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blombern's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Violence, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Death, Cursing, Murder, Blood, Misogyny, and Grief
Minor: Alcohol and Vomit
naturally's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
my third attempt reading this book. i'll hold up my hands and admit that i misjudged the quality of this story based on the prologue/first few chapters.
mackayla lane is a messy heroine, who often strays into unlikeable territory. she views irish (and other European) cultures through a lens of xenophobia, whilst uplifting her southern american upbringing. she's been raised in a bubble. she's spoilt, whiny, superficial. and when finding out the truth about her sidhe-seer abilities, she's reluctant to wholly embrace it for the duration of darkfever. her redemption comes in the form of her unwavering dedication to hunting down her sister's killer. she's stubborn and extremely consistent in her motives. mac's also adventurous, consistently underestimated and loves books - her arc as a young woman far away from home, exploring a new country/culture was written very well, blending seamlessly with the book's supernatural content. yes, she can acknowledge that jericho is attractive, but never to the point where she throws her whole mission out of the window.
same with jericho. he's a POS. however, i appreciate that neither mac, the narrative nor he try to explain this away. he's ferocious in his hunt for the sinsar dubhe, and this tracks until the very end of the book, although we can see occasional glimpses of him beginning to care for mac. the two of them make a compelling, dysfunctional team and i'm interested to see them learn more about each other and the sinsar dubhe's whereabouts. (them calling each other "miss lane" and "barrons" was overdone though. i'm confident this book would be several hundred words shorter, if the rampant uses of these names were cut from the text!)
at times, the plot rambled on...the middle of this book was definitely saggy! however, the overall world we are introduced to is dark, and addictive and near-stellar.
mackayla lane is a messy heroine, who often strays into unlikeable territory. she views irish (and other European) cultures through a lens of xenophobia, whilst uplifting her southern american upbringing. she's been raised in a bubble. she's spoilt, whiny, superficial. and when finding out the truth about her sidhe-seer abilities, she's reluctant to wholly embrace it for the duration of darkfever. her redemption comes in the form of her unwavering dedication to hunting down her sister's killer. she's stubborn and extremely consistent in her motives. mac's also adventurous, consistently underestimated and loves books - her arc as a young woman far away from home, exploring a new country/culture was written very well, blending seamlessly with the book's supernatural content. yes, she can acknowledge that jericho is attractive, but never to the point where she throws her whole mission out of the window.
same with jericho. he's a POS. however, i appreciate that neither mac, the narrative nor he try to explain this away. he's ferocious in his hunt for the sinsar dubhe, and this tracks until the very end of the book, although we can see occasional glimpses of him beginning to care for mac. the two of them make a compelling, dysfunctional team and i'm interested to see them learn more about each other and the sinsar dubhe's whereabouts. (them calling each other "miss lane" and "barrons" was overdone though. i'm confident this book would be several hundred words shorter, if the rampant uses of these names were cut from the text!)
at times, the plot rambled on...the middle of this book was definitely saggy! however, the overall world we are introduced to is dark, and addictive and near-stellar.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Grief, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Body horror
Moderate: Xenophobia, Cursing, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Stalking, and Blood
thewellbitch's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Not sure if I liked it, but it was entertaining.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment
_artemis's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Color me intrigued as to where this story was going, but so much of it was setting up the world building and alluding to the fact that we as reader wont be confused about it one day. Like --> see this sentence here. I'd understand it one day. Which is great and all, but I was surprised to leave this book as clueless as to what is going on (at all) as I did on page one.
Definitely a lot of Celtic fantasy serving as the anchor of the fantasy structure, but set in contemporary times. It was written in 2006, so some of the more "modern" elements of the story have a way of dating themselves (ipods, nokia cellphones, Juicy fashion brand name drops).
There is a hint of the spice I can imagine to come... tho the brief glimpses we get of that thus far are crypitic, and disturbing, at best right now.
My interest is piqued for this series, however. I will be proceeding to the next book and tying a lot of whether I'll see it through to the end on that alone.
Writing was definitely pretty good, but suffers from a very immature narrator POV.
Definitely a lot of Celtic fantasy serving as the anchor of the fantasy structure, but set in contemporary times. It was written in 2006, so some of the more "modern" elements of the story have a way of dating themselves (ipods, nokia cellphones, Juicy fashion brand name drops).
There is a hint of the spice I can imagine to come... tho the brief glimpses we get of that thus far are crypitic, and disturbing, at best right now.
My interest is piqued for this series, however. I will be proceeding to the next book and tying a lot of whether I'll see it through to the end on that alone.
Writing was definitely pretty good, but suffers from a very immature narrator POV.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual harassment
Moderate: Confinement, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Stalking, and Sexual violence
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