Red River: Vol. 9

by Chie Shinohara

Synopsis
Prince Kail, a young warrior and sorcerer and Yuri, a modern-day teen, where thrown together when evil Queen Nakia drew Yuri across time and space into the ancient Hittite Empire. When it is the season of the North Star, Prince Kail has the power to send Yuri home. But the evil queen's plan to murder them both -- and their growing feelings for one another -- keep getting in the way!

Yuri fights to clear her good name by publicly confronting her impersonator. Rather than earning respect, however, she is exiled to a settlement of the sick and dying! Yuri sets out to change people's minds, all the time hoping to be reunited with Kail. However, her heart is broken when she finds out that Kail has been hiding a terrible secret of his own. Does Kail deserve his bad reputation?

Review
Like the synopsis says, Yuri confronts the false Ishtar (without evidence) and is thrown into the valley, where poor people with the seven day fever go to die. Yuri's never had this disease, and thinks she'll die from it, but rather than run away, she escapes and returns to help the people there. She never gets sick, and the people all end up worshiping her. Well, Yuri's idiotic actions in a roundabout way turned out for good. Seriously, why does she always have to run off and do her own thing? And why does it always have to turn out ok? She should experience some real consequences for once.

And again, people keep commenting on what a wonderful queen she would make. If only she would stay! But no, the characters still talk about her going home. Why won't someone just decide already? The two are practically killing themselves by denying their feelings, and yet they refuse to talk about them! It's psychotic. It's annoying for the reader. And to top it off, the author dares to throw a teasing scene at us, but still nothing happens! This is beyond artificial, this is bad writing. There's no logical reason for the characters to behave this way, nor can I even think of what in the story requires them to not be together. Nonsensical.

So after the false Ishtar thing, Kail is named the crown prince. Big surprise there. Then, a woman from his past shows up, and she's had his son! Oh noes! There's just always something going on, isn't there? It's not the events that bother me, though, it's that I've realized that this series has no pacing. It jumps from arc to arc, conflict to conflict, with no "downtime" in between. It's as if the characters (and the audience) have no time to breathe before being thrown into another whirlwind adventure. In other stories, there should be time to contemplate things before the next conflict occurs, it's just good storytelling.

I noticed this when I wondered to myself where the five minutes that Kail and Yuri could use to talk about their relationship was. Then I realized that there's plenty of time, like before they go to bed, that they could use but never do because Shinohara never shows those parts. Why? Some of the best character development happens during the slow moments. And now I have to wonder, where is the character development anyway? The story goes by so fast, I didn't have time to notice the lack of it. Yuri's been shown to be (usually) strong and competent, but she was always that way, she just didn't notice until she was put to the test. Kail has never developed, really. He's just always been perfect, since book one. That's really too bad.

Regardless, it's interesting to read, and fun to pick apart, so I shall keep doing so.

Final thought: I'll keep reading.