Tempest Rising
Well, I finished this one this morning and realise I don’t really have an awful lot of opinion on it. I mean, did I enjoy it? Well, yeah, I did. But it didn’t wow me, and there were a few issues I had that spoiled it from being a higher rank.
First there was the reliability of Tempest as a narrator. After she’s attacked by the sea witch (when Kona is there to help), she says she doesn’t know what the thing is that’s after her, yet TWICE before then she had referred to ‘it’ as the sea witch in her narration. The first time was during the relaying of her incident as a child, and the second time was during the scene that immediately preceded her confusion. Then there was a couple issues regarding her feelings between herself and Mark, and herself and Kona, and the triangle that caused. Speaking of which, that kinda turned me off connecting with her, if I’m honest. Because she showed nowhere near enough remorse over going from snogging one guy to the next without a word to either of her somewhat ‘sluttish’ behaviour. And then that scene near the end where she just dumps Kona and is spiteful to him whilst doing so—not to make it easier on him, though, but to make it easier on herself. Personally, I didn’t think she deserved either of them and wouldn’t have been too upset if she’d been the one who ended up dumped.
Still, there’s no denying that Kona’s sweetness right at the end did bring a mist to my eyes. Because he’s an adorable character—Mark, too. Although I didn’t quite get the whole immediate connection thing—we’re never given an explanation for that, and I only really buy into insta-love if there’s some kind of solidarity behind the why, but there was nothing. And I can’t end my gripes without mentioning my pet hate of POV breaches. There were very few in Tempest Rising, but when they did occur they were pretty jarring (to me, personally).
Other than those couple complaints, this was a nice read that I enjoyed and don’t regret spending my time on, though I doubt it will stay with me as some books can. I will say though: the sea-based sections of the book were so vivid, the reader easily imagines themselves there, and I think that went a long way to amping up my enjoyment.
