tiger moran (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tiger_moran) wrote2023-07-05 01:00 pm
tiger_moran) wrote2023-07-05 01:00 pm
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In between writing/editing this novel-length 'essay' about Moriarty etc which has kind of consumed most of my spare time for months now I have been re-reading the Frey and McGray books. Although even reading them back to back is still confusing, I'm still struggling to remember stuff from one to the next sometimes. I do still have mixed feelings about them. The second(?) one I still don't really enjoy much at all as there are still too many unpleasant elements including the state of their relationship throughout. And I still hate Frey's uncle being murdered and to make it even worse being murdered literally seconds before Frey bursts in to save everyone. I don't dislike the 5th but the trial seems so rushed and nonsensical and too heavy on the 'they're just convicting her based entirely on prejudice' thing and there is literally no evidence at all. It makes it feel like Frey and McGray didn't really do anything before the trial? And there are too many dead people and their complicated relationships referred to so I couldn't follow at all who was related to who and why anyone died and which one had died years back and which had only just died and who was alive etc etc.
It's actually a small detail that keeps throwing me out of the stories though and that is de Muriel seeming to have this thing about throwing the most obscure breed names in whenever there's a horse in it. I guess maybe you'd get an Anglo-Arabian in Scotland if you had money but a Carthusian? I mean maybe but it's basically a subtype of Andalusians/PREs and it's just such an obscure name but he's using it as if it's some well known breed throughout Britain? And a Bavarian Warmblood? Warmblood is a way too modern term, actual Bavarian Warmbloods didn't even exist til like... 1960 something. And he seems to think every draught-type horse is a 'percheron' (with a small P) like it's some sort of interchangeable term with heavy horse or something? Mate that's a French breed of horse why would every draught horse in the UK suddenly be a Percheron? There may have been some Percheron mixes in the Victorian era in Britain but nothing like this, where every heavy horse is literally called a 'percheron', the breed didn't start to become popular in the UK until maybe... 30 years? after these stories are set. And even then I think that was much further south. We have our own draught breeds! And the pony breeds many of which would do draught work! Not 'percherons'. Or mules for that matter, I think there are too many mules in these books too, I'm not sure mules have ever been that common here either. Also most black funeral horses especially for the wealthy would have been Friesians. It is a minor detail but it's one of those things that really gets on my nerves because it's repeated throughout and it's just... no.
Frey and McGray are one of those pairings though where it's like... I kind of ship them but I'm not really invested in them but I will loathe them being shoved off into tedious het relationships. And I do hate where the series ends up with the heteronormative bullshit of that (amongst other things) so I don't know. It's definitely a series where I enjoy parts of it but I also have a lot of issues with it and the concluding book was a big let down and I'm not expecting my feelings to really change about that one if I do re-read that again this time (I've just started re-reading book 6 now) except possibly I might end up disliking it even more than I did the first time. Also it is one of those rare things where I'm thinking the supernatural explanation was better than the mundane one and when that supernatural explanation gets ripped away, well it makes it much less interesting really.
So this still isn't really helping me know whether I want to keep or ditch the series.
It's actually a small detail that keeps throwing me out of the stories though and that is de Muriel seeming to have this thing about throwing the most obscure breed names in whenever there's a horse in it. I guess maybe you'd get an Anglo-Arabian in Scotland if you had money but a Carthusian? I mean maybe but it's basically a subtype of Andalusians/PREs and it's just such an obscure name but he's using it as if it's some well known breed throughout Britain? And a Bavarian Warmblood? Warmblood is a way too modern term, actual Bavarian Warmbloods didn't even exist til like... 1960 something. And he seems to think every draught-type horse is a 'percheron' (with a small P) like it's some sort of interchangeable term with heavy horse or something? Mate that's a French breed of horse why would every draught horse in the UK suddenly be a Percheron? There may have been some Percheron mixes in the Victorian era in Britain but nothing like this, where every heavy horse is literally called a 'percheron', the breed didn't start to become popular in the UK until maybe... 30 years? after these stories are set. And even then I think that was much further south. We have our own draught breeds! And the pony breeds many of which would do draught work! Not 'percherons'. Or mules for that matter, I think there are too many mules in these books too, I'm not sure mules have ever been that common here either. Also most black funeral horses especially for the wealthy would have been Friesians. It is a minor detail but it's one of those things that really gets on my nerves because it's repeated throughout and it's just... no.
Frey and McGray are one of those pairings though where it's like... I kind of ship them but I'm not really invested in them but I will loathe them being shoved off into tedious het relationships. And I do hate where the series ends up with the heteronormative bullshit of that (amongst other things) so I don't know. It's definitely a series where I enjoy parts of it but I also have a lot of issues with it and the concluding book was a big let down and I'm not expecting my feelings to really change about that one if I do re-read that again this time (I've just started re-reading book 6 now) except possibly I might end up disliking it even more than I did the first time. Also it is one of those rare things where I'm thinking the supernatural explanation was better than the mundane one and when that supernatural explanation gets ripped away, well it makes it much less interesting really.
So this still isn't really helping me know whether I want to keep or ditch the series.