Debut author Kelsey Sutton took a big risk in deciding to write about a protagonist who cant feel any emotions. After all, one of the biggest criticisms of unsuccessful YA is about bland characters. And while there is an external reason for why Elizabeth is like a shell of a person, I am sorry to say that, instead of being a bold experiment in defying common YA problems by facing them head on, SOME QUIET PLACE merely fell into those very traps.
Ill be straight with you: Elizabeth has no personality. And its not just her being her usual emotionless. She literally doesnt have anything that distinguishes her from a blank slate other than whats imposed on her from the outside. When describing Elizabeth, one has to resort to external descriptors: she has rotten parents, an absent brother, she likes to paint. This doesnt tell us ANYTHING about Elizabeth. People need not be defined by the abuse of their families nor the fact that she paints with all the investment of one doing the dishes. Even sociopaths, who medically do not feel empathy, can have personalities. Elizabeth doesnt, and thats not a symptom of her problem.
The lack of personality is not just limited to the MC. Side characters are flat with (again) no personality of their own. Elizabeths father is the cardboard drunk and abusive character, while Elizabeths mother is the repressed and resentful housewife. Elizabeths best friend is the dying girl scared of dying. These are tropes, not to be confused with characteristics. With personality.
SOME QUIET PLACE furthermore falls into common YA pitfalls regarding its plot and mystery. Like too many other YAs that describe themselves as mysteries, SOME QUIET PLACEs unfolding of its mystery is stuttering and unsatisfying. A great mystery reveals just enough hints in unexpected yet narratively consistent intervals to keep readers ensnared and invested. The mystery in this bookof what in Elizabeths past caused her to be the way she isremains a mystery until its sudden anticlimax. The purported hints dropped throughout the book are not, actually, hints. Hints implies relevance to the plot and mystery; its not supposed to be a foray into a dull miniadventure leading into a dead end that the book insists to be a hint, but is in fact just pacing weakness, Insert Dramatic Red Herring Here. The so-called suspense in this book, unfortunately, was so unsatisfying as to frustrate me into apathy.
I could write more, but Ill stop there and say this: It is completely possible to write from the point of view of a person who cant feel emotions. But SOME QUIET PLACE was an amateurs attempt, and sadly it wasnt long before I realized that I could not feel anything towards Elizabeth and her predicament. And its not because I cant feel emotions.
Ill be straight with you: Elizabeth has no personality. And its not just her being her usual emotionless. She literally doesnt have anything that distinguishes her from a blank slate other than whats imposed on her from the outside. When describing Elizabeth, one has to resort to external descriptors: she has rotten parents, an absent brother, she likes to paint. This doesnt tell us ANYTHING about Elizabeth. People need not be defined by the abuse of their families nor the fact that she paints with all the investment of one doing the dishes. Even sociopaths, who medically do not feel empathy, can have personalities. Elizabeth doesnt, and thats not a symptom of her problem.
The lack of personality is not just limited to the MC. Side characters are flat with (again) no personality of their own. Elizabeths father is the cardboard drunk and abusive character, while Elizabeths mother is the repressed and resentful housewife. Elizabeths best friend is the dying girl scared of dying. These are tropes, not to be confused with characteristics. With personality.
SOME QUIET PLACE furthermore falls into common YA pitfalls regarding its plot and mystery. Like too many other YAs that describe themselves as mysteries, SOME QUIET PLACEs unfolding of its mystery is stuttering and unsatisfying. A great mystery reveals just enough hints in unexpected yet narratively consistent intervals to keep readers ensnared and invested. The mystery in this bookof what in Elizabeths past caused her to be the way she isremains a mystery until its sudden anticlimax. The purported hints dropped throughout the book are not, actually, hints. Hints implies relevance to the plot and mystery; its not supposed to be a foray into a dull miniadventure leading into a dead end that the book insists to be a hint, but is in fact just pacing weakness, Insert Dramatic Red Herring Here. The so-called suspense in this book, unfortunately, was so unsatisfying as to frustrate me into apathy.
I could write more, but Ill stop there and say this: It is completely possible to write from the point of view of a person who cant feel emotions. But SOME QUIET PLACE was an amateurs attempt, and sadly it wasnt long before I realized that I could not feel anything towards Elizabeth and her predicament. And its not because I cant feel emotions.
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