elvenavari's review
4.0
I need to know what happens next to Joss and Vlad. Urgh, I was expecting more of a completed feeling but I love this too. I'm really happy with how "For Cecile" turned out.
randyribay's review against another edition
3.0
I think this was the best in the Slayer Chronicle series, but it isn't great. But I assume that if you've made it this far into the series (or are thinking of doing so), you probably already like the story and don't need my opinion.
Full review at The Book Mark.
Full review at The Book Mark.
annefables's review
4.0
I'm so sad that this is the final book in the series, I want to see more of Joss after he's left the Slayer Society and is free from his uncle's manipulation and abuse. And knowing what's going to happen to him in London after the end of this book? After everything he's been through and all the progress he made with seeing vampires as more than just monsters? Oh, that's brutal. I hope the author gets to write more in this universe some day. I'll miss Joss and Vlad and all their shenanigans.
reanne's review
I'm writing this review as I go, starting after I've read for a while. I read, but I also flip forward and skim a bit to see what happens later.
When I got this book, I wanted to go back and re-read the first two because it's been a while. I found that I couldn't even get half-way through the first book. I got through the second, but didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I did the first time. And this book, I didn't love. I think when I read the other books the first time, I wanted to like them a lot more and let my love of the Vlad series sway my impression. That didn't happen this time.
I just don't think this series is actually very good. It certainly doesn't stand on its own. You really have to read the Vlad books too. But these books annoy me a bit in how so much of Joss's life seems horrible just for the sake of giving him something to fight against, without the horribleness actually making any sense. (This is a problem I saw in this author's other series, Soulbound, as well.) Joss thinks the Slayer Society is good and noble, but with no reason to think that at all. Everything he's ever seen or experienced from the Society (aside from a certain amount of friendship from other non-leaders in his group) has been horrible and actually pretty sociopathic. He has no reason at all to feel loyalty to them, so that seems like a false conflict to me. Seriously, they send him alone to find and kill some unknown number of vampires who are apparently hunting people in Joss's town, which seems to be in order to save the humans. Because they say they're all about saving humans, right? Except their backup plan is to just kill everyone in town. How is that anything but sociopathic? How can Joss even think of still being loyal to a society who would do that? He should have run to Vlad and Otis for help taking down the Slayers. (Not to mention Sirus, once he showed up.) The loyalty that Joss even tries to show the Society is completely unbelievable to me.
Joss's quest to avenge his sister doesn't seem real to me. But maybe that's because revenge stories never really do. What's the point of revenge? It doesn't help the person you're avenging. Joss keeps saying that he wants to rid the world of vampires because they kill people. But there's this whole conflict between him and Henry about how he staked Vlad, but Vlad never killed anyone, so Joss's argument is completely invalid. Meanwhile, there are other vampires (especially Dorian) who he has no desire to kill even though he should know that Dorian probably has killed lots of people.
Joss's dreams have been a theme throughout the series, but it's kind of overdone, I think. First, because it's way too obvious foreshadowing. Second, because the dreams don't do anything other than foreshadow and pad the page count. Third, because there's at least one scene in this book where Joss assumes he's dreaming because he sees Cecile. The problem I find with this is that while you may think you're awake when you're actually dreaming, I find that you always know for sure you're awake when you actually are. You'd have to be on drugs or have serious mental issues, in my opinion, to think you're asleep when you're actually awake.
When Henry meets, the book acts like they've never met before, despite the fact that
Not that I was particularly attached to any of Joss's slayer crew, but it's weird that they're the main secondary characters for two books, and then they're just left out entirely (except for a few short appearances by some of them) in this book. It's as if the author knew and expected that readers wouldn't care enough about them to miss them.
Sirus is the only character I really even like in this entire series, and after his obviously-fake death in book 1, I was looking forward to his return. Except, so what was the point of any of that. The fact that Sirus is treated so poorly in this series and by all of the characters is almost enough, alone, to make me toss these books.
Joss's idiocy is infuriating. Just such a complete, utter, destroys-all-my-sympathy-for-him idiot.
Crap, I can't take it anymore. I've gotta DNF this thing for my own sanity. Giving up at half-way through, but skimming the end just to see what happens with Cecile. I'm sorry, I loved the Vlad Tod series, but this series just doesn't work for me. I really wanted it to (which is probably why I had more positive views of the first two books on my first reads), but it just doesn't.
When I got this book, I wanted to go back and re-read the first two because it's been a while. I found that I couldn't even get half-way through the first book. I got through the second, but didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I did the first time. And this book, I didn't love. I think when I read the other books the first time, I wanted to like them a lot more and let my love of the Vlad series sway my impression. That didn't happen this time.
I just don't think this series is actually very good. It certainly doesn't stand on its own. You really have to read the Vlad books too. But these books annoy me a bit in how so much of Joss's life seems horrible just for the sake of giving him something to fight against, without the horribleness actually making any sense. (This is a problem I saw in this author's other series, Soulbound, as well.) Joss thinks the Slayer Society is good and noble, but with no reason to think that at all. Everything he's ever seen or experienced from the Society (aside from a certain amount of friendship from other non-leaders in his group) has been horrible and actually pretty sociopathic. He has no reason at all to feel loyalty to them, so that seems like a false conflict to me. Seriously, they send him alone to find and kill some unknown number of vampires who are apparently hunting people in Joss's town, which seems to be in order to save the humans. Because they say they're all about saving humans, right? Except their backup plan is to just kill everyone in town. How is that anything but sociopathic? How can Joss even think of still being loyal to a society who would do that? He should have run to Vlad and Otis for help taking down the Slayers. (Not to mention Sirus, once he showed up.) The loyalty that Joss even tries to show the Society is completely unbelievable to me.
Joss's quest to avenge his sister doesn't seem real to me. But maybe that's because revenge stories never really do. What's the point of revenge? It doesn't help the person you're avenging. Joss keeps saying that he wants to rid the world of vampires because they kill people. But there's this whole conflict between him and Henry about how he staked Vlad, but Vlad never killed anyone, so Joss's argument is completely invalid. Meanwhile, there are other vampires (especially Dorian) who he has no desire to kill even though he should know that Dorian probably has killed lots of people.
Joss's dreams have been a theme throughout the series, but it's kind of overdone, I think. First, because it's way too obvious foreshadowing. Second, because the dreams don't do anything other than foreshadow and pad the page count. Third, because there's at least one scene in this book where Joss assumes he's dreaming because he sees Cecile. The problem I find with this is that while you may think you're awake when you're actually dreaming, I find that you always know for sure you're awake when you actually are. You'd have to be on drugs or have serious mental issues, in my opinion, to think you're asleep when you're actually awake.
When Henry meets
Spoiler
KatSpoiler
in the last book, Henry calls Joss to warn him about a girl fitting Kat's description who came around asking strange questions about Joss, which heavily implies that Henry had met her before.Not that I was particularly attached to any of Joss's slayer crew, but it's weird that they're the main secondary characters for two books, and then they're just left out entirely (except for a few short appearances by some of them) in this book. It's as if the author knew and expected that readers wouldn't care enough about them to miss them.
Sirus is the only character I really even like in this entire series, and after his obviously-fake death in book 1, I was looking forward to his return. Except
Spoiler
he shows up for one brief scene, then one longer scene, and then he dies pointlesslyJoss's idiocy is infuriating.
Spoiler
He kills a guy just because he happens to be a vampire when Joss is looking for a vampire, even after the guy's all, "Joss, stop, you don't know what you're doing!" And then it turns out he was one of the ones trying to stop the killer.Crap, I can't take it anymore. I've gotta DNF this thing for my own sanity. Giving up at half-way through, but skimming the end just to see what happens with Cecile. I'm sorry, I loved the Vlad Tod series, but this series just doesn't work for me. I really wanted it to (which is probably why I had more positive views of the first two books on my first reads), but it just doesn't.
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