Snow has been my favorite read so far. I thoroughly enjoyed
the characters, and although I’m not a huge fan of more than a couple head
hops, I think the way it was executed in this book progressed the story in a
way that wouldn’t have been possible if it were done with only one or two
perspectives.
I remember my “I bet so-and-so will die first” moment occurring
when the head hop swapped to Fred instead of Nan, and Malfi emphasized Nan as a
weaker character. I really thought she would be the first one to go, so when Fred
died first out of the “hero” cast I was surprised. I also liked him much better
than his wife. Overall, I think all the characters were well flushed out. I liked
Todd and Kate’s relationship throughout the story, and I know some of the group
felt it was cringy, but I think it seemed pretty standard for an initial
attraction. They were like the male and female versions of the same character.
They were both clever doers with a morbid sense of humor. I say morbid because
they’re cracking jokes to lighten up the mood when essentially the world is
falling apart around them. I think I related to these two the most out of the
lot.
The snow didn’t really do anything for me creativity-wise. I
think the monster was too random, too unknown and underdeveloped. We talked
about revealing too much about a monster, but I think one of the big questions
I needed to have an answer to from this story, at least in my own version of
the reading, was why? This question just grew bigger with the ending and Todd
shrugging it off as “to feed, to take over” wasn’t good enough.
I do, however, really like the ending. I like that it isn’t
over, but we’re left with the impression that, at least for the moment, Todd
and Kate made it. I think the actions and survival part of the story was far
more important than the actual monster. It could have been another zombie or
vampire story and I don’t think it would have to change much. Actually, I think
this was just a zombie story where the zombies are reanimated by some snow
spirit instead of a bacteria or parasite in the brain.
Another aspect of the storytelling that stood out to me
right away was the way the answer to the threat and the danger of the threat was
interwoven. Every time the heroes learned something new, the monster became
more complex. It was like in a video game when you unlock a cool new sword but
the level of the monsters, you’re fighting increase.
Even if I didn’t think the monster was the greatest, I still
don’t think it does anything to harm the story. I really enjoyed reading it. I
will say that if I wrote this story, my ending would have involved Molly being possessed
by one of the snow spirits and have the fetus rip out of her body because the
spirit couldn’t figure out what body to puppeteer. But that’s just me.
I never thought of it like that, but I think you're right when you say the story would have been the same if it were about vampires or something instead of snow. Kind of like some of the other stories we've read this term, the story was much more about the humans and how they survived, rather than focusing on the monster. I think this is a great strength, but also weakness to some monster stories.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad someone else thought these monsters felt like something out of a video game too. I like your idea of the monster leveling up every time the characters grew smarter, paralleling one another. I though a lot about the traversal aspect of them, and how you can have the same monsters but different types of them in video games.
I will say, Rebecca made a fabulous point on head hopping. Normally, stories with POV bouncing takes me out. I was just so into the action of the plot, I hardly paid attention to the POV. So, in craft it was not the best done; however, the plot was wonderful and did not waste any page space IMO.
ReplyDeleteAw, thanks! Definitely agree that it was a wonderful plot, as well.
DeleteThat's a real interesting idea about if the monster had possessed Molly. The problem exacerbates because the creatures obviously have some kind of trouble possessing children, unless they weren't actually having trouble, but were doing something with the children that was not explained in this book. But if they did have trouble with children, then Molly being pregnant could throw all kinds of complications. I hadn't really thought of that. Would have been cool if one would have ripped into her, only to possess the fetus, which could claw out of her stomach. The last thing Molly could have seen was that her baby was missing a face. That would have made me happy. I couldn't stand Molly.
ReplyDeleteHaha, guilty as charged here regarding Todd and Kate's relationship! I have to say, their chemistry did grow on me as the book progressed, but they just really got off on the wrong foot with me during their initial meeting. That whole bar scene just felt like some major wish-fulfillment on the author's part—if a dude had tried those lines on me in an airport bar (or any place on the planet), I would have turned and walked for the exit as quickly as possible, not gotten in a car with him during a blizzard. Obviously I'm not Kate, but... yikes. It just read as really forced to me, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI think you make a really good point about the story being more about survival than the actual monster. I hadn't thought about it that way while I was reading, since I did really enjoy the novelty (especially of the scythe arms puppeteering skin-suits), but I think you're right—any sort of undead or alien creature could have taken the snow's place pretty seamlessly.