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foxconfessor's review
4.0
This is a unique and engaging story that could have been GREAT with better editing. Repeated or missing words, font inconsistencies, narrative stumbles, etc.
That aside I found this story really interesting. The title and cover alone really grabbed me, the characters were all interesting, and the framing device was new to me, being told from the POV of a hunter sorting through a jumble of her prey's memories. The story intentionally meandered because of this and didn't follow any sort of traditional structure. I'm curious to know where the next books will go.
That aside I found this story really interesting. The title and cover alone really grabbed me, the characters were all interesting, and the framing device was new to me, being told from the POV of a hunter sorting through a jumble of her prey's memories. The story intentionally meandered because of this and didn't follow any sort of traditional structure. I'm curious to know where the next books will go.
nakedsushi's review
4.0
Completing this book is like coming up from a dream. The layered storytelling is done really well here. What you see on the cover with the person in a wolfskin is the outer layer of the story. It's hard to describe the book without giving too much away. I guess I could say it's about demons and demon children and the sense of isolation they feel from the rest of society.
The world is so rich that even though I was fully invested in some of the character (Rachel and Djoss, for example), I still felt like I was missing a lot of the action in town. I suppose the other books in the series will fill in those holes. In addition to being a fully-realized world, it was also a very grimy, dirty, and smelly world.
I knocked off one star because the ending felt rushed. It wasn't a real ending, but the reveal was completely out of the blue. I kind of forgot what the real plot was because I was so entrenched inside another frame of the story.
The prose is beautiful, the tone is bleak. I can't wait for the next book.
The world is so rich that even though I was fully invested in some of the character (Rachel and Djoss, for example), I still felt like I was missing a lot of the action in town. I suppose the other books in the series will fill in those holes. In addition to being a fully-realized world, it was also a very grimy, dirty, and smelly world.
I knocked off one star because the ending felt rushed. It wasn't a real ending, but the reveal was completely out of the blue. I kind of forgot what the real plot was because I was so entrenched inside another frame of the story.
The prose is beautiful, the tone is bleak. I can't wait for the next book.
trulybooked's review
5.0
The first time I read this novel, I wasn't in a good place to appreciate it. This isn't a book to rush through. Slow down, let it run through you like a Senta Koan and you'll enjoy this book.
jennybeastie's review
1.0
Well, it sounded very promising but unfortunately is the sort of stream of consciousness that falls in the verbal diarrhea category. Ok, fine, you want to write a book with shifting points of view that results from minds melding. Ok, it's supposed to be about memory, and sifting through another's memory to find clues. All of those are really interesting things, and the world is an interesting world and yet. I kept wondering when the story would start. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen -- shapechangers! politics! demons! religion! plague! steampunky weirdness! -- seriously, all of that and.... amazingly boring story presented in an incredibly irritating manner. *sigh* I'm sorry. I really wanted to like your book.
judd's review
4.0
Never Knew Another is a dark and beautiful book. It doesn't follow any familiar rhythms familiar to fantasy novels but that somehow wasn't off-putting at all.
Its a concise fantasy novel about a husband and a wife who can turn into wolves hunting demons. I don't want to reveal anything else. I'm eager to read the rest of the trilogy.
Its a concise fantasy novel about a husband and a wife who can turn into wolves hunting demons. I don't want to reveal anything else. I'm eager to read the rest of the trilogy.
megthepoet's review
5.0
An excellent fantasy book and I look forward to reading the rest of the series when I can. There’s such a depth of world building and yet it never once felt like a word dump. The characters are realistic, despite the supernatural elements to almost all of the main characters. Only once or twice did I stumble with the transitions (the book swaps between perspectives of Jona, Rachel, and the female walker, a type of werewolf/shapeshifter). But otherwise, it was such a seamless switch that I often lost time reading it. The writing is lean but it also manages to delve into such deep ness that you find yourself a part of that world.
zivan's review
4.0
Mcdermott's fantasy engages the usual tropes from a different angle, concentrating first on the characters and then on the world. Giving his works depth while keeping the world mysterious and hinting at a complex history.
For a relatively short book it did sometimes feel like it could have been a bit shorter though.
Note that this is definitely a first book in a trilogy and has a clear, to be continued ending.
For a relatively short book it did sometimes feel like it could have been a bit shorter though.
Note that this is definitely a first book in a trilogy and has a clear, to be continued ending.
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