Weather Witch, Shannon Delaney

Weather Witch, Shannon Delaney.  ISBN: 9781250018519

August 2, 2013

YA Alt-American Gaslamp Fantasy.

 

Ohh boy.  Fair warning - this one did not go so well with me.  I sulked for about an hour after reading it, and was petulant and unhappy to my poor husband all night.  Really unfortunate combination of potential in the premise with (in my opinion) an absolutely dismal execution.

 

I had written up a review that was exceedingly ranty, and felt bad about it, so I refrained from publishing it.

 

After about a week's consideration, I'm going to not post what I originally wrote up, and simply give a short explanation of why I don't consider this in any way a good read.

 

The main issue is the worldbuilding.  It was abysmal.   The setting was poorly defined, poorly set up, and did not make internal sense.  Even the character names didn't fit the place and time.  Nowhere did I get any feeling that this universe was real or able to be self-supporting.  It was horrible, and very frustrating.

In addition, the plot was the usual "oh, I got a contract from the publisher to do a series!" which translates to "this entire book is going to be an elaborate (but still badly done) set-up for the next book, and no actual feelings of accomplishment will occur."  Also very frustrating.

 

Lastly, the characters were obvious and paper thin.  Villains were totally transparent from the outset (to the degree that I wondered about the intelligence of the respective hero and heroine) and the main characters were little better.  Relationships were unrealistic and idealized, and several characters are brought into focus and then dropped entirely with absolutely no resolution to their plotlines.  Repeat it with me: very frustrating.

Now, what's sad, this review is practically charitable compared to what I ranted after having just read the thing.