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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
First off The Devouring Gray duology is soo sadly underrated. It deserves more attention, gosh darn it (
"You're as strong as you deserve to be."
With characters that wormed their way into my heart, plot twists that shocked me to my core, and writing that was as beautiful as magic itself, The Deck Of Omens is a book worth reading, and a stunning conclusion to the duology.
With characters that wormed their way into my heart, plot twists that shocked me to my core, and writing that was as beautiful as magic itself, The Deck Of Omens is a book worth reading, and a stunning conclusion to the duology.
"You're as strong as you deserve to be."
With characters that wormed their way into my heart, plot twists that shocked me to my core, and writing that was as beautiful as magic itself, The Deck Of Omens is a book worth reading, and a stunning conclusion to the duology.
With characters that wormed their way into my heart, plot twists that shocked me to my core, and writing that was as beautiful as magic itself, The Deck Of Omens is a book worth reading, and a stunning conclusion to the duology.
One thing about good sequels is that they should change the way you look at the first book. You've got new information now, you can look at the characters with more depth, the story takes place in a richer world because of the added depth . . . really a good sequel, as we all know, builds upon the first story and makes us even more invested. Now, anyone who knows me knows I was going to be in love with this sequel pretty much no matter what. But, I'm happy to report that it was a good sequel by most any standards, and far surpassed my expectations.
I can't get too into what I liked without giving spoilers (and I really don't want to do that)( (I want everyone to read this for themselves and go *gasp* at all the moments). However I do want to list everything that I really loved. So, here we go:
- Isaac's character growth. Beautiful and complex. So much love. Bisexual disaster. I will protect this boy forever.
- May's personality. I didn't really? Like May? Before? Her arc in DOO really went a long way to giving us insight into who May is as a person. And I do kind of like her now.
- Harper Carlisle. Everything about Harper's arc made me intensely proud of her. I aspire to her levels of maturity and emotional strength.
- Four Paths as a whole. The worldbuilding. The atmosphere. The creepy, paranormal woods. Ugh. You thought book one was full of this? This book takes it up about ten levels.
- The inevitable resolution. No comment beyond that but I stand firmly behind this decision.
- Christine's writing. There's something I love about her blend of humor, seriousness, and just general style and voice here that all works together to create a duology that will live forever on my shelves (to be re-read numerous times, of course).
It should surprise no one that I'm going to recommend this duology endlessly. Read it, buy it, throw it at your friends, read passages to your neighborhood forest witch, the options are endless. 5/5 stars, please read this book.
I can't get too into what I liked without giving spoilers (and I really don't want to do that)( (I want everyone to read this for themselves and go *gasp* at all the moments). However I do want to list everything that I really loved. So, here we go:
- Isaac's character growth. Beautiful and complex. So much love. Bisexual disaster. I will protect this boy forever.
- May's personality. I didn't really? Like May? Before? Her arc in DOO really went a long way to giving us insight into who May is as a person. And I do kind of like her now.
- Harper Carlisle. Everything about Harper's arc made me intensely proud of her. I aspire to her levels of maturity and emotional strength.
- Four Paths as a whole. The worldbuilding. The atmosphere. The creepy, paranormal woods. Ugh. You thought book one was full of this? This book takes it up about ten levels.
- The inevitable resolution. No comment beyond that but I stand firmly behind this decision.
- Christine's writing. There's something I love about her blend of humor, seriousness, and just general style and voice here that all works together to create a duology that will live forever on my shelves (to be re-read numerous times, of course).
It should surprise no one that I'm going to recommend this duology endlessly. Read it, buy it, throw it at your friends, read passages to your neighborhood forest witch, the options are endless. 5/5 stars, please read this book.
I really wound up loving this read. It was a great ending to this series. I really loved how this book had so many lead characters but they also all had time to shine. I really liked that the roamance element of this book was developed a little bit more. I also really liked the world building and the the mystery developd. It was super engaging read and def gave me massive strange thing vibes. I really enjoyed how this series ended!
This one was MUCH better than the first book! It still had some problems, but this was more of the spooky Stranger Things vibe I wanted from the first book.
Spoiler
I loved the message that you don't have to forgive your abusers.
The Deck of Omens is the second part of the story and we return to a town where the Gray is causing a problem. The teens caught up in this are needed to end things once the corruption grows in strength, and yet only May seems to recognise the seriousness of this.
The first part of the book focuses on bringing us up to speed with each of the children of the founding families. We see their current fixations and concerns. Alongside this we have the shifting attitudes of the townspeople to the founding families and a lot of description of the forest fighting back.
Unfortunately, nothing really seems to happen. I couldn’t really click with the characters and their predicament this time round in the way I think I ought to have. Of course I recognised the growing tension, but they all played a part in bringing this to its current state and none were willing to take responsibility.
The latter chapters picked up a little, though by this point - for me at least - it was too late.
The first part of the book focuses on bringing us up to speed with each of the children of the founding families. We see their current fixations and concerns. Alongside this we have the shifting attitudes of the townspeople to the founding families and a lot of description of the forest fighting back.
Unfortunately, nothing really seems to happen. I couldn’t really click with the characters and their predicament this time round in the way I think I ought to have. Of course I recognised the growing tension, but they all played a part in bringing this to its current state and none were willing to take responsibility.
The latter chapters picked up a little, though by this point - for me at least - it was too late.
While this is going on my 2020 favorites list/shelf, I found that this one didn't keep my interest as much as the first. This one was good; I would die for Harper Carlisle or Isaac Sullivan, but I just felt Herman didn't explain what was happening well enough. Nonetheless, this duology is still one of my all-time favorites.
