Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Rating: 3.5/5
-------
More reviews like this one can be found on my blog, CoffeeCocktailsandBooks
-------
The Deck of Omens - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Review:
Okay, so I have some super mixed feelings about this book.
While most of my reviews are based on my subjective enjoyment of books, for this one I wanted to consider my objective thoughts. I wanted to consider books I enjoyed when I was a teenager and things I found surprising back in the day.
—>plot
This book takes place shortly after the events of the first book and was incredibly character-driven. This book felt like it dragged at an extremely slow pace as we had 4 large character plots to sort out. While I enjoyed we got as much time we got with the characters, I wish that the pacing of the book moved a bit faster as I did get a bit bored while reading a couple of times.
I did enjoy that we got a bit more from May's perspective as her power is probably my favorite. I also felt like her motives were the most realistic out of everyones. She struggles a lot with wanting to feel loved and accepted by her family and is trying to find her place amongst the town's founders. While I don't agree with every action she made, her decisions felt realistic for her circumstance and for her age.
Harper's story was so heartbreaking to follow. At the end of the first book, the church members were given the opportunity to have their memories wiped instead of going to jail and Harper's dad agrees to do this. Because of that, Harper has to deal with learning to control her powers and processing the attempt on her life by her father without having any of her family members to help her.
By this point in the book, Harper and Isaac are competing for who's been through the most shit and this new development pushed Harper to the top (at least for now).
Isaac's story was the one I was the most interested in following. In the first book, he's shrouded with a lot of mystery and I enjoyed that we got some of those mysteries solved during this book. While some of the mysteries that we got revealed in this book felt a bit convoluted, the ones about Isaac's family actually worked really well and were pretty heartbreaking.
Violet and her mom had a really sweet arc in this book. After the events of book one, they need to rebuild their entire relationship. Watching that throughout this book, improving their communication, rebuilding their trust, and redefining their dynamic was really great to see. There's also a coming-out scene with Violet and Juniper that was so sweet to read about and was so important to see in a book targeted towards teens.
I adored the conversation the two had about sexuality and the difficulty of coming out - even in a safe and accepting setting. As a bisexual person myself, I really resonated with some of the stuff Violet said about the difficulty of repeatedly coming out to different people.
—>spoiler corner
I try to keep these reviews as spoiler-free as possible, but I need to talk about a few bits of the ending as it's where a lot of my conflicted feelings lie.
I like that this book/series did the thing where the villain we met in the first book turned out not to actually be the villain. That's slowly becoming one of my favorite tropes and one of my favorite books of the year ended up doing it. When I figured out this book was doing the same thing, I actually got pretty excited as it was starting to feel like a YA version of the book I read earlier.
Sadly, the reveal as to what was actually going on really flopped for me. It led to some things not really making sense and felt a bit convoluted. Also, I felt like it took the tone of the book from dripping with creepy atmosphere and made it feel a bit...meh.
Also, the reveal in Deck of Omens made the events of Devouring Gray feel like they shouldn't have happened the way they did, leading me to question the logic of this world a bit.
In the end, as things are starting to wrap up we had a bit of the romance that have been underlying threads during the book start to make it to the forefront. At first, I didn't love how neatly everyone was pairing up, as I just don't like endings that are too happy after really dark stuff. In the end, I did enjoy how everything resolved and why the characters made the decisions they did.
Final Thoughts:
Overall this was a solid follow-up to The Devouring Gray. We got some interesting developments with the overall mystery behind the town of Four Paths and a lot of time with the characters. Unfortunately, I really didn't enjoy the twist in this book as I felt that it made me question plot points and logic from the first book a bit too much, resulting in me checking out of the story. I feel like as a teenager I probably wouldn't have seen this trope done and would have really enjoyed it, but as a more seasoned reader, I was ultimately let down.
I did enjoy how bisexuality was handled and really enjoyed an on-page coming out scene, as well as all of the queer characters being openly welcomed by their friends and family. I feel like this is so important to have in books for teens and love that we're getting it more.
-------
More reviews like this one can be found on my blog, CoffeeCocktailsandBooks
-------
TW/CW: grief, talk of removing a loved one from life support, airborne illness, talk of quarantine/evacuating/wearing a face covering, death of a loved one, underage drinking and talk of intoxication, domestic abuse (in past, not described on page), murder, rituals
The Deck of Omens - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Review:
Okay, so I have some super mixed feelings about this book.
While most of my reviews are based on my subjective enjoyment of books, for this one I wanted to consider my objective thoughts. I wanted to consider books I enjoyed when I was a teenager and things I found surprising back in the day.
—>plot
This book takes place shortly after the events of the first book and was incredibly character-driven. This book felt like it dragged at an extremely slow pace as we had 4 large character plots to sort out. While I enjoyed we got as much time we got with the characters, I wish that the pacing of the book moved a bit faster as I did get a bit bored while reading a couple of times.
I did enjoy that we got a bit more from May's perspective as her power is probably my favorite. I also felt like her motives were the most realistic out of everyones. She struggles a lot with wanting to feel loved and accepted by her family and is trying to find her place amongst the town's founders. While I don't agree with every action she made, her decisions felt realistic for her circumstance and for her age.
Harper's story was so heartbreaking to follow. At the end of the first book, the church members were given the opportunity to have their memories wiped instead of going to jail and Harper's dad agrees to do this. Because of that, Harper has to deal with learning to control her powers and processing the attempt on her life by her father without having any of her family members to help her.
By this point in the book, Harper and Isaac are competing for who's been through the most shit and this new development pushed Harper to the top (at least for now).
Isaac's story was the one I was the most interested in following. In the first book, he's shrouded with a lot of mystery and I enjoyed that we got some of those mysteries solved during this book. While some of the mysteries that we got revealed in this book felt a bit convoluted, the ones about Isaac's family actually worked really well and were pretty heartbreaking.
Violet and her mom had a really sweet arc in this book. After the events of book one, they need to rebuild their entire relationship. Watching that throughout this book, improving their communication, rebuilding their trust, and redefining their dynamic was really great to see. There's also a coming-out scene with Violet and Juniper that was so sweet to read about and was so important to see in a book targeted towards teens.
I adored the conversation the two had about sexuality and the difficulty of coming out - even in a safe and accepting setting. As a bisexual person myself, I really resonated with some of the stuff Violet said about the difficulty of repeatedly coming out to different people.
—>spoiler corner
I try to keep these reviews as spoiler-free as possible, but I need to talk about a few bits of the ending as it's where a lot of my conflicted feelings lie.
I like that this book/series did the thing where the villain we met in the first book turned out not to actually be the villain. That's slowly becoming one of my favorite tropes and one of my favorite books of the year ended up doing it. When I figured out this book was doing the same thing, I actually got pretty excited as it was starting to feel like a YA version of the book I read earlier.
Sadly, the reveal as to what was actually going on really flopped for me. It led to some things not really making sense and felt a bit convoluted. Also, I felt like it took the tone of the book from dripping with creepy atmosphere and made it feel a bit...meh.
Also, the reveal in Deck of Omens made the events of Devouring Gray feel like they shouldn't have happened the way they did, leading me to question the logic of this world a bit.
In the end, as things are starting to wrap up we had a bit of the romance that have been underlying threads during the book start to make it to the forefront. At first, I didn't love how neatly everyone was pairing up, as I just don't like endings that are too happy after really dark stuff. In the end, I did enjoy how everything resolved and why the characters made the decisions they did.
Final Thoughts:
Overall this was a solid follow-up to The Devouring Gray. We got some interesting developments with the overall mystery behind the town of Four Paths and a lot of time with the characters. Unfortunately, I really didn't enjoy the twist in this book as I felt that it made me question plot points and logic from the first book a bit too much, resulting in me checking out of the story. I feel like as a teenager I probably wouldn't have seen this trope done and would have really enjoyed it, but as a more seasoned reader, I was ultimately let down.
I did enjoy how bisexuality was handled and really enjoyed an on-page coming out scene, as well as all of the queer characters being openly welcomed by their friends and family. I feel like this is so important to have in books for teens and love that we're getting it more.
I LOVE ISAAC SULLIVAN AND VIOLET SAUNDERS!!!
I went into this still struggling with the lingering effects of a reading slump, so the first 100 pages were quite an effort for me. I felt The Deck of Omens took a little while to develop, but once I was securely halfway, I streamed through this book. And I'm so glad about that, because I loved The Devouring Gray, and if I hadn't enjoyed the sequel, I would have been devastated.
Once again, Christine Lynn Herman displays her talent at writing ensemble casts and making each character distinct with motivations, desires and opinions that differ for each. I think perhaps in this book there was a bit more telling what characters thought and felt and wanted rather than showing, but I can't recall whether that was also present in the first book or not. Nevertheless, we get to see a lot more of Isaac Sullivan and May Hawthorne this time around, and I especially loved the development of romance between Isaac and Violet. I love them, they're so cute.
I did feel this book verged slightly more into horror that the previous book did. (I know Rory Power was involved somewhat as she's in the acknowledgements, and there were definitely descriptions of nature horror that felt like they were from Rory's book Wilder Girls.) I wasn't overly grossed out, but I still squirmed at the thought of roots worming under skin and weird hand-shaped flowers and people trapped in trees. The conflict in this plot primarily centres around a corruption of the woods which leads to a sickness, and considering how The Deck of Omens is currently being released during a worldwide pandemic, this may or may not affect whether some readers want to read it right now versus later when everything is back to normal.
The conclusion of the duology's narrative was satisfying and felt appropriate. I really respected the resolution of Harper's character arc especially, as it did feel realistic and suited her character - looking forward to the future and not letting things hold her back, no matter how much she loves them.I still hope in the future they'll be reunited. The epilogue also gave me Feels with a capital F; I loved the mythical vibes it has.
Also I'm just here shipping Augusta and Juniper lmao, gay moms let's go!!
With a complete duology now under her belt, I'm extremely excited to see what Christine Lynn Herman has up next (I've been following her tweets about her upcoming project The Drowning Summer and I am exciteeeed.) She's definitely one of my favourite debut authors from the last few years, and I can't wait to support her in the future.
> 4 stars
a slightly edited version of this review will be up on my blog beyondabookshelf.co.uk for my stop on the deck of omens blog tour on may 7th!
thank you Titan Books for the review copy <3
I went into this still struggling with the lingering effects of a reading slump, so the first 100 pages were quite an effort for me. I felt The Deck of Omens took a little while to develop, but once I was securely halfway, I streamed through this book. And I'm so glad about that, because I loved The Devouring Gray, and if I hadn't enjoyed the sequel, I would have been devastated.
Once again, Christine Lynn Herman displays her talent at writing ensemble casts and making each character distinct with motivations, desires and opinions that differ for each. I think perhaps in this book there was a bit more telling what characters thought and felt and wanted rather than showing, but I can't recall whether that was also present in the first book or not. Nevertheless, we get to see a lot more of Isaac Sullivan and May Hawthorne this time around, and I especially loved the development of romance between Isaac and Violet. I love them, they're so cute.
I did feel this book verged slightly more into horror that the previous book did. (I know Rory Power was involved somewhat as she's in the acknowledgements, and there were definitely descriptions of nature horror that felt like they were from Rory's book Wilder Girls.) I wasn't overly grossed out, but I still squirmed at the thought of roots worming under skin and weird hand-shaped flowers and people trapped in trees. The conflict in this plot primarily centres around a corruption of the woods which leads to a sickness, and considering how The Deck of Omens is currently being released during a worldwide pandemic, this may or may not affect whether some readers want to read it right now versus later when everything is back to normal.
The conclusion of the duology's narrative was satisfying and felt appropriate. I really respected the resolution of Harper's character arc especially, as it did feel realistic and suited her character - looking forward to the future and not letting things hold her back, no matter how much she loves them.
Also I'm just here shipping Augusta and Juniper lmao, gay moms let's go!!
With a complete duology now under her belt, I'm extremely excited to see what Christine Lynn Herman has up next (I've been following her tweets about her upcoming project The Drowning Summer and I am exciteeeed.) She's definitely one of my favourite debut authors from the last few years, and I can't wait to support her in the future.
> 4 stars
a slightly edited version of this review will be up on my blog beyondabookshelf.co.uk for my stop on the deck of omens blog tour on may 7th!
thank you Titan Books for the review copy <3
*4.5 Stars*
We're back in Four Paths with our little gang of founders. And things are not all rainbows and unicorns. (well, yes, rainbows but not like that)
Anyway, more trouble is coming and they pretty much only have each other but even that is not a given.
I'm rambling. This was good. I laughed, cried and got super scared.
A great duology, can't wait to read more books By Christine Lynn Herman.
We're back in Four Paths with our little gang of founders. And things are not all rainbows and unicorns. (well, yes, rainbows but not like that)
Anyway, more trouble is coming and they pretty much only have each other but even that is not a given.
I'm rambling. This was good. I laughed, cried and got super scared.
A great duology, can't wait to read more books By Christine Lynn Herman.
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
The Deck of Omens is a book that manages to balance this feeling of a close knit community, and what happens when you break the party line, with a sense of impending danger. In this sequel, we were able to witness both character growth and exploration with this action packed plot of secrets. It asks the characters, and us as readers, what we will sacrifice for our goals. Full of queer characters, The Deck of Omens features some fantastic conversations about forgiveness and truth.
Power dynamics can almost establish a community of silence, where obedience is prized above all us - truth and openness. There's competition between families, lines between those with powers and those without, and a whole town built around the Beast and the Gray. I enjoyed that The Deck of Omens balances these characters who have to realize their own self-worth and limitations, while also grappling with trying to save Four Paths. It all intersects when we are asked what responsibility we have to the town, to our family, and to ourselves.
full review: https://utopia-state-of-mind.com/blog-tour-review-the-deck-of-omens-by-christine-lynn-herman/
The Deck of Omens is a book that manages to balance this feeling of a close knit community, and what happens when you break the party line, with a sense of impending danger. In this sequel, we were able to witness both character growth and exploration with this action packed plot of secrets. It asks the characters, and us as readers, what we will sacrifice for our goals. Full of queer characters, The Deck of Omens features some fantastic conversations about forgiveness and truth.
Power dynamics can almost establish a community of silence, where obedience is prized above all us - truth and openness. There's competition between families, lines between those with powers and those without, and a whole town built around the Beast and the Gray. I enjoyed that The Deck of Omens balances these characters who have to realize their own self-worth and limitations, while also grappling with trying to save Four Paths. It all intersects when we are asked what responsibility we have to the town, to our family, and to ourselves.
full review: https://utopia-state-of-mind.com/blog-tour-review-the-deck-of-omens-by-christine-lynn-herman/
Really enjoyed the sequel, though it wasn't as strong of a book as the first one (but close!). I appreciated the shift in POV characters to two of the characters we met in the first book, allowing for an expansion of the world while still following characters we'd grown to know and care for. This sequel takes everything you thought you knew from the first book and flips it on its head in clever ways. My one complaint is that it does this so often and so consistently that the novelty begins to wear off, and you start to figure things out more and more quickly as your mind grasps the patterns of revelation. However, it was really fun to stay in this world longer and see the characters fulfill their arcs (and embark on new ones!) in consistent, believable ways. Love these characters, love this bizarre, twisty, atmospheric town. Really, really hoping we get a companion book down the line, as I would love to visit again, but really liking where everything was left. Definitely recommended, particularly for autumn reading. Preferably with tea and cats and the rain running down the window next to you.
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
sigh i thought this book would be better than the first but it's really not. i think the best part of it was the focus on isaac but i still felt like the author didn't dig deep enough into him. also the detachment i felt from justin ? he was barely in here and it didn't feel right at all. there was too much may and harper. i feel like there wasn't an equal balance between characters here and that automatically made the book fall flat asf. honestly, very little character development, parts of the plot were predictable, and the last stretch of the book felt anticlimactic.
though i will say i liked this quote ( it was some of the author's best writing.)
"love had always been painful for him, a weapon held to his throat that his family and friends had used to control him. it was an unanswered question, a constant ache in his chest, the distant echoes of memories he wished he could forget. yet none of that could quash the hope he carried that, one day, he'd be able to care for the people around him and have it feel like victory instead of surrender."
also i'm sorry but the canon romantic relationships are so hard to root for because there is such a lack of chemistry. really should've made the pairings harper/violet and justin/isaac the power those would've held >>>>
though i will say i liked this quote ( it was some of the author's best writing.)
"love had always been painful for him, a weapon held to his throat that his family and friends had used to control him. it was an unanswered question, a constant ache in his chest, the distant echoes of memories he wished he could forget. yet none of that could quash the hope he carried that, one day, he'd be able to care for the people around him and have it feel like victory instead of surrender."
also i'm sorry but the canon romantic relationships are so hard to root for because there is such a lack of chemistry. really should've made the pairings harper/violet and justin/isaac the power those would've held >>>>