Stardust

2:

See, immediately after finishing the book, I gave it 4 stars because I was SO happy at the idea of Yvaine reigning by herself for years after Tristran's death. Then I remembered how much I loathed the little shit we got as a protagonist, and quickly revised my rating.

Of course, there was the fact that he was a-ok with slaving a girl away in the name of undying, superficial, unrequited love; but there was ALSO the whole entire deal with Victoria. “Oh Victoria, kiss me now since you've done it before, what's the big deal?” Sounds kind of rape-y to me. He fell down a tree outside her window because he was creeping on her? Sounds kind of rape-y to me. And she clearly wasn't taking him seriously when she said she'd give him whatever he wanted from her if he got her the star, and she just said it as a joke, yet he went. That, too, felt kind of rape-y to me. And since I'm on the topic, Tristran's mother also seemed kind of rape-y to me. Maybe it runs in the family.

I, as many others have mentioned in their reviews, enjoyed the movie a lot more. Perhaps it's nostalgia speaking because I watched it as a kid. I don't remember if I enjoyed how the romance was developed there all that much, but it for damn sure must have been done more graciously than in this book. Yvaine hated Tristran's guts from day 1, then she was placated when he reads notes bonded her to him forever against her will, and suddenly she's in love with him? It came literally out of left field.

As if all that weren't enough, the main antagonist faced NO consequences. She just left. Presumably to wait for the next star to fall and then they can rip her heart out. Boooo Neil booooo I'm disappointed boooooooooooooo.

I'm not giving this a 1 star rating because it was at least entertaining and, for all his faults, Neil's a really good narrator. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt this one time, but yeah. Yech.