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princessleopard's review
4.0
Preface: I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review
Actual rating: 4.25 stars
Explicit content: Sex scenes, exploration of intense lust, violence, death, harm to children
This author snuck up on me again! I'm terrible with names, so I often select works to review from authors I've read before without realizing it. This marks round 3 for me and Andy. Interestingly, this novel actually contains a character from his novella, which I read previously. It took me a little while to catch on, but certain little details reminded me of that novella, and then I looked it up, and here we are! That's actually a little problem with the novel, but I'll get to it in a minute.
Overall, this was a really engaging, gripping story! The central characters were believable (if not always likable), the plot was gripping, and there was tons of suspense. I found the two threads of whether they'd save the kids in time and whether Mike would be redeemed or sink back into his old habits the most interesting. Everything to do with Our Destiny and the imagery of it was also super good. This author has a habit of sliding into a dreamy vagueness in his other books when he gets into the really weird stuff, which makes the action and such difficult to track, but I never felt that here - there weren't any times where I felt too lost or confused by what was happening, aside from maybe the wax monster fight, which was a little messy (no pun intended).
But, by far the best thing about this novel is our villain (and I really don't get to say that often). The Bride is amazing. Her design is awesome, her motives are super spooky and cloaked in mystery, and most of her dialogue is pretty good (admittedly, some is kinda cheesy, but that's the kind of villain she is). I adored her (and wanted her to die a horrible death, of course). She's easily the best part of all of this. Any moment she was on the page, I was very happy.
Overall, the characters in this are really strong. I didn't like Jamie from the get-go - she's extremely negative and snippy and judgmental - but she grew on me in time as she developed. The array of baddies were all unique and stood apart from each other very well. I wish we'd gotten more of Abdi, since he comes into the story a little late and then disappears for a while, which is odd since he seems so big and important. And, as mentioned previously, Mike's development was really good, and kept me guessing as to which side he'd land on for the entire novel.
That's not to say this story doesn't have a few problems. The biggest, in my opinion, is the reliance on the novella for your understanding of one of the main characters. Most people don't read a lot of novellas, myself included; it was just a happy accident that I happened to review the novella that kicks off this series. If I hadn't, a huge part of Mike's character would have been lost for me, because this novel doesn't really go into much depth as to who he was and where he came from. There are allusions to his relationship with Raph and the stuff with his mother(s), but it's left very vague. I imagine if I hadn't ready the novella, I would have been really confused by all that, especially when so much of it contributes to his choices in the end and the culmination of his character arc. I definitely think there should have been more summarization of the novella in here, to give new readers a more concrete understanding of what was happening.
In all, I was pretty pleased with this read. I'm not sure if it's my favorite of the series, as the second was pretty good (though very different) but it was an enjoyable read. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone with an interest in gothic fantasy/horror.
Actual rating: 4.25 stars
Explicit content: Sex scenes, exploration of intense lust, violence, death, harm to children
This author snuck up on me again! I'm terrible with names, so I often select works to review from authors I've read before without realizing it. This marks round 3 for me and Andy. Interestingly, this novel actually contains a character from his novella, which I read previously. It took me a little while to catch on, but certain little details reminded me of that novella, and then I looked it up, and here we are! That's actually a little problem with the novel, but I'll get to it in a minute.
Overall, this was a really engaging, gripping story! The central characters were believable (if not always likable), the plot was gripping, and there was tons of suspense. I found the two threads of whether they'd save the kids in time and whether Mike would be redeemed or sink back into his old habits the most interesting. Everything to do with Our Destiny and the imagery of it was also super good. This author has a habit of sliding into a dreamy vagueness in his other books when he gets into the really weird stuff, which makes the action and such difficult to track, but I never felt that here - there weren't any times where I felt too lost or confused by what was happening, aside from maybe the wax monster fight, which was a little messy (no pun intended).
But, by far the best thing about this novel is our villain (and I really don't get to say that often). The Bride is amazing. Her design is awesome, her motives are super spooky and cloaked in mystery, and most of her dialogue is pretty good (admittedly, some is kinda cheesy, but that's the kind of villain she is). I adored her (and wanted her to die a horrible death, of course). She's easily the best part of all of this. Any moment she was on the page, I was very happy.
Overall, the characters in this are really strong. I didn't like Jamie from the get-go - she's extremely negative and snippy and judgmental - but she grew on me in time as she developed. The array of baddies were all unique and stood apart from each other very well. I wish we'd gotten more of Abdi, since he comes into the story a little late and then disappears for a while, which is odd since he seems so big and important. And, as mentioned previously, Mike's development was really good, and kept me guessing as to which side he'd land on for the entire novel.
That's not to say this story doesn't have a few problems. The biggest, in my opinion, is the reliance on the novella for your understanding of one of the main characters. Most people don't read a lot of novellas, myself included; it was just a happy accident that I happened to review the novella that kicks off this series. If I hadn't, a huge part of Mike's character would have been lost for me, because this novel doesn't really go into much depth as to who he was and where he came from. There are allusions to his relationship with Raph and the stuff with his mother(s), but it's left very vague. I imagine if I hadn't ready the novella, I would have been really confused by all that, especially when so much of it contributes to his choices in the end and the culmination of his character arc. I definitely think there should have been more summarization of the novella in here, to give new readers a more concrete understanding of what was happening.
In all, I was pretty pleased with this read. I'm not sure if it's my favorite of the series, as the second was pretty good (though very different) but it was an enjoyable read. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone with an interest in gothic fantasy/horror.
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