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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
Great. Loved it. Completely sucked me in oh my god. I LOVE creepy forests, I love creepy forests that EAT SOULS I love cults I love murder mysteries I love criminal minds style everything it's so good
Also. There is this wonderful, painful subplot of Nell's recovery and escape from the polygamous Church/Cult she grew up in. I don't know about Faith hHunters religious background or experience with extremists, but if she has no background she had really good advice or did great research. Nell's experience feels and is portrayed in such an authentic organic way, it's almost bizarre. Instead of showing this caricature of misogyny and cruelty, the ideas and beliefs of the Churchmen make sense in a horrible way and it makes sense why it would be so hard to leave. Their misogyny isn't ' hurr dur I hate women', it's couched in this well-meaning loving facade that the men themselves probably believe, where they're doing only what they think is right and best for the women that they 'love'.
It's horrible, and is exactly the kind of thinking you see in so so so many extremist religious practitioners.
Also. There is this wonderful, painful subplot of Nell's recovery and escape from the polygamous Church/Cult she grew up in. I don't know about Faith hHunters religious background or experience with extremists, but if she has no background she had really good advice or did great research. Nell's experience feels and is portrayed in such an authentic organic way, it's almost bizarre. Instead of showing this caricature of misogyny and cruelty, the ideas and beliefs of the Churchmen make sense in a horrible way and it makes sense why it would be so hard to leave. Their misogyny isn't ' hurr dur I hate women', it's couched in this well-meaning loving facade that the men themselves probably believe, where they're doing only what they think is right and best for the women that they 'love'.
It's horrible, and is exactly the kind of thinking you see in so so so many extremist religious practitioners.
Blood of the Earth: A Soulwood Novel by Faith Hunter is her first book in her Soulwood series. In Blood of the Earth we are, for those new to the character, introduced to Nell Ingram and for those who already have been introduced to Nell through Faith Hunter’s Blood in Her Veins: Nineteen Stories From the World of Jane Yellowrock. Nell has been referred to PsyLED and Rick LeFleur by Jane Yellowrock as someone to contact in the hopes of find out where a dangerous cult who has a deep hatred of paranormals. The Human Speakers of Truth have disappeared since having issues with the police that have frozen their assets and left them really hurting for money. They believe that the HST has hooked up with the cult that Nell used to be a part of the church group called, God’s Cloud. God’s Cloud is still a factor in Nell’s life because certain men of the group refuse to let Nell be and so they stalk and harass her when they can but things begin to change with the appearance of PsyLED and Nell being brought in to be one of them. But things are getting dangerous…the churchmen attacking Nell, girls in the town going missing and something dark running loose that just doesn’t belong…
I am a huge fan of Faith Hunter and absolutely love her Jane Yellowrock series so when I learned about this book/series I of course couldn’t wait to get my claws on it. Now, when I first read one of the Jane Yellowrock books it immediately drew me in and had me finding it really hard to put the book down. With Blood of the Earth this book was a bit of a slower start for me but I was very much intrigued by Nell. She’s something different but she’s not a witch which made me want to know more about her, her history, her family and how she would be able to help PsyLED besides her land being a good location to spy on the church grounds near her property.
There are some really cool characters in this book that draw you in and get you to really liking them. They are all very unique and that’s part of what really makes this book awesome. I have to say that this story is really well written because there are quite a few spots of where you’ll really be surprised by what happens. You really wont see it coming…unless you’re just that good. LOL!
All in all I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait for the next book to come out in November. Faith Hunter is a really fantastic writer and knows exactly how to hook you in and dares you to put the book down to do something else. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars and two thumbs way up! I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Faith Hunter or just looking for a unique book to read.
I am a huge fan of Faith Hunter and absolutely love her Jane Yellowrock series so when I learned about this book/series I of course couldn’t wait to get my claws on it. Now, when I first read one of the Jane Yellowrock books it immediately drew me in and had me finding it really hard to put the book down. With Blood of the Earth this book was a bit of a slower start for me but I was very much intrigued by Nell. She’s something different but she’s not a witch which made me want to know more about her, her history, her family and how she would be able to help PsyLED besides her land being a good location to spy on the church grounds near her property.
There are some really cool characters in this book that draw you in and get you to really liking them. They are all very unique and that’s part of what really makes this book awesome. I have to say that this story is really well written because there are quite a few spots of where you’ll really be surprised by what happens. You really wont see it coming…unless you’re just that good. LOL!
All in all I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait for the next book to come out in November. Faith Hunter is a really fantastic writer and knows exactly how to hook you in and dares you to put the book down to do something else. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars and two thumbs way up! I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Faith Hunter or just looking for a unique book to read.
Very interesting! Loved how it ties into the skinwalker series and Nell is wonderful!
Taking an independent stand, the conflicts of family ties versus religious obligation and - at the core - what really drives a character, the emotional struggles and needs to understand and find a way to compromise, play heavily in the first book in a new series (though if you've been following Hunter's Jane Yellowrock series, the protagonist is not unknown). There's the vampire/were-creature/PsyLED plot, but I think more compelling than that is Nell's internal struggle to understand who she is, what she is, and how she can be who she is (and feels she must be), and still keep her family - part of a religious cult/spin-off church - in her life.
While it felt like I should have listened to the original series before this spin off book, it was good. Very rich in character backgrounds and development -although I'm not sure how much was new to this book and how much was covered in the Yellowrock books. Some of the characters felt like they were introduced in this book, but then got very little "screentime" -again, are they from the other series?
That all sounds like complaints, but it really was good and I'll listen to more. I'm really curious about the mythology, and the whole uncomfortable cult/church setting. I wonder how much the author had to research this, and if it was outside her comfort zone.
That all sounds like complaints, but it really was good and I'll listen to more. I'm really curious about the mythology, and the whole uncomfortable cult/church setting. I wonder how much the author had to research this, and if it was outside her comfort zone.
I kind of lost interest in this one once I realized Rick plays a major role. I came to hate him in the Jane Yellowrock series so am less than enthused about reading a book where he features. I think I will wait for more reviews before deciding.
SO I finally read this one and I am glad that I did. While Rick is in it I wouldn't consider him a major player. The story is told from Nell's POV and focussed very heavily on her expanding her horizons, confronting her past (growing up in a cult like church, including a polygamous child marriage) and developing her magic. Nell is a really likable heroine, strong, intelligent (but not educated - she educates herself through visits to the library and the internet) and interesting. I also really liked her magic and connection to the land - it was a little different to the norm and I am very keen to find out more about it. I really like how she stands up for herself and doesn't let people talk down to her just because her upbringing and education were not conventional, especially how she doesn't take any nonsense from Rick. As noted above I am not a fan of Rick's to the point I almost didn't read this one. But he annoyed me much less this time around. Yes he is kind of an ahole but Nell just points this out (or Occam does on Nell's behalf) but that is ok. It fits his personality as the driven PsyLed agent and seeing him with Paka, knowing that he is kind of trapped with her but not necessarily happy about it helped too. And it was interesting to see more of Paka too. Obviously I was predisposed not to like because of the whole Rick/Jane thing but after seeing her in this one and how non human and cat-like she is, and how she helps Nell with her attackers (plus offering to hunt down and kill the men who had killed Nell's dogs because Nell was so sad about them) made me actually like her better. Also like the depth added by giving 2 sides to the church story through Nell's family showing they are not all crazy or evil and that just because it is not our way (or Nell's way) doesn't mean that it is wrong for everyone (when the crazies aren't in charge anyway). I actually love the part with Nell's family when she goes to rescue her sister and there is the revelation that everything was not quite the way Nell thought from her child's perspective. And I really love her brother Sam. Looking forward to the next one and maybe seeing something develop between Nell and Occam.
SO I finally read this one and I am glad that I did. While Rick is in it I wouldn't consider him a major player. The story is told from Nell's POV and focussed very heavily on her expanding her horizons, confronting her past (growing up in a cult like church, including a polygamous child marriage) and developing her magic. Nell is a really likable heroine, strong, intelligent (but not educated - she educates herself through visits to the library and the internet) and interesting. I also really liked her magic and connection to the land - it was a little different to the norm and I am very keen to find out more about it. I really like how she stands up for herself and doesn't let people talk down to her just because her upbringing and education were not conventional, especially how she doesn't take any nonsense from Rick. As noted above I am not a fan of Rick's to the point I almost didn't read this one. But he annoyed me much less this time around. Yes he is kind of an ahole but Nell just points this out (or Occam does on Nell's behalf) but that is ok. It fits his personality as the driven PsyLed agent and seeing him with Paka, knowing that he is kind of trapped with her but not necessarily happy about it helped too. And it was interesting to see more of Paka too. Obviously I was predisposed not to like because of the whole Rick/Jane thing but after seeing her in this one and how non human and cat-like she is, and how she helps Nell with her attackers (plus offering to hunt down and kill the men who had killed Nell's dogs because Nell was so sad about them) made me actually like her better. Also like the depth added by giving 2 sides to the church story through Nell's family showing they are not all crazy or evil and that just because it is not our way (or Nell's way) doesn't mean that it is wrong for everyone (when the crazies aren't in charge anyway). I actually love the part with Nell's family when she goes to rescue her sister and there is the revelation that everything was not quite the way Nell thought from her child's perspective. And I really love her brother Sam. Looking forward to the next one and maybe seeing something develop between Nell and Occam.
Faith Hunter always does a fantastic job of creating a fully fleshed out and interesting world. Interesting world, interesting magic/rules, interesting characters.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The start of this book is a bit slow if you aren't already familiar with Hunter's other works. This seems to be a spin off, and there are a lot of references early on the another series that frequently made me feel like I was an outsider trying to parse through a new group's inside jokes. Once the book broke free of that and became its own thing, however, I found myself really enjoying the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Torture, Sexual harassment
Moderate: Sexual violence
REREAD 2021
I stand by everything I said in my original review, but I also want to add a little something:
I've been rereading the Yellowrock-series as well, and I've been feeling that the later books weren't quite as much for me as the first time I listened to them. I'm not the biggest fan of the ''standard UF heroine'' anymore, and so Jane isn't really holding my attention. But Nell do! And I was so happy to find myself flying through this book!
Can't wait to start the next one! Even if I have to read another Jane book before that
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This book has been hanging out in my Audible library for years now, it seems. Originally, I didn't want to start it before I'd caught up with [b:Skinwalker|5585788|Skinwalker (Jane Yellowrock, #1)|Faith Hunter|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1400516601l/5585788._SY75_.jpg|5757031]/Jane Yellowrock-series, then I considered not starting it before the original series was finished. Then I realized that might be a while, so I just said screw it.
I'm glad I did, for I enjoyed it. I like Nell and her kick-assedness that is not trained the way it is for Jane and most other UF heroines. I like the way she lives and how she prioritizes things. And I like her kind of magic much better than Jane's kind. Those that's been following me a while now know that the books in the Yellowrock-series that gets the highest ratings are those where Molly and her family plays a big role, after all.
My biggest problem with this book, was the Christianity. At least in the beginning, then it evolved into a storyline that was interesting and that I agree with. How we humans read and use the ''holy books'' for our own gain, and how that affects the way people look at it.
All in all, it was a good book, and I'm more than ready to listen on to the series - even if I know it won't be only these four books.
I stand by everything I said in my original review, but I also want to add a little something:
I've been rereading the Yellowrock-series as well, and I've been feeling that the later books weren't quite as much for me as the first time I listened to them. I'm not the biggest fan of the ''standard UF heroine'' anymore, and so Jane isn't really holding my attention. But Nell do! And I was so happy to find myself flying through this book!
Can't wait to start the next one! Even if I have to read another Jane book before that
----------------------------------
This book has been hanging out in my Audible library for years now, it seems. Originally, I didn't want to start it before I'd caught up with [b:Skinwalker|5585788|Skinwalker (Jane Yellowrock, #1)|Faith Hunter|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1400516601l/5585788._SY75_.jpg|5757031]/Jane Yellowrock-series, then I considered not starting it before the original series was finished. Then I realized that might be a while, so I just said screw it.
I'm glad I did, for I enjoyed it. I like Nell and her kick-assedness that is not trained the way it is for Jane and most other UF heroines. I like the way she lives and how she prioritizes things. And I like her kind of magic much better than Jane's kind. Those that's been following me a while now know that the books in the Yellowrock-series that gets the highest ratings are those where Molly and her family plays a big role, after all.
My biggest problem with this book, was the Christianity. At least in the beginning, then it evolved into a storyline that was interesting and that I agree with. How we humans read and use the ''holy books'' for our own gain, and how that affects the way people look at it.
All in all, it was a good book, and I'm more than ready to listen on to the series - even if I know it won't be only these four books.