A review by millie_rose_reads
Fury's Kiss by Karen Chance
5.0
Predictability isn't always a bad thing, just like unpredictability isn't always good. Fury's Kiss is predictable, and its a credit to the deliberate groundwork in the storytelling rather than a result of a hackneyed imagination. The conflicts are rooted in established characters and dynamics, and the narrative's pinball machine style of escalation, present in all Chance's books, is handled with more finesse because of it. It's an accomplishment only possible by about the third book in a series, when readers are comfortable with the world but still curious about it and capable of being surprised.
The plots of the last two started off straightforward before hurtling into muddied Fey politics. Here, mercifully, the convoluted politics remains background noise. In Fury's Kiss, Dory wakes up in a horrifying lab filled with cages, experimental abominations, and questionably poor lighting fixtures for such delicate (and monstrous) procedures—with no memory of the last couple hours and her vampire-half, Dorina, aggressively asserting herself. Once its explained to Dory that eleven senior masters died during this failed operation, Dory gives permission to Mircea to delve into her mind to retrieve those lost hours and make sense of such an unthinkable calamity.
While I never believed for the teeniest of tiniest of milliseconds that Mircea's duplicity would be treated as anything more than a particularly maddening character flaw, I am disappointed with how artificial that ambivalent tightrope of motivations on his behalf has become. There was no doubt that Mircea loves Dory; it'd be great if the story caught up to this fact. Chance has pulled every single punch when its come to Mircea's motivations so far—there's always a neat and satisfyingly (to the characters if not the reader) extenuating circumstance—and there's no reason to expect differently now or later down the line. In this respect, whether its Dory or Cassie's story being told, this go-to fake out in relation to Mircea's characterisation remains unchanged.
The most exciting development is the exploration of Dory's vampire/human duality. I loved reading from Dorina's perspective. Her voice is distinct but similar enough to Dory's to not feel too alien. The choice to have Dory empathize with Dorina quite quickly has to be the most gratifying moment in the book. It would have been easy to portray Dorina as simply villainous for a little, so it feels like the more novel choice. And with the reveal that Dorina has a lot more autonomy than previously believed (she literally goes on a killing spree while Dory sleeps, causing chaos in Dory's waking hours), I'm really excited about where this particular plot goes.
Louise-Cesare, Ray, Mircea and Marlowe all get moments to shine, and Claire is also there. I'm not even sure what Claire's role is anymore, or if she should even have one at this point.
I loved Fury's Kiss, and I'm excited to see where it goes from here.
The plots of the last two started off straightforward before hurtling into muddied Fey politics. Here, mercifully, the convoluted politics remains background noise. In Fury's Kiss, Dory wakes up in a horrifying lab filled with cages, experimental abominations, and questionably poor lighting fixtures for such delicate (and monstrous) procedures—with no memory of the last couple hours and her vampire-half, Dorina, aggressively asserting herself. Once its explained to Dory that eleven senior masters died during this failed operation, Dory gives permission to Mircea to delve into her mind to retrieve those lost hours and make sense of such an unthinkable calamity.
While I never believed for the teeniest of tiniest of milliseconds that Mircea's duplicity would be treated as anything more than a particularly maddening character flaw, I am disappointed with how artificial that ambivalent tightrope of motivations on his behalf has become. There was no doubt that Mircea loves Dory; it'd be great if the story caught up to this fact. Chance has pulled every single punch when its come to Mircea's motivations so far—there's always a neat and satisfyingly (to the characters if not the reader) extenuating circumstance—and there's no reason to expect differently now or later down the line. In this respect, whether its Dory or Cassie's story being told, this go-to fake out in relation to Mircea's characterisation remains unchanged.
The most exciting development is the exploration of Dory's vampire/human duality. I loved reading from Dorina's perspective. Her voice is distinct but similar enough to Dory's to not feel too alien. The choice to have Dory empathize with Dorina quite quickly has to be the most gratifying moment in the book. It would have been easy to portray Dorina as simply villainous for a little, so it feels like the more novel choice. And with the reveal that Dorina has a lot more autonomy than previously believed (she literally goes on a killing spree while Dory sleeps, causing chaos in Dory's waking hours), I'm really excited about where this particular plot goes.
Louise-Cesare, Ray, Mircea and Marlowe all get moments to shine, and Claire is also there. I'm not even sure what Claire's role is anymore, or if she should even have one at this point.
I loved Fury's Kiss, and I'm excited to see where it goes from here.