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halynah's review
5.0
POWERFUL! EXTRAORDINARY! EXCEPTIONAL! AMAZING! UNPUTDOWNABLE! BREATHTAKING! UNFORGETTABLE! UNPARALLELED! PERFECTION!
The BEST paranormal\urban fantasy I've ever read! Masterfully crafted word-building and fluent style of writing, plenty of awesome characters, not a single boring page or situation and the feeling like you experience everything yourself are only few of the reasons, why you MUST read this book. The idea with ponies and elementals is brilliant, and the term Sanguinati is genius (and this version of their form)! I loved Sam and all his interactions with Meg, I adored Vlad and Henry and all the crows. I liked such humans as Monty, and respected Tess and Simon. Meg was a great female protagonist and all her adventures in the Courtyard were exciting and delightful if sometimes scary. I'm looking forward to the sequel and strongly recommend this book to everyone despite their preference of genre!
The BEST paranormal\urban fantasy I've ever read! Masterfully crafted word-building and fluent style of writing, plenty of awesome characters, not a single boring page or situation and the feeling like you experience everything yourself are only few of the reasons, why you MUST read this book. The idea with ponies and elementals is brilliant, and the term Sanguinati is genius (and this version of their form)! I loved Sam and all his interactions with Meg, I adored Vlad and Henry and all the crows. I liked such humans as Monty, and respected Tess and Simon. Meg was a great female protagonist and all her adventures in the Courtyard were exciting and delightful if sometimes scary. I'm looking forward to the sequel and strongly recommend this book to everyone despite their preference of genre!
clockworkbook's review
5.0
4.5 Love this book. Such a different take of "Others" and I found myself laughing out loud numerous times.
with_whimsy's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
kzimm2024's review
5.0
Re- read Aug 2023, buddy read with my nephew. Got so excited when buying him the books that I had to read them all over again. I seem to have so much more understanding this time around, about the “Others”.
This story introduces Meg on the run, she ends up getting a job as a Liaison between the humans and the Others. They end up adopting her and taking steps to protect her from being taken back into captivity.
It’s precious, the bond she develops with Sam as well as the Elementals, the ponies, Tess, Grandfather and the rest.
Warmly humorous with a dash of killing prey :)
ReRead 2020- still a 5 star and I absolutely love this world. Its such a slow burn with so many layers that you just savor Meg and the fascination the Others have with her and her innocence.
Simon and Meg forever.
This story introduces Meg on the run, she ends up getting a job as a Liaison between the humans and the Others. They end up adopting her and taking steps to protect her from being taken back into captivity.
It’s precious, the bond she develops with Sam as well as the Elementals, the ponies, Tess, Grandfather and the rest.
Warmly humorous with a dash of killing prey :)
ReRead 2020- still a 5 star and I absolutely love this world. Its such a slow burn with so many layers that you just savor Meg and the fascination the Others have with her and her innocence.
Simon and Meg forever.
dalidja's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
brianne_k's review
5.0
LOVE!! My friend Sam recommended this book to me, as it is her favourite. I was not disappointed. The world was interesting and I loved The Others. I loved how they called Meg 'The Meg' and boy did I love Simon! It was funny, intriguing, and I found myself smiling a lot while reading. I can't wait to pick up 'Murder of Crows'
being_b's review
1.0
A lousy book with a premise rooted in white supremacy.
This book is bad on every level a book can be bad:
a) The writing is sloppy-- words are misused, dialogue is clunky.
b) The pacing is molasses-slow. We spend immense amounts of time hearing about people forgot to put on their shoes before rushing outside and now their socks are wet, so they make plans to go back to their house to pick up dry socks and maybe a sealed container of soup for lunch and on and ON.
c) The characters are shallow and characterisation is inconsistent. The villain is a cardboard Sexy Stupid Bad Girl. The MC is the Mariest of Sues. We're told the male lead is a decisive far-thinker but we spend most of the book seeing him throw tantrums about trivial things such as the smell of the MC's hair dye.
d) The world-building is lazy, uncreative, and unconvincing. The Others (vampires, werewolves, Elementals, etc) dominate the globe. Humans were "created" in Europe, and live in circumscribed enclaves elsewhere in a system that recalls the reservations the US imposed on Native Americans. Despite this, humans have developed cell phones, cars, the internet, etc. We're told the Others dominate the land, but we mainly see the non-human characters trying to accommodate to the human system while the humans go about pretty much oblivious.
e) The plot is bog-standard color-by-numbers Bad People try to get MC, Good People protect her, Showdown, Victory, end. Still probably the best part of the book as unlike everything else it isn't broken, just boring.
And the racism? Well, if "humans" only ever existed in Europe before "discovering" North America... then basically every non-white non-Western human has been erased from this universe. In their place we have the monstrous, human-eating terra indigene, the Others. Basically, "white Europeans" are the stand-in for all of humanity, and monsters are the stand in for everybody else.
If that doesn't bother you (!!!) then maybe this will. I mentioned earlier that human society and technological development in the novel is basically identical to what we have today- cell phones, cars, internet, etc. This implies that all of human societal and cultural development IN OUR WORLD NOW is the result of white European ingenuity and effort, and EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD is totally extraneous. This is a standard white supremacist argument, and grotesquely untrue at every level.
I wish I could be shocked that such a sloppy, lazy, and fundamentally bad book came from a major publishing house-- I will definitely be more cautious in buying books from Roc in the future.
This book is bad on every level a book can be bad:
a) The writing is sloppy-- words are misused, dialogue is clunky.
b) The pacing is molasses-slow. We spend immense amounts of time hearing about people forgot to put on their shoes before rushing outside and now their socks are wet, so they make plans to go back to their house to pick up dry socks and maybe a sealed container of soup for lunch and on and ON.
c) The characters are shallow and characterisation is inconsistent. The villain is a cardboard Sexy Stupid Bad Girl. The MC is the Mariest of Sues. We're told the male lead is a decisive far-thinker but we spend most of the book seeing him throw tantrums about trivial things such as the smell of the MC's hair dye.
d) The world-building is lazy, uncreative, and unconvincing. The Others (vampires, werewolves, Elementals, etc) dominate the globe. Humans were "created" in Europe, and live in circumscribed enclaves elsewhere in a system that recalls the reservations the US imposed on Native Americans. Despite this, humans have developed cell phones, cars, the internet, etc. We're told the Others dominate the land, but we mainly see the non-human characters trying to accommodate to the human system while the humans go about pretty much oblivious.
e) The plot is bog-standard color-by-numbers Bad People try to get MC, Good People protect her, Showdown, Victory, end. Still probably the best part of the book as unlike everything else it isn't broken, just boring.
And the racism? Well, if "humans" only ever existed in Europe before "discovering" North America... then basically every non-white non-Western human has been erased from this universe. In their place we have the monstrous, human-eating terra indigene, the Others. Basically, "white Europeans" are the stand-in for all of humanity, and monsters are the stand in for everybody else.
If that doesn't bother you (!!!) then maybe this will. I mentioned earlier that human society and technological development in the novel is basically identical to what we have today- cell phones, cars, internet, etc. This implies that all of human societal and cultural development IN OUR WORLD NOW is the result of white European ingenuity and effort, and EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD is totally extraneous. This is a standard white supremacist argument, and grotesquely untrue at every level.
I wish I could be shocked that such a sloppy, lazy, and fundamentally bad book came from a major publishing house-- I will definitely be more cautious in buying books from Roc in the future.
nalian's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75