Overall, while I think the concepts here (the poison lake and singing magic in particular) are interesting and offer up a unique world, I simply wasn't particularly drawn into the story or its characters. For such a magical story, it just didn't grab me in the way I wanted it to, through the events or especially the prose (which in fact felt a little flat, given the fantasy and mystery of the world it describes). I also struggled a bit with the character names, they didn't feel very cohesive culturally or linguistic and sometimes even seemed a bit silly in a way that was distracting.
In addition, for a book that seems built around Leelo's understanding of her world and the morality of her community/family being broken, it seems a little too apparent right away that the practices of her community are often cruel. I might very well be wrong about where the text actually goes, but I feel like, assuming my understanding of the central conflict is correct, it would be more interesting and allow for more growth from Leelo as a character if her island community was more nuanced and their actions felt genuinely justified by the circumstances. I'd like to wonder right along with Leelo what the right course of action really is, to be genuinely challenged by this world and culture, but this excerpt at least did not give me that. Drowning a former member of the community in your poison lake does not exactly feel nuanced or justified, it feels a bit too simple and sort of takes the struggle with these concepts away--but again this is largely conjecture about where the book goes from here, so I could be entirely incorrect! It might succeed in making Leelo's struggle feel genuinely complicated, even if it's not so in this particular excerpt.
That being said, there were absolutely elements of this book that worked for me! I think that, again, the world building is really cool--I love the use of singing as magic, and I thought it was interesting to compare the island with the outside world through different perspectives. I think this book absolutely has potential and strong points, it just perhaps isn't quite for me.
In addition, for a book that seems built around Leelo's understanding of her world and the morality of her community/family being broken, it seems a little too apparent right away that the practices of her community are often cruel. I might very well be wrong about where the text actually goes, but I feel like, assuming my understanding of the central conflict is correct, it would be more interesting and allow for more growth from Leelo as a character if her island community was more nuanced and their actions felt genuinely justified by the circumstances. I'd like to wonder right along with Leelo what the right course of action really is, to be genuinely challenged by this world and culture, but this excerpt at least did not give me that. Drowning a former member of the community in your poison lake does not exactly feel nuanced or justified, it feels a bit too simple and sort of takes the struggle with these concepts away--but again this is largely conjecture about where the book goes from here, so I could be entirely incorrect! It might succeed in making Leelo's struggle feel genuinely complicated, even if it's not so in this particular excerpt.
That being said, there were absolutely elements of this book that worked for me! I think that, again, the world building is really cool--I love the use of singing as magic, and I thought it was interesting to compare the island with the outside world through different perspectives. I think this book absolutely has potential and strong points, it just perhaps isn't quite for me.