Spellbound by Nora Roberts (Review)
I recently read Spellbound by Nora Roberts. Having not read any of her work, I thought this novella would be a way to dip my toe in the pool without overcommitting. The book got high ratings at Amazon.com, but I thought it was overrated.
Spellbound is the story of a famous, overworked photographer, Calin Farrell, who has a special gift. He dreams of a battle and a beautiful, red-haired Irish woman waiting for him, a woman he can’t help but love with all his heart. Or are they visions, the result of a bewitching spell?
Bestselling author Nora Robert starts there and twists and turns sometimes so fast I didn’t know which direction I was facing. That can be a good thing, but not when I have to read the same paragraph several times to figure out what it means.
The most egregious thing she does is to switch viewpoint, right in the middle of a scene, right in the middle of a paragraph. The first time it happened, I thought, “Ooh! A great example for my “Stupid Story Mistakes” podcast. But then she did it again, and again, and again. Maybe I should’ve used it as a stupid story mistake anyway. I think I may have a new pet peeve.
He brought his hands to her shoulders, torn for a staggering instant as to whether to pull her closer or push her away. In the end he eased back, held her at arm’s length.
She was beautiful. She was aroused. And she was, he assured himself, a stranger. He angled his head, determined to handle the situation.
“Well, it’s certainly a friendly country.”
He saw the flicker in her eyes, the dimming of disappointment, a flash of frustration. But he couldn’t know just how deeply that disappointment, that frustration cut into her heart.
He’s here, she told herself. He’s come. That’s what matters most now. “It is, yes.” She gave him a smile, let her fingers linger in his hair just another second, then dropped them to her sides. “Welcome to Ireland and the Castle of Secrets.”
Do you see how the viewpoint changes from his to hers somewhere between “He saw the flicker” and “cut into her heart”? I’m not sure exactly where. The text inbetween could work from either point of view. At this point, I felt like a disembodied spirit wafting through the story. Now, this is a story about magic, but I still don’t think that’s what the author intended.
From Amazon.com’s Book Description: Leave it to number-one bestselling author Nora Roberts to spin a tale that blurs the boundaries between reality and fantasy, modern-day mishaps and ancient curses, obsession and undying passion. She’ll have you cheering for love to win the day as a man and woman discover just how deep their bond lies-and how some dreams are meant to be.
But in the final analysis, I simply didn’t understand the characters. I didn’t understand Calin, why he changed his mind. Extraordinary changes require extraordinary forces. And once it was established how he felt and what he thought, I needed something remarkable to persuade him before he changed his mind. And nothing did. And without this convincing conflict, I couldn’t identify with the character, and the story fell flat.
It’s the same problem we saw in The Mask of Zorro, but I’ll save that for another day.
-TimK
Related posts:
Moving Between Characters in Omniscient Point of View
February 11th, 2006 at 2:47 pm
Hi Tim, I don’t really see the viewpoint changing in the paragraph you mentioned. It is still his viewpoint. He is trying to figure out how deeply he has effected her. His answer comes in the next paragraph, where you get her perspective.
I don’t know. I think I’m already in way over my head!
February 11th, 2006 at 3:32 pm
You can’t be in over your head. Much of this is hocus pocus, anyway; it’s subjective. As long as you say how the piece truly affected you, you’re on solid ground.
So you’re saying this is what he’s thinking, that he’s observing a disappointment in her eyes, but he doesn’t know how deeply that disappointment affects her. Yes, that’s possible.
I probably myself would have taken it this way were it not for the next sentence: “He’s here, she told herself. He’s come.” This is clearly inside her head. So when did the point of view switch, and why?
When a writer switches point of view, it’s like changing scenes in a movie. He has to give me some reason to expect the scene to change and then make a clean transition. Maybe someone walks out of the frame through a door, then suddenly we’re looking at the next room, from the other side of the door. That’s a scene change, and the person walking out of the frame anticipated the change. In prose, the transition can be as simple as putting a section break. We end one scene and we start the next, now from a different perspective. But when I’m reading along and I’m in one character’s head and then suddenly I’m in another character’s head, I get confused. So I don’t know where the scene change occured, and I need to re-read that part of the prose a few times just to figure out what I missed, and that disrupts the story for me.
-TimK
February 11th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
Perhaps if she had begun the next paragraph with “It is, yes” the viewpoint change would of been more obvious. But, that’s not always how the thought process works.
I don’t see it as a scene change. The scene doesn’t change until the conversation is over.
I look at it as a thought conversation.
As readers we are able to hear the words and thoughts simultaneously back and forth.
February 12th, 2006 at 9:12 am
Maybe it would’ve helped. I don’t know. You’re right that it’s not really a scene change. But it is a new shot, a change of focus. And that’s why I was thrown by it, because I saw nothing that anticipated the change. I guess I just get confused by thought conversations, being able to hear inside multiple heads at once.
Cheers,
-TimK
August 9th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
I am sorry about the confusion some are having with ANY book by Nora Roberts. She can’t write a bad book. Maybe you should go back to Dr. Seuss!
August 10th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Heidi, Nora is a lucky writer to have fans like you. No joke. I might also say the same thing about Robert Heinlein, that he never wrote a bad book. (Even though I know that any writer can write a bad book.) What I’ve found since I wrote this review is that Nora just isn’t my cup of tea. But then again, I’m picky.
Cheers.
-TimK