More lessons from Beautiful Demons

A few observations: 

  • attacks happen seemingly constantly. It's almost too much in my opinion -- there is very little breathing room -- but I tend to have the exact opposite problem; too much breathing room. So, it is good to study this. 
  • When POV characters are attacked, it is seemingly random...
  • ...but it very much is not actually random. Cannon's villains have already all devised their own plans and are executing them. The main cast pieces those plans together as they go. 
Whenever my stories were starting to feel slow and clogged, I instantly went "yeah...make something blow up" which is fine as an instinct, but the attacks were feeling disjointed. 

I'm more of a plotter than a pantser, so I am now going back to the drawing board. The antagonist's plans need to be fully defined and executed so that way everything starts to connect. 

I will say that the books do tend to weaken slightly in what is effectively this series' "war chapters" (thanks, BoM). They are still enjoyable and well-written, and I am definitely a fan who plans to read the entire series, but there's less of the initial sense of mystery we had at Shadowford. This is one series where I don't mind at all that they left the school, even if I think Harper and Jackson get engaged way too young (thanks BYU for the ick of the 5 zillion times I was forced to witness that against my will). 

A lot of the existing mystery is just like "okay, what is the plan of the evil witches? who will betray us next?" and that's fine, but then it's just like 

KABOOM! You're in the wrong time period. KABOOM! Evil witch attack again. KABOOM! This time, it's an evil demon! KABOOM! Your mom. Etc. etc. 

That said...I did enjoy the plot with Lea's parents when they were under Kael's control. That was intriguing, and I can't necessarily say "it was resolved too quickly" because, well, it is YA. 

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