Storm: 06/23/17

Storm by Amanda Sun is the conclusion of the Paper Gods series. During her year in Japan, Katie Green has discovered she's cursed by ink and has made with friends who have the ability to make drawings come to life. Now that things are getting dangerous for her friends it's time to put an end to the curse.

Before I go deeper into my thoughts about Storm, please take a break and watch the "Trope Talk: Rule of 3" by Overly Sarcastic Productions. It sums up a large chunk of what felt off about this concluding volume.

The rule of three is something that's everywhere in Western literature. And yes — Storm by Amanda Sun is Western literature. The main character is originally from Canada. The author is Canadian. The audience is primarily American and Canadian.

But — the setting is Japan. The curse wrapped up in Shinto beliefs of how the world and universe work. Japanese stories typically go for more than three. They go for five or seven — which is why the colored handprint on the cover of Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami is so significant.

I find it hard to believe that an ancient curse would set itself up with three items, three temples, three heroes. I can just see an ancient oracle: "No sorry, we can't use those other two temples and those other two items. Our curse requires the participation of a — Canadian!"

I found the very Western narrative shoehorned into this otherwise great series extremely distracting. The threes were so blatant. There were few if any herrings or foils or any sort of distraction from the standard recipe.

Three stars

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