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A review by aprildiamond
The Secrets of Winterhouse by Ben Guterson
3.0
hmm. this vaguely confused me for a number of reasons.
for a good part of this the mc Elizabeth was written into the annoying "not like other girls" trap. this book, there's another girl named Elana at Winterhouse. Elizabeth is suspicious of her and unwilling to include her in things, despite Elana being friendly (if a little bizarre sometimes), all because... she's pretty and likes talking to people? this wasn't the weird part, in fact i thought it was setting up for Elizabeth's character development to be "don't judge people on first appearances" or something. i thought Elana was going to turn out to be a normal girl, albeit one with a strange family member.
instead, Elizabeth ends up being right about Elana, even though the literal basis for her suspicion was absolutely nothing at first. that just seemed weird to me. and then even though Elizabeth ultimately decides that she thinks Elana is a good person, her previous judgements are... never mentioned again? not even to be refuted. again, it just seemed strange to have all that setup and then never go back to it.
for both books in the series so far, Elizabeth has been struggling with temptations to join the "evil" side. i like this plot point for the most part; i think it adds more drama and nuance. but at some point in the book, the main message of the other side goes from "you should be powerful so that people can't take advantage of you" to "i don't want to get along with poor people" and i was like HUH??? where did that even come from?? at that point it was no longer relatable. as a reader, i didn't understand the value of the entire temptation plot anymore bc seriously what kind of lame recruitment message is that?
other minor confusing things:why couldn't Elizabeth have used her power to also heal Elana???? i think that would definitely fall under the "good side" umbrella, and would even be a way of taking out Gracella's influence, but nope. didn't happen. Elana deserves justice tbh.
and why were the adults giving the most useless advice this book? there was this whole thing about not getting angry when other people are jerks to you. to an extent, i understand, especially in the context of earlier chapters. but then when Freddy is like "yeah i wouldn't mind if the guy that beat me up so badly i had to go to the doctor suddenly aged up 40 years" they tell him to be charitable... like no?? 1) what he said wasn't even that bad 2) he was assaulted, so as far as i'm concerned he's allowed to be pretty angry about that.
anyway that was a journey so we'll see what happens in the last book
for a good part of this the mc Elizabeth was written into the annoying "not like other girls" trap. this book, there's another girl named Elana at Winterhouse. Elizabeth is suspicious of her and unwilling to include her in things, despite Elana being friendly (if a little bizarre sometimes), all because... she's pretty and likes talking to people? this wasn't the weird part, in fact i thought it was setting up for Elizabeth's character development to be "don't judge people on first appearances" or something. i thought Elana was going to turn out to be a normal girl, albeit one with a strange family member.
instead, Elizabeth ends up being right about Elana, even though the literal basis for her suspicion was absolutely nothing at first. that just seemed weird to me. and then even though Elizabeth ultimately decides that she thinks Elana is a good person, her previous judgements are... never mentioned again? not even to be refuted. again, it just seemed strange to have all that setup and then never go back to it.
for both books in the series so far, Elizabeth has been struggling with temptations to join the "evil" side. i like this plot point for the most part; i think it adds more drama and nuance. but at some point in the book, the main message of the other side goes from "you should be powerful so that people can't take advantage of you" to "i don't want to get along with poor people" and i was like HUH??? where did that even come from?? at that point it was no longer relatable. as a reader, i didn't understand the value of the entire temptation plot anymore bc seriously what kind of lame recruitment message is that?
other minor confusing things:
and why were the adults giving the most useless advice this book? there was this whole thing about not getting angry when other people are jerks to you. to an extent, i understand, especially in the context of earlier chapters. but then when Freddy is like "yeah i wouldn't mind if the guy that beat me up so badly i had to go to the doctor suddenly aged up 40 years" they tell him to be charitable... like no?? 1) what he said wasn't even that bad 2) he was assaulted, so as far as i'm concerned he's allowed to be pretty angry about that.
anyway that was a journey so we'll see what happens in the last book