tinged fantasy, the further adventures of cleric Chih. The gothic bits are there, but I would say this goes more strongly into straight-out horror themes. There was a frustrating vagueness to Chih and the story here, Chih seemed out of character compared to how they were defined in previous stories, though that ends up being less objectionable than I thought it was going to be. It also ends up tying up better with the themes of the rest of the series. Her writing quality, which is usually so dazzling for me, was not as sparkling as usual.
I noticed an unusual part of the acknowledgements: "Usually this is where I talk about something in my life that’s relevant to the novella you hopefully just read. However, given that The Brides of High Hill is specifically about lies, I decided that for legal reasons, I’m going to stick with a few useful truths, and then thank everyone who made this book what it is.". Ok, then.. It sounds like there might be personal backstory to the difference in tone and themes of this book, but without knowing that context, I can only judge it for what was in front of me, and I decrypted nothing and did not much get the book as it was.
An odd story, that I did not like. The rating is probably 2.5 stars, but considering how good the rest of the series is and how well Vo can write and plot, sorry, but I am rounding it down. Though I am aware I might just not be "getting" what this was really about.
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Reading Progress
September 4, 2023
– Shelved
September 4, 2023
– Shelved as:
to-read
September 4, 2023
– Shelved as:
fantasy
September 12, 2023
– Shelved as:
considering-reading
September 13, 2023
– Shelved as:
to-read
September 26, 2023
– Shelved as:
shut-up-and-take-my-money
October 21, 2023
– Shelved as:
2024-mights
July 16, 2024
–
Started Reading
July 18, 2024
–
Finished Reading
July 24, 2024
– Shelved as:
2024-sf-f-publications
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Jul 18, 2024 07:24AM
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![Hirondelle](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1299433477p1/1123165.jpg)
But this was an odd book and felt like there was subtext I was not getting.