The Strength of the Few

Author: James Islington

Who Picked the Book: Lindsay

One-sentence summary: Vis navigates peril in three worlds as all three of him (and others) try to overturn the oppressive regime.

B.A.D. Girls Book Rating: 6

Our favorite thing about it: It was very creative and had interesting things to say about what will be done just to survive.

Our least favorite thing about it: It was way too complicated and hard to follow.

Main Topics of Discussion: Novel structure, character development, sacrifice, moral compromise, loss, violence.

Our favorite quote: "Without grief, love would be meaningless. Because it is impossible to truly love something that cannot be lost."

Notes: Our overwhelming feeling about this book is that it could have been so much better if it hadn't tried to do too much. Just when you think you're getting a handle on this new world, the author expands the worlds to three and you've got to learn two more. Except now, you're learning them one chapter at a time, breaking up any development or action with chapters from each different world. It took so long (especially for those listening, not reading) to reorient themselves in every single chapter that it took some of the enjoyment out of just following the story and characters. If you're constantly trying to place where you are and with whom, and who are these people again? - it is sort of exhausting and not a fun reading experience. The chapters about Rez (the original world) were more enjoyable precisely because we'd spent the entire first novel learning those characters and that world. It seemed hard for the author to properly develop the characters or the action because there simply wasn't enough time (and this novel is LONG). 

One of our criticisms from the first book carried over to this one - and largely just because of the structure of the book. We still didn't like that we didn't connect with the characters - even Vis. There were parts of the first book (return to Sus, sometimes at the Academy) where we began to feel more emotionally attached, but overall both books are lacking in this department. It's hard to care about what's happening if you don't care about the characters. If this book had just continued the story in ONE world, that development might have been possible. 

Many of us were turned off by the violence - we don't love reading graphic depictions of violence in general. And especially when all of the characters we actually knew and remembered were being killed. 

And one thing that bothered us was Vis's view on using Will. In the first book, it was a major deal that he did not do that. He went to great lengths and it caused him trouble to not use Will. And now in this second book - he not only uses it all the time, but all the guardrails are off. There seems to be no limit to what he will do even though he thinks about how bad it is while he's doing it. This seemed so incongruent to us. 

Usually we'd take more care to reread portions of a book that didn't make sense the first time or spend time really trying to remember and get to know each character - but this book was just so laborious in every way. We basically just kept reading and thought "oh, well." We felt very "meh" about this one. 

Memorable Meeting Moments: We were able to try The Bloom Lounge for brunch, which was fabulous. And then we went to Rachel's house for tea and book discussion. We met at 12:30pm for brunch - one of our earlier meeting times!

What We Ate: Lindsay treated us to brunch (from afar!) at The Bloom Lounge. We had mimosas, goat cheese & jam dip, chicken & gnocchi, short rib risotto, and vanilla pancakes with chocolate ganache.