A review by wolfthorn
Hounded by Kevin Hearne

adventurous slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

There's a massive info dump in the first couple of chapters which is both off-putting and lazy writing. They also have a ridiculous amount of Irish names, which makes for very difficult reading. There's a pronunciation guide at the front which would be helpful if it was accurate. (There isn't one way of pronouncing Gaelic words, there's actually three dialects and most Irish pronunciation guides give all three as they're often quite different.) The guide actually says the reader is free to pronounce the names however they like, but even so, I found I was just skimming over the names rather than pronounce them at all. 

Although the focus is on Irish and Celtic gods, there's a lot of mentions of Thor (who apparently is an arsehole) as well as Coyote (a Native American trickster god) and some other deities. There's also witches, vampires and werewolves included. It's all a bit much, like the author was trying to cram as many mythical figures in as possible. The constant mention of being Irish, wanting Irish things, doing Irish things, just became incredibly irritating. I would never have placed fish and chips as being an Irish dish either, more of a British one. It was just trying far too hard in that way which made me think that the author had gained all his Irish knowledge from books. 

The plot is thin and stretched out far too much, and yet the book is only short - just 254 pages, discounting the except of the next book and two bonus stories. At one point, Atticus hurries home to avoid the baddies who are after him, but upon arriving decides to have sex instead. Did the author forget he was supposed to be desperate to get away? I did enjoy the druidic aspects with drawing power from the earth and using it for healing. And Oberon is easily the best character in the entire thing.
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