Seeing Redd by Frank Beddor (Review)

Date Finished: December 16, 2017 (maybe, I can’t remember)

Page Count: 371

Genre: Fantasy

 

            Well I’m disappointed in you Mr. Beddor. I had a slight feeling that a second book couldn’t be done in the Looking Glass Wars series with the main conflict of the story primarily wrapped up, and just a few minor problems being left for the characters (possibility of Redd resurfacing in our world, Dodge’s quest for vengeance, Hatter wanting to mourn the death of his lover, Alyss and Dodge’s relationship, ect.) and I was right. The way this book played out was not what I was hoping for with the sequel and while I can’t get on Beddor for just writing Seeing Redd since the first one was such a success (apparently he planned this series out extensively before writing it according to the authors bio in The Looking Glass Wars), I can get on him for a dull plot and boring characters. That’s just my opinion though so stick around to hear me through or not if you don’t want me to slowly tear apart the joy you felt at reading this series. Without further ado, I give you a first on this blog:

The Everything I Felt Was Wrong with this Book List!

1.      Alyss was a flat character in this book. Like all I remember her doing is war, looking out for Dodge, and being a queen. There was next to no major character development for her in this book and I cared about her less as a character because of it.

2.      Lots of the book took place in our world when it was focusing on Redd. So in the first book I like seeing the real world because it was spaced out nicely and served the purpose of helping set up Alyss as an individual devoid of imagination, but here that wasn’t the case. Reading about Redd gather people to fight for her wasn’t too exciting and there was hardly any action because of that. Boo. It’s not Wonderland with it’s exciting battle between important characters.

3.      Hatter Madigan has a love interest and get blackmailed because of her. It’s not that I have a problem with giving the Batman characters a love interest, it’s just that we, the audience, was misled into believing that she was dead and when she reappeared Hatter was blackmailed into doing all the wrong things (plus it was super anticlimactic overall and his character could have been handled so much better if she was left dead). All the while, Hatter showed way too much weakness in caring than I thought his character should have in proportion to how conflicted he was about doing the right thing and trying to get him and his loved ones out of the mess they were in. At least his paper thin lover was killed near the end of the novel but far too late to prevent them for one of the other major things I disliked about this book.

4.      Molly Homburg is revealed to be Hatter’s daughter. Son of a Shakespeare Beddor, why’d you have to go and do something as stupid as that?! No, I did not like the idea of Hatter having family ties, much less having a daughter. Molly was cool without having any know parents alive so why’d you have to go and do a thing like that? The you had her freaking take Hatter’s job, which she did a terrible job at by the way, and got herself screwed up and in the enemy’s hands. Normally I’d congratulate this sort of character development but factors (like the fact that I just don’t think Hatter should have a kid) make me not like this. It was a good idea but bad situation if that makes any sense.

5.      King Arch. He was a sexist and was simply good at manipulating his words, plus he was something of an opportunist disease in my opinion. I normally wouldn’t be upset about villains this crafty, but the way he was introduced as a sexist that crawled to power just made me dislike him for the entire series. Dude didn’t even try to hide the fact that he found women to be below women multiple times! Too much salt in the wound Beddor, way too much.

 

But yeah, that was my list of grievances about the book. The only things I really enjoyed were some real sweet Dodge x Alyss fluff and the fact that Jack of Diamonds got killed. He was such a brat and an annoying character (probably done on purpose) but it was nice to see a mushroom see get planted in him and the roots strangle his heart (pretty sure that’s what happened). Those were the only things that kept me going and I really should have given up on the book longer ago. But alas, I felt an obligation to finish the series I’d started and it’s been an extreme waste of my time. I don’t recommend people read this book unless they really, truly like the first book as it prolongs a story that should have finished with one book. It wasn’t all that bad a book however when you compare it to the final book in the series.