Things I Have Learned About Flora's Dare: An Essay By S. Jae-Jones
A slightly funny story about Flora’s Dare: yesterday, as I pulled into New York Penn Station from New Brunswick, New Jersey, I stopped by the Borders next store on a whim. I’m rather famously tight with my personal finances so impulse buying is rare. I went upstairs to find Flora’s Dare but nearly walked out of the store with The King of Attolia (but no Queen–no matter as I finally ordered those damn books from Amazon) and a set of Bollywood dance videos. (Because I am coming to suspect in addition to being an Anglophile, I am something of a…Hindusphile? Sindhusphile? Whatever the word, I clearly have a fascination with India–and specifically India under Imperial Britain–as is evidenced by the novel I’m writing and my unabashed love of The Secret Garden and A Passage to India and such.)
I couldn’t find the book in the Young Adult section, so I walked to the information booth and typed in a search. It claimed that the book was Likely in Store and that I would find it in the Young Adult Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror section. Well, I walked back to the Young Adult section and I did not see it anywhere. Shelving systems will always confuse the fuck out of me. I thought all YA fiction was shelved together, but apparently that is not so. Never mind the fact that Tamora Pierce and Brian Jacques were both sitting right there. I miss my old favourite independent bookstore in Pasadena, Vroman’s, which had an entire floor devoted to children’s fiction and I could find the books I wanted to read. Nevertheless, a very nice lady with a Masters in Children’s Literature went and fetched for me Flora’s Dare, to which I gave a happy little squeal of joy.
Review of Flora’s Dare by Ysabeau Wilce
Flora's Dare by Ysabeau Wilce
I feel vindicated as the plushy pink pig does have some significance in the plot. (To which I can only ask the Kitchen Girls: are you sure PInny can’t stay in my manuscript? Pretty please?) This book has some twisty turns in its plot which I adored, although the entire first third of the book was slow to pick up on it. By now I’m already ensorcelled by the uniqueness of Wilce’s world, so the entire first couple of chapters, which were essentially a “Last time, on Flora Segunda…”, were a complete snooze. Things have changed since we last saw Flora: she has reached the age of majority–14 or her Catorcena, Poppy has recovered from being a stark, raving mad and drunken lout, she’s discovered some interesting secrets about her family, and…she may have a ginormous crush on her Mamma’s greatest enemy, Lord Axacaya.
I will confess, unlike the first book, the Big Baddie in this one was surprisingly bland. Oh noes, a giant squid is attacking the City! We must save it! (The City, not the squid, although the squid too, since it is a ninth-level egregore trapped in a…never mind.) The absolute joy of Flora Segunda was that evil came in a purple sparkly package and wasn’t necessarily evil so much as a whiny little louse. Epic? No. Highly entertaining? Yes. The stakes, of course, must necessarily be raised in a sequel (and I suspect, the second in a planned trilogy or more) and this time, instead of Flora’s life, you have the lives of every citizen in Califa.
All well and good, but the saving the City plot took a complete and utter backseat to the drama surrounding Flora’s family and her lineage. Therefore, on my second reread (yes, I’ve already reread this twice), I found myself skipping the sections involving the Poodle Dog Club and the Warlord’s Ball and the Zu-Zu and heading straight toward the sections in Bilskinir House. Perhaps it’s just me, but mostly I find myself wanting to read a history of what happened in Califa during the war with the Huitzils before Flora’s birth, the story of the first Flora–Flora Primera, Butcher Brakespeare, and of course, the entire mystery surrounding Poppy. I want backstory, dammit! While we do get intriguing bits of it, it isn’t enough to assuage my hunger and now I have to wait until the next book (Flora’s Fury, it looks like) to find out (if I find out at all).
So kudos to Wilce again for making me want to crawl into Califa and discover everything about it. However, there were a few parts in this book that failed to charm as easily as it did the first time. The plotting, for one, which wasn’t quite as tight and spun off into odd digressions. Springheel Jack? Awesome name, awesome character (a bouncing boy terror!), kind of pointless. Secondly, I felt as though Udo got a bit of the shaft in this one and he is a slightly less likeable in Dare than he was in Segunda. In Segunda he was glass-gazing, heinously vain, a bit of a fop but not in any way effeminate–in fact, he’s probably what I’d call a bit of a rough. Who just happens to love looking good and indulging in a little maquillage while he’s out cracking skulls or raiding the armory or whatever else roughs do. I love him to bits, I do, mostly because for all that he may be as sharp as a marble, he’s loyal and stalwart and devoted to Flora.
It’s precisely those loyal qualities that seem to disappear for a bit in Dare and the resultant Udo wasn’t one I was interested in getting to know further. Without his good heart, he’s just another lout with the potential to bully. Perhaps it’s because of this I’m a little thrown by the romantic turn in Dare. I really oughtn’t be, I should have seen this coming, not to mention it’s a romantic trope I really like (best friends falling for each other, etc.) except it left me feeling a bit cold instead of happy. Mostly because I feel while Flora and Udo have fabulous chemistry as friends, I feel it doesn’t go further than that and specifically that Udo doesn’t understand the meaning of being more than friends.
Regardless, I loved this book and recommend both this and Segunda. Now I just have to figure out when Flora’s Fury is supposed to be released. Goddamn it, why can’t I be addicted to book series after they’ve been completed?
Today will be a revision day. It shall!
P.S. OMG, SO AWESOME; IT IS A NORWEGIAN NAZI ZOMBIE MOVIE. I’M STILL TOTALLY A 12-YEAR-OLD BOY.
