14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Half a story - incomplete and frustrating, August 27, 2009
2.5 stars
This book was highly frustrating to me. I was SO excited about it because I really enjoy Hoffman's books overall and when I saw it featured a character from A Fistful of Sky - my favorite novel of hers - I was all the more anxious to read it.
But I found it was a severe letdown. Opal let things get so far out of hand. She never asked for help and just kept going along with the events even when it looked like people might be in danger. When she finally does ask for help, she turns it down as soon as it's offered. There's some unrealistic and irritating "reason" given about how if she asks for help once, she'll never stand on her own two feet. Fine! But then stand dammit! Stop just letting events happen in, on and around you!
The book also just up and ends. Suddenly, abruptly and with no warning. Nothing is resolved and you don't even understand what it was that happened thus far. None of it is explained. It's like Hoffman had this idea for a book but instead of writing the whole story, she drew out the boring and annoying bits to the right number of pages to call it a novel and then just decided not to finish it. Seriously, it's as if the publisher left off the back 150 pages or so from the print run.
I just don't get it. I wanted to love this book and I couldn't wait to read it. Now I'm left wondering what the point all was and why Hoffman was so mean to readers by giving them an utterly incomplete story. If we're expected to go out and buy some follow-up sequel in a year just to get the rest of the ending we deserved in this novel, well, count me out.
Just a shame any way you look at it.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing from an author who is usually so much better, July 13, 2010
This review is from: Fall of Light (Hardcover)
Fall of Light is related to an earlier story, Fistful of Sky, but can be read as a standalone as the are not strictly a sequel.
Before I begin my review, which is not very favorable, I want to assure you that Hoffman is a better author then this recent offering. She has some powerful stories, and generally is an author you can count on, however, Fall of Light is a bump on this road of success.
Opal LaZelle has put her talents to use in the niche of making Hollywood makeup magical - though literally in her case as she comes from a powerful family rich in magical talent that is hidden from Outsiders (the non-talented).
However, perhaps her talent has now drawn the attention of an unpleasant, resident spirit as her movie makeup work on horror actor Corvus Weather has become just a bit too good. Corvus isn't just acting out the Dark God on the movie set but seems to BE the Dark God!
Opal's unwitting catalyst of the possession of Corvus by a nature spirit that we do not know has good or bad intentions is the thrust of this book. Overall, it remains light on plot as well as character development, which is rather unusual when compared with Hoffman's published work. I would consider it a beach read...
Opal, and the LaZelle family was introduced in an earlier book, Fistful of Sky. Sky dealt with Opals' sister - Gypsum, in a coming of magical age-transition story where Gyp learns to love and accept herself. Opal was a minor characer, Gyp's older sister, yet the feeling I had of Opal's character from Sky was certainly not that of the uncertain, mouse character we have in Fall of Light.
It's almost as if Opal did a 180 turn in her personality - and it makes me wonder if Fall of Light wasn't written before Sky or at least developed in plotting before Sky was complete? Perhaps, this book was developed quickly to cash in on the success of Sky?
My feeling of Opal in Sky was that of a self-assured, bossy older sister who had flown the nest as soon as possible so she could live her own life without being under (literally) the control of her mother. Yet, in Fall of Light, we get a timid, uncertain girl-woman who doesn't know how to conceal her magical talent from Outsiders and seems afraid of her sexual feelings for Corvus.
While Opal consults everyone on the movie set as to what she should do, someone she respects and possibly may love is being Possessed! 85 percent of the book is Opal wringing her hands and moaning over what she should do, instead of doing anything - something - to save Corvus.
Possession is a favorite theme of Hoffmans - it comes up in the character of Kim in Spirits that Walk in Shadow; Gypsum in Fistful of Sky; with several characters (Matt and Edmund as well as Nate) in the series of Red Heart of Memories and Past the Size of Dreaming; and even in her earliest work with The Thread that Binds the Bones.
Each time I suspected Hoffman found a certain fascination with possession, but also a belief that perhaps being possessed wasn't all that bad...? There seems to be some Stockholm Syndrome that happens to these characters, very evident with Kim in Spirits, but also with Corvus in Fall of Light.
While Opal dithers on what to do, the Dark God decides to use it's influence to cause an orgy on the set - which oh so nicely isn't seen by the underage actors (really? what a morally nice entity!). Yet this somewhat explicit sex scene begs the question to me -- isn't this, for some that participated under the Dark God's influence - rape by yet another name? Consent is not consent if you are under the influence but this moral dilemma is nicely tucked away because after all, they all liked it, right?... right?!
Flint, the brother, is under used - just a plot device so Opal can awaken some sort of personal protection against being possessed (but it's okay for everyone else...). Tobias shows up at the end just to be told he isn't needed.
If this had been my first Hoffman book to read, I would not buy any more of her works, however, I know this author can produce better then this. If you were expecting fluff, you might find this a better read then I did.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Plot Failure without an Ending, September 14, 2010
This review is from: Fall of Light (Hardcover)
Expecting high quality prose to carry a book with a weak ending, I faced disappointment. This time Hoffman forgot a coherent plot. The 'coming of age' style does not work for 'Fall of Light' because Opal Lazalle is already an adult, independent, and has resolved the issues of her childhood. Hoffman puts Opal through a midlife-crisis emotionally, but she's only in her twenties and this really didn't work for me. The 'you never have any fun' self-reflective shadow-self whine within, after Opal finds herself an active love interest in Corvus, struck me as false, indecisive -- offering excuses instead of events. On a personal level of her main character, Hoffman failed.
On a larger level of events, we've got this strange possession force on a movie set, which is taking power and mad liberties with the actors and even from Opal herself. What does she do? She calls her brother and Flint sends a shield over the phone. She asks for her Uncle, but then vacillates and ultimately we don't see much of Tobias. In essence, Opal does nothing but watch an unfolding *bad* situation! Then the book ends.
I found the best part of the book was a short three page flashback involving a Lazalle clan party with Gyp (from "A Fistful of Sky"). No mention of Gyp's end-book boyfriend or Altria, but it does show Gyp mingling.
Since I didn't like the weakly plotted and abruptly ended main story, the best I can give is two stars. Hoffman's prose is not high quality, perhaps because she never has a shown resolution of events, thereby stealing the impact from her writing.
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