Ysabel

by Guy Gavriel Kay

[violetpeanut]

It's not very often that I dislike a book enough to give it only one star. I did not enjoy anything about this book. After about 50 pages I knew I didn't like it but I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt solely because it was a World Fantasy Award winner. What? Why?!

Ugghhh! Talk about frustrating. The entire book is comprised of a teenage boy trying to figure out what the heck is going on with these two men and a woman. They gallivant around Provence, France running into these men and then ultimately search for this elusive woman. There's an element of mythology and quite a bit of supernatural stuff going on but it's frustrating that nothing is explained. I stuck it out to the end hoping that my questions would be answered. Ultimately, the ending was unsatisfying to me. Very few of my questions were answered.

I wanted to smack just about every character in the book. Ned liked to whine about how everything was confusing and it seemed like the author was trying too hard to make this 15 year old boy relevant - too many references to his iPod and running cross-country and wearing trendy vintage t-shirts. That none of the adults really questioned him was ridiculous and that they helped him was completely unbelievable.

Totally unsatisfying to me in every way. This was really a disappointment. I had much higher expectations for a World Fantasy Award winner.