Book Review: Fence Disarmed
Jan. 29th, 2022 08:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI enjoyed Sarah Rees Brennan’s Fence: Disarmed, but I did not find it as deliciously delightful as her earlier Fence novel, Fence: Striking Distance. This is too bad, because it has a lot of parts that I liked! These included:
- Eugene Labao, Token Straight Dude, having a romance with a French girl at Special European Fencing camp. (They eventually break up because “there’s a time in a girl’s life when she has to devote herself to the blade.”)
- the assistant coach has SUCH a crush on the head coach, because why not, Brennan saw the chance to throw that in and she went for it!
- early in the book, when Seiji realizes Nicholas can’t afford Special European Fencing Camp, he calls his dad to talk about paying Nicholas’s way for him. When Seiji brings up Nicholas, Seiji’s dad is clearly Gearing Up to be Supportive when Seiji comes out, and then Seiji is like, “Oh, we should talk about Eugene too,” and his dad is like “Eugene… too…?” and Seiji is all, “Actually, the whole fencing team!” and his dad is like “!!!!!!” … and then FINALLY realizes that Seiji is actually calling in hopes that his dad will finance the fencing team’s trip. Oh my God, Seiji’s dad!
- Bobby’s roommate Dante (who is super in love with Dante and super not interested in fencing) comes along to fencing camp just to be with Bobby… and also to visit his relatives who live just over the border in Italy, at which point Bobby begins to pine for Dante’s presence (without apparently seeing that pining in a romantic light, as Bobby remains enamored of Seiji). The role reversal just got me.
In general, the complicated relationship dynamics of this book just got me. So good!
The one thing that did not get me is, sadly, also the A plot: Aiden/Harvard. Fence: Disarmed leans even harder into the “Aiden is an asshole who uses and discards boys like Dixie cups” characterization, and as it turns out Fence: Striking Distance was already at the upper limit of my tolerance for this sort of thing.
I get that “My beloved is a jerk to EVERYONE BUT ME” is a fantasy that appeals to many people. (I personally do not see it, but as rereading the Queen’s Thief books has reminded me, I ship maimed thief/the woman who maimed him, and people who live in glass houses etc etc.) However, in this book Aiden is mean to everyone AND ALSO Harvard, so by the time they get together I was like “…are you sure you really want him, Harvard? I mean clearly you do but do you REALLY?”
…I’m also really curious how/if the Fence graphic novels will deal with the fact that Aiden & Harvard got together in a spinoff novel. Do the spinoffs count as canonical, or will the graphic novels simply ignore them? We shall see!
- Eugene Labao, Token Straight Dude, having a romance with a French girl at Special European Fencing camp. (They eventually break up because “there’s a time in a girl’s life when she has to devote herself to the blade.”)
- the assistant coach has SUCH a crush on the head coach, because why not, Brennan saw the chance to throw that in and she went for it!
- early in the book, when Seiji realizes Nicholas can’t afford Special European Fencing Camp, he calls his dad to talk about paying Nicholas’s way for him. When Seiji brings up Nicholas, Seiji’s dad is clearly Gearing Up to be Supportive when Seiji comes out, and then Seiji is like, “Oh, we should talk about Eugene too,” and his dad is like “Eugene… too…?” and Seiji is all, “Actually, the whole fencing team!” and his dad is like “!!!!!!” … and then FINALLY realizes that Seiji is actually calling in hopes that his dad will finance the fencing team’s trip. Oh my God, Seiji’s dad!
- Bobby’s roommate Dante (who is super in love with Dante and super not interested in fencing) comes along to fencing camp just to be with Bobby… and also to visit his relatives who live just over the border in Italy, at which point Bobby begins to pine for Dante’s presence (without apparently seeing that pining in a romantic light, as Bobby remains enamored of Seiji). The role reversal just got me.
In general, the complicated relationship dynamics of this book just got me. So good!
The one thing that did not get me is, sadly, also the A plot: Aiden/Harvard. Fence: Disarmed leans even harder into the “Aiden is an asshole who uses and discards boys like Dixie cups” characterization, and as it turns out Fence: Striking Distance was already at the upper limit of my tolerance for this sort of thing.
I get that “My beloved is a jerk to EVERYONE BUT ME” is a fantasy that appeals to many people. (I personally do not see it, but as rereading the Queen’s Thief books has reminded me, I ship maimed thief/the woman who maimed him, and people who live in glass houses etc etc.) However, in this book Aiden is mean to everyone AND ALSO Harvard, so by the time they get together I was like “…are you sure you really want him, Harvard? I mean clearly you do but do you REALLY?”
…I’m also really curious how/if the Fence graphic novels will deal with the fact that Aiden & Harvard got together in a spinoff novel. Do the spinoffs count as canonical, or will the graphic novels simply ignore them? We shall see!
no subject
Date: 2022-01-29 02:34 pm (UTC)I love it.
The one thing that did not get me is, sadly, also the A plot: Aiden/Harvard.
...I'm unfamiliar with this series and it took me a second to realize that "Harvard" is a person and not. the A plot being that someone named Aiden wants to get a fencing scholarship to Harvard University.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-29 08:55 pm (UTC)I am now imagining Aiden's Doomed Quest for a fencing scholarship from Harvard University, although alas it requires basically subbing in a totally different guy named Aiden, as the original Aiden keeps blowing off fencing practice. If he did not have magical protagonist powers he would have been kicked off the team months ago.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-29 03:16 pm (UTC)Yeah, this is not my cup of tea AT ALL.
I like
a) love interests who are openly kind to EVERYONE; or
b) love interests who seem like gruff jerks to everyone but then you find out that they are secretly being kind to everyone.
Otherwise, it seems like:
no subject
Date: 2022-01-29 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-29 06:05 pm (UTC)"My beloved is a jerk to everyone but me" is not a fantasy I've ever heard of, and, wow. Wow. Well, humanity is a many-splendoured thing, and I guess people who like imagining a lover who would be jerks to everyone but them are one facet.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-29 08:49 pm (UTC)I feel that this fantasy is usually described in a different way, which places more emphasis on how special and wonderful the heroine (or in this case hero) is to be treated nicely by this usually jerky person... Of course in real life anyone who is habitually that much of a jerk will probably eventually turn it on their honeybun, too.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-29 09:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-29 11:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-30 12:35 am (UTC)And I think it's possible to write a delicious, sexy story with a bad-boy protagonist whose love for the protagonist changes him OR whose love for the protagonist is Unique and Different from his feelings for everyone else because she's Unique and Different. There's ways and ways of being a bad boy! When the author decides that the way that bad-boy personality is going to express itself is to be an asshole to everyone except the heroine, that's a bad storytelling choice (imo). Like, whatever happened to drag racing or tagging buildings or shoplifting or whatever?
no subject
Date: 2022-01-29 09:58 pm (UTC)I feel like the trope is actually really common, at least in YA/fanworks of the past decade or so, at the intersection of "ooh sexy bad boy" and "not like other girls." I blame Twilight, I think.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-29 11:50 pm (UTC)But the sheer bad-boyness of being a vampire seems to have overridden that for so many readers/Twilight imitators.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-29 07:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-29 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-30 12:54 pm (UTC)Relatable! :D
no subject
Date: 2022-01-30 04:51 pm (UTC)