As a historian by training, I can handle this kind of horror. Due brilliantly shines a light on these, unfortunately all too real aspects of historical horror, all the ugly skeletons in the closet – in this case, the closet of the United States – the skeletons that have started to come out of the closet in current events. While reading this story, you cannot – nor should you – look away. I will definitely pick up more from this author in the future.
I took a chance on this one when I picked it up at the book warehouse outlet. That chance did not pan out. Aspects of the story felt fine. The technical parts of the writing did not offend. The narrative content, however, felt incredibly cliché and try-hard with the main character able to relatively easily fix something her much more experienced uncle had tried to fix for almost a year, unsuccessfully. This one will get unhauled.
This book read easily, aside from the fact that the cover made me expect a black main character rather than the thoroughly European Irish character that we got. This discrepancy did keep from being able to fully immerse in the story. Another unfortunate thing? Maeve’s situation and that of the main character in another book that I read more recently have become a little bit entangled in my mind with the more recent read
overriding some of my specific thoughts regarding this particular book. I do remember a lot of disappointment from the depiction of the main character’s mother and how the family resolved some of the issues. Overall though, I do not think this is a bad book, just one that missed the mark.
Even though I love both fantasy and history, the martial aspects of both have never been my favorite, thus creating a bit of apprehension before going into one of the better examples of flintlock fantasy. Thankfully, McClellan did not disappoint, especially since he loaded the book with political intrigue – something I dearly love in my fantasy. Some of the connections between characters and sides still feel murky to me
but I could not look away. The lengthy book kept me interested the entire time.
Although I still love Faizal’s work, this vampire duology just did not quite work for me in the way that the Sands of Arawiya duology did. Frankly, vampires just aren’t my thing. That being said, I appreciated the coherence of the plot, the subtle recap type hints dropped throughout the narrative – quite helpful for those like myself who do not reread the earlier books – as well as the way that Arthie and Jin explore
their sibling by choice relationships. I also really appreciated all of the references to Arawiya and hope that we get to return soon.
I loved this adult debut from Stiefvater. She has such a skill at telling true to life stories with a hint – or more – of the fantastical or paranormal. This narrative wove together quite a few perspectives in a unique setting towards the beginning of WWII, just after the United States has entered the fray. Stiefvater explores highly complicated and controversial topics in this novel while never making a moral judgment on most of it yet
compelling the reader to act based on what they just read. I need to add this to my physical collection.