A review by lightasrain
Bitter Blood by Rachel Caine
3.0
Before get into the review part I want to say something to the authors. There is a lesson needs to be learned from these so popular series that you should not drag them to the point where you won't have an actual story to tell without repetition of the same things. Nowadays, authors never seem to learn that from the downfall of other series.
Now for the review, well it's an ok book nothing great or wow worthy but ok that's all. I read the previous book more than one year back. So honestly I didn't remember anything from the last book except one fact that somehow they got rid of the draug. I was worried that it would ruin the experience of reading this book for me. But as it turned out there was nothing vital connection to the previous book. SO it didn't really matter much in the end.
There was gaping plot wholes in the story line. Honestly there was not much of a story at all until the very end. They were just doing their everyday boring activities and as usual people were trying to hurt them. The main villain was absent from the most part of the story. So I never really felt the presence of the menacing villain throughout the story even not when the she was actually present there at the end. There was not enough character in her at all to feel like she was a real threat or menacing. I mean how would you feel anything towards the villain at all if you don't get to know anything about her? I could be wrong here though. May be her character was described very well in some previous books but I completely forgot about them. So for me she felt completely unknown and a 'shoved in your face' kind of villain, you know just for the sake of it.
How could the founder become so stupid is beyond me. If she is so powerful, how could she not tell that she was being used? And the whole theme of the story is a repetition. Didn't Bishop also try the same kind of thing in some other book?
The novel dragged on and on about nothing for so long and at the very end all the problems got resolved very easily and haphazardly. The ending felt very rushed. What was the deal with the ghosts btw? I didn't understand their actions in the climax. I felt they were completely unnecessary to the plot and so was the TV show crew.
And I have to say this, Shane is such a jerk. I bet Myrnin trusts Claire more than Shane does, even though Myrnin is almost insane.
Even with all the flaws, I still enjoyed the book at some level. It wasn't exactly boring. Yes, there was lack of plot and action but in the end, I didn't feel as much unsatisfied as I thought I would be. It felt, the author ran out of good plots for the series. That's why I said, they should learn to close them before they get boring. The last two books are already out and I do hope they will be better read than this one.
Now for the review, well it's an ok book nothing great or wow worthy but ok that's all. I read the previous book more than one year back. So honestly I didn't remember anything from the last book except one fact that somehow they got rid of the draug. I was worried that it would ruin the experience of reading this book for me. But as it turned out there was nothing vital connection to the previous book. SO it didn't really matter much in the end.
There was gaping plot wholes in the story line. Honestly there was not much of a story at all until the very end. They were just doing their everyday boring activities and as usual people were trying to hurt them. The main villain was absent from the most part of the story. So I never really felt the presence of the menacing villain throughout the story even not when the she was actually present there at the end. There was not enough character in her at all to feel like she was a real threat or menacing. I mean how would you feel anything towards the villain at all if you don't get to know anything about her? I could be wrong here though. May be her character was described very well in some previous books but I completely forgot about them. So for me she felt completely unknown and a 'shoved in your face' kind of villain, you know just for the sake of it.
How could the founder become so stupid is beyond me. If she is so powerful, how could she not tell that she was being used? And the whole theme of the story is a repetition. Didn't Bishop also try the same kind of thing in some other book?
The novel dragged on and on about nothing for so long and at the very end all the problems got resolved very easily and haphazardly. The ending felt very rushed. What was the deal with the ghosts btw? I didn't understand their actions in the climax. I felt they were completely unnecessary to the plot and so was the TV show crew.
And I have to say this, Shane is such a jerk. I bet Myrnin trusts Claire more than Shane does, even though Myrnin is almost insane.
Even with all the flaws, I still enjoyed the book at some level. It wasn't exactly boring. Yes, there was lack of plot and action but in the end, I didn't feel as much unsatisfied as I thought I would be. It felt, the author ran out of good plots for the series. That's why I said, they should learn to close them before they get boring. The last two books are already out and I do hope they will be better read than this one.