Scan barcode
A review by emilyrainsford
Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli
dark
mysterious
tense
2.0
The problem I have with witch vs witch hunter enemies-to-lovers stories is that they inherently require you to accept a character (let's face it, always the dude) who is not only totally a-okay with genocide, but actively perpetuates it. Usually the journey involves him eventually considering that, hey, maybe he should view this entire group of people as human because one of them gets his peepee excited.
In this story, an attempt is made to justify his actions with prior trauma at the hands of a member of the hunted group, but I'm sorry, that's a pretty pitiful excuse for trying to wipe out an entire group of people by publicly slitting their throats.
The witch and witch hunter end up courting each other to further their own ends - him because he suspects her of being the "Crimson Moth" outlaw who is rescuing witches from brutal annihilation, her because she is in fact the Crimson Moth and she wants his Blood Guard secrets to help her in her mission. But at one point, she does the whole "I realise I was just as bad as him for my actions" thing, and like... He was trying to brutally and publicly murder you for existing, and you were trying to save your people from the same fate. On no planet are you "just as bad" as him.
The fact he's literally trying to physically kill her and her internal monologue is thinking about how big and strong and hot he is??? Like, girl, what??
Look, the story was honestly quite readable. The idea of blood magic was pretty interesting and it followed clear rules which I liked. But I just cannot read something as being "just a story" and completely suspend all sense of morality. The ONLY way I could accept this story is if in the next book, the FMC finally accepts that the witch hunter is the villain and that no amount of tragic backstory justifies genocide. I suspect that's not the story arc though, and that frankly makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit.
Even the "romance" between them is hard to buy. It's all based on physical attraction and it's hard to buy her "falling in love" with Gideon when he barely displays an ounce of personality outside of being an attractive piece of shit. I was not rooting for their connection at all.
I don't know what is up with all the romancing-the-genocider stories lately, but honestly, count me out.
In this story, an attempt is made to justify his actions with prior trauma at the hands of a member of the hunted group, but I'm sorry, that's a pretty pitiful excuse for trying to wipe out an entire group of people by publicly slitting their throats.
The witch and witch hunter end up courting each other to further their own ends - him because he suspects her of being the "Crimson Moth" outlaw who is rescuing witches from brutal annihilation, her because she is in fact the Crimson Moth and she wants his Blood Guard secrets to help her in her mission. But at one point, she does the whole "I realise I was just as bad as him for my actions" thing, and like... He was trying to brutally and publicly murder you for existing, and you were trying to save your people from the same fate. On no planet are you "just as bad" as him.
The fact he's literally trying to physically kill her and her internal monologue is thinking about how big and strong and hot he is??? Like, girl, what??
Look, the story was honestly quite readable. The idea of blood magic was pretty interesting and it followed clear rules which I liked. But I just cannot read something as being "just a story" and completely suspend all sense of morality. The ONLY way I could accept this story is if in the next book, the FMC finally accepts that the witch hunter is the villain and that no amount of tragic backstory justifies genocide. I suspect that's not the story arc though, and that frankly makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit.
Even the "romance" between them is hard to buy. It's all based on physical attraction and it's hard to buy her "falling in love" with Gideon when he barely displays an ounce of personality outside of being an attractive piece of shit. I was not rooting for their connection at all.
I don't know what is up with all the romancing-the-genocider stories lately, but honestly, count me out.