raven_morgan's review
4.0
Captive is a novella-length prequel to Graced, Amanda Pillar's debut novel. In Graced, the reader was introduced to a world populated by weres, vampires, humans, and the Graced, humans whose coloured eyes signify psychic abilities such as telekinesis and healing. Captive takes the reader back in time to a post-apocalyptic time between the modern world and the world as it would become in Graced.
We follow several characters in Graced. The were Wolfgang and the sisters Laney and Jane, who have been hidden by their Graced brother Quin in a camp used by the weres essentially to farm humans. At this point in time, both weres and vampires require humans as food - vampires consume human blood, and weres eat human liver. The safety of both Laney and Jane - as well as the secret Laney is hiding - is in jeopardy when both of the girls are captured by a vampire clan and kept captive in one of their camps.
It needs to be said up front that in order to get the most out of the novella, the reader is best to read Graced first. This allows a good grounding in this world and its supernatural beings, and deepens a lot of the events that happen in Captive.
Pillar's strength in Captive, as in Graced, lies in her characters. Even in this shorter length, all of them are well-developed and have distinctive voices. We only see Quin through diary excerpts, and even his voice stands out (and those entries may have made me chortle more than once). All of the characters are strong, and all are intelligent, most especially Laney with her medical and scientific knowledge. There are no damsels in distress here, no women waiting to be saved.
There are many links to the modern world here, with plots that deal with technology and genetics. In all of these arenas, Pillar has done her homework, and all of it reads true (as a side note, I'm a trained geneticist and I get picky about this!).
My only real complaint is that there is a lot of plot and character development in this relatively short work; there's definitely enough here that this could easily have been expanded into a full novel. There are a few plot points that feel a bit rushed because of the length, but nothing that detracts overmuch from enjoyment of the work.
If you've read and enjoyed Graced, you'll find a lot to enjoy in Captive, too. There's a lot more information about the world, and there's a direct link to Graced as well at the end of Captive. I finished wanting to know even more about the world and would happily pay for a dozen more books exploring this world.
We follow several characters in Graced. The were Wolfgang and the sisters Laney and Jane, who have been hidden by their Graced brother Quin in a camp used by the weres essentially to farm humans. At this point in time, both weres and vampires require humans as food - vampires consume human blood, and weres eat human liver. The safety of both Laney and Jane - as well as the secret Laney is hiding - is in jeopardy when both of the girls are captured by a vampire clan and kept captive in one of their camps.
It needs to be said up front that in order to get the most out of the novella, the reader is best to read Graced first. This allows a good grounding in this world and its supernatural beings, and deepens a lot of the events that happen in Captive.
Pillar's strength in Captive, as in Graced, lies in her characters. Even in this shorter length, all of them are well-developed and have distinctive voices. We only see Quin through diary excerpts, and even his voice stands out (and those entries may have made me chortle more than once). All of the characters are strong, and all are intelligent, most especially Laney with her medical and scientific knowledge. There are no damsels in distress here, no women waiting to be saved.
There are many links to the modern world here, with plots that deal with technology and genetics. In all of these arenas, Pillar has done her homework, and all of it reads true (as a side note, I'm a trained geneticist and I get picky about this!).
My only real complaint is that there is a lot of plot and character development in this relatively short work; there's definitely enough here that this could easily have been expanded into a full novel. There are a few plot points that feel a bit rushed because of the length, but nothing that detracts overmuch from enjoyment of the work.
If you've read and enjoyed Graced, you'll find a lot to enjoy in Captive, too. There's a lot more information about the world, and there's a direct link to Graced as well at the end of Captive. I finished wanting to know even more about the world and would happily pay for a dozen more books exploring this world.
lindzy's review
4.0
Having thoroughly enjoyed my first novella – even if I need to get used to the style – I thought I would branch out and try another. My next was Captive: A Graced Novella by Amanda Pillar. As introductions to world’s go, this one drew me in hook, line and sinker and I am looking for others in this series.
Laney and Jane are taken hostage by a vampire clan who wish to use them for feeding. Their half-brother, Quin, is an extremely powerful Graced and will do anything to get his sisters back, even an alliance with the werewolves. But when Wolf infiltrates the compound to break the girls out, he finds more than he bargains for. He doesn’t find humans; he finds love. But once free, the sisters continue their work to find a cure for vampires and werewolves alike, preventing them from having to feed on human flesh without a choice.
When I first started reading and realised it was vampires and werewolves, I had doubts. They were soon put to rest by how adult the novella is. There is none of the sparkly, vegetarian vampires that have flooded literature recently, but blood and guts the whole way. The first time a character swore, I knew I was reading something much better than I had anticipated.
The abilities of the Graced were partly what drew me to the book because of what I am attempting to write in my own novel. This were handled and explained well, despite not having read anything else in this world. There was never the feeling of coming to the world late with this novella, partly because there is no time to explore deep and meaningful story arcs in such limited space. But I knew within a short time what each character was capable of, how their power worked and what their limits were.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this and will look for more in this world, even if it is just to continue the story-arc of the characters. The characters were engaging, the plot fast-paced and riddled with tension and romance, the language suitable for both the situation and providing humour and even in the short space of time, more character progression was shown than I’ve seen in some novels.
This worked to further encourage me into the land of novellas and I look forward to finding more of Pillar’s writing.
Laney and Jane are taken hostage by a vampire clan who wish to use them for feeding. Their half-brother, Quin, is an extremely powerful Graced and will do anything to get his sisters back, even an alliance with the werewolves. But when Wolf infiltrates the compound to break the girls out, he finds more than he bargains for. He doesn’t find humans; he finds love. But once free, the sisters continue their work to find a cure for vampires and werewolves alike, preventing them from having to feed on human flesh without a choice.
When I first started reading and realised it was vampires and werewolves, I had doubts. They were soon put to rest by how adult the novella is. There is none of the sparkly, vegetarian vampires that have flooded literature recently, but blood and guts the whole way. The first time a character swore, I knew I was reading something much better than I had anticipated.
The abilities of the Graced were partly what drew me to the book because of what I am attempting to write in my own novel. This were handled and explained well, despite not having read anything else in this world. There was never the feeling of coming to the world late with this novella, partly because there is no time to explore deep and meaningful story arcs in such limited space. But I knew within a short time what each character was capable of, how their power worked and what their limits were.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this and will look for more in this world, even if it is just to continue the story-arc of the characters. The characters were engaging, the plot fast-paced and riddled with tension and romance, the language suitable for both the situation and providing humour and even in the short space of time, more character progression was shown than I’ve seen in some novels.
This worked to further encourage me into the land of novellas and I look forward to finding more of Pillar’s writing.
tsana's review
4.0
Captive by Amanda Pillar is a novella set in the Graced universe, but at a much earlier period of story history. Although a few character names might be familiar, the two stories stand completely alone. If anything, Captive fills in some of the "historical" backstory that didn't fit into Graced, while telling its own story.
I enjoyed Captive quite a bit. I would go so far as to say I enjoyed the start of the novella more than I enjoyed Graced. This is probably partly because the main character is a scientist and I am biased. Where Graced was set seemingly very long after the apocalypse, so to speak, that resulted from the creation of vampires and werewolves and the subsequent wars, Captive is set much closer to that time period (but still after it).
The main(est) character, Laney, is a geneticist who had been working on "cures" for the vampire need for human blood and the werewolf need for human liver. Not, to be clear, changing their species back to human, just removing their need to farm humans. Having originally been part of a werewolf, er, farm, Laney, her sister and their fellow humans are captured by vampires in a raid. Their main goal is to survive until a way out presents itself. Unbeknownst to them, other characters are also working on rescuing them from the vampires.
I mentioned earlier that I particularly enjoyed the start of Captive. It would be more accurate to say that I enjoyed almost all of Captive but I found the ending rather abrupt. The main plot arc of escaping the vampires is resolved, but a lot of romantic (and other, spoilery) subplots are introduced near the end and I don't think this novella was long enough to give them enough space to properly develop. The time jumps at the end, to get to the second last chapter and the epilogue, didn't really help on that front. I think it would have been more enjoyable had the last portion of the book been longer. I certainly wouldn't've minded reading more of it.
Overall I liked Captive, even if I would have preferred more of it. I would recommend it to fans of Graced, but want to stress again that both stories stand alone quite well. I will certainly be reading any other novellas or novels Pillar writes set in the same world. This was almost a 4-star read, but I took off half a star for the abruptness of the ending.
3.5 / 5 stars
calissa's review
3.0
Captive is a prequel novella to Amanda Pillar's Graced. Given the latter was one of the highlights of my 2015 reading year, I had high hopes for Captive. Unfortunately, I found the novella's ambition exceeded its scope.
The key problem with Captive is that it tried to do too much: it aimed to be a paranormal romance and an exploration of a post-apocalyptic world, as well as show a pivotal point in the world's history and be an origin story for one of the characters from Graced. All within 100 pages. As a result, it doesn't successfully manage any of these elements.
I didn't find there was much chemistry between Laney and Wolf, with their on-stage courtship being limited to Wolf invading Laney's personal space and kissing her a few times. The secondary relationships were far more entertaining. Laney's sister Jane lacks a romantic bone in her body, so it was particularly amusing to see attempts to woo her. I hope we may see something more of her in the future.
As a fantasy story, it didn't quite work for me either. It's always difficult to write short speculative fiction because the premise and feel of the world needs to be conveyed in not much space. Captive faces a difficult challenge because it's set in a world that isn't our present day or the far future of Graced but something in between. A prologue in the form of a character's diary entry tries to set the scene but ends up feeling like an awkward infodump that left me without a visceral feel for the world. Since the pertinent information comes up again later--repeatedly, in some cases,--I feel it would have been better to put the prologue's word count to better use within the story itself.
Despite my criticisms, I enjoyed the story a lot. While the diversity of the characters isn't as broad as in Graced, it is still casually present. Laney makes a great character. Physically, she's never going to be a Strong Female Character, which makes her quiet courage all the more admirable. I also enjoyed seeing one of the characters from Graced make an appearance in the final chapters, albeit in a much younger form.
While Captive could conceivably stand on its own, some of the impact of the events it depicts would be lost. New readers are best off picking up Graced first.
This review first appeared on Earl Grey Editing.
The key problem with Captive is that it tried to do too much: it aimed to be a paranormal romance and an exploration of a post-apocalyptic world, as well as show a pivotal point in the world's history and be an origin story for one of the characters from Graced. All within 100 pages. As a result, it doesn't successfully manage any of these elements.
I didn't find there was much chemistry between Laney and Wolf, with their on-stage courtship being limited to Wolf invading Laney's personal space and kissing her a few times. The secondary relationships were far more entertaining. Laney's sister Jane lacks a romantic bone in her body, so it was particularly amusing to see attempts to woo her. I hope we may see something more of her in the future.
As a fantasy story, it didn't quite work for me either. It's always difficult to write short speculative fiction because the premise and feel of the world needs to be conveyed in not much space. Captive faces a difficult challenge because it's set in a world that isn't our present day or the far future of Graced but something in between. A prologue in the form of a character's diary entry tries to set the scene but ends up feeling like an awkward infodump that left me without a visceral feel for the world. Since the pertinent information comes up again later--repeatedly, in some cases,--I feel it would have been better to put the prologue's word count to better use within the story itself.
Despite my criticisms, I enjoyed the story a lot. While the diversity of the characters isn't as broad as in Graced, it is still casually present. Laney makes a great character. Physically, she's never going to be a Strong Female Character, which makes her quiet courage all the more admirable. I also enjoyed seeing one of the characters from Graced make an appearance in the final chapters, albeit in a much younger form.
While Captive could conceivably stand on its own, some of the impact of the events it depicts would be lost. New readers are best off picking up Graced first.
This review first appeared on Earl Grey Editing.
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