Comments on: Ever by Gail Carson Levine

By: Hannasus

Hannasus — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:25:57 +0000

Good point Gwen.

By: Gwen

Gwen — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:04:06 +0000

I propose that the “whole one-god-vs-lots-of-gods subplot” was either rabbit trailing or a plot hole. I suggest that it is to get one-God beleivers to see doubt in their position. My young children read this kind of thing and think of it as a good story - and it was- but then have the seed planted in their heads that perhaps this God they’ve been told about does not exist. Now I know that period of questioning will come one day, but perhaps now it will come sooner and with less resistence…

By: Hannasus

Hannasus — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:01:15 +0000

I know what a rabbit trail is, and I began to think part way
through the book that Levinew as running out of storylines.
I did enjoy the book though, even if there were a few things she could have changed, I think.

By: Sincerelyornot

Sincerelyornot — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:46:08 +0000

A rabbit trail is when the author spends time on parts of the story that don’t go anywhere. Its not always a bad thing (witness Nathaniel Hawthorne and “The Scarlet Letter”, which is read more for the philosophical side discussions and rabbit trails of thought, rather than the plot itself. Great book, by the way), but here I found the side discussions to be unfruitful. The whole one-god-vs-lots-of-gods subplot, for example, was one long series of rabbit trails to me. Whether the one god has jurisdiction over the many gods’s land is never resolved, and I didn’t see the point of all these contortions to account for the one-vs-many controversy. There’s no visible sign that it was even a necessary question (which could be a plot hole, rather than a series of rabbit trails. But, I like giving Levine the benefit of the doubt since she is one of my favorite authors). Anyway, long explanation to say, rabbit trails are parts of the story that are not resolved or seem pointless, and they aren’t bad, they just take up space where interesting subplots could go.

By: Hannasus

Hannasus — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:24:43 +0000

Rabbit-trail-y? Well, they didn’t stray from the story,
as far as I can recall.
What exactly seemed like a rabbit-trail-y-thing?

By: Sincerelyornot

Sincerelyornot — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 05:06:32 +0000

Good reveiw Hannasus! You got all the main points in succienctly and made me want to reread the book. I thought it was a bit more trivial rabbit-trail-y than need be, personally. What did you think?