Reviews with content warning for Blood - Trahie

Another book with great potential that is completely squandered.

I didn't mention this in my review of the first book, but part of the pacing problems stem from the authors throwing in plot point after plot point and never addressing any of them. One such plot point was that fledglings who had Rejected the Change would show up again with bright red eyes. Two such characters appeared very briefly in "Marked", but received little to no serious attention. Even in this book, when they become a central plot point, they are mostly ignored until over halfway through the story.

This book has a lot of great, interesting elements. But the execution is atrocious. It seems like these authors can't pace a story to save their lives. So much of the book is spent focusing on boy drama (including an incredibly illegal student-teacher romance) and Zoey's very boring plans to restructure the Dark Daughters, rather than focusing on the teens that go missing and turn up dead or the apparent zombies that are wandering campus. Even when the authors throw in a subplot about calling in a fake bomb threat they manage to make it dragged out and boring.

Another issue I failed to touch on in the first book is how the authors handle Zoey's Cherokee heritage. It seems to mostly exist to make her more exotic and magical, which is incredibly offensive. Also, Cherokee ritualism is inexplicably mixed in with Wiccan circle casting - which was already nonsensical considering they worship the Greek goddess Nyx. But the decision to bastardize any seemingly mystical culture in this series' shoddy excuse for world-building is only made worse when Zoey decides to use eucalyptus in a ritual, citing it as an ancient herb used by her people for centuries. Even though eucalyptus is from Australia. The first book was already dipping into pan-Indianism, but now the story has managed to dive into transcontinental pan-Indianism. It's amazing, honestly.

The narrative also suffers from poor writing decisions that kill tension or spoil the story. For example, very important information regarding the death of a character and the zombie fledglings is revealed in chapter twenty-five, shortly after the character's death, when it should have been kept a secret until the end of chapter twenty-eight - and yet it's still presented as a surprise in chapter twenty-eight. Moreover, the character's imminent death is heavily foreshadowed from the end of chapter eighteen until the middle of chapter twenty-two, but all the characters ignore and dismiss it because it would be inconvenient to the narrative if they were worrying about this character. It showcases the poor pacing of the series and the strange tendency of the authors to prioritize frivolities over the actual plot.

All the same issues that existed in the first book persist in this one. The only reason I gave it more than a zero-star rating is because it mostly had a coherent plot, even if it was dragged out and frequently ignored.

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