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jjamiejjamie's review
2.0
3.5 stars. For me it dragged a bit at the beginning, but then it picked up once the mysterious big bad appeared. Everyone including the protagonist is obnoxiously flawed, but with clear characterization. Except Sam. He's a perfect baby angel and I will defend him to the last.
skylar2's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
lauralauralaura's review against another edition
3.0
I summed up my response to this series in my review of the first book, Wake of Vultures.
delaneybull's review against another edition
3.0
It felt like a really big setup for a multi-book villain, so because of the big setup the ending was a bit rushed and not as meaningful as it might have been. On the plus side, we got our happy ending.
authorofthings's review against another edition
I have been slowly losing interest in this series as the books have progressed. I mainly just tried to read this one to find out if Sam actually died. I started the series because I was interested in the concept of a monster-killing trans cowboy, but Rhett is just... utterly unlikeable. I find him increasingly frustrating. It feels like he has been given so many opportunities for character growth and while some has happened, he persists in being a hateful, angry kid who completely refuses to listen to anyone about anything and thinks everyone should revolve their lives around him. It just got old. I expected some improvement in his attitude by now.
_maia's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
~Review for the Last 2-3 Books~
I really really liked this series all the way through. Quite happy to say that, because it's very rare that I'll find a book that contains my favorite things, and does them to my taste - even rarer for both those things to happen in a historical fiction. I didn't love it quite as much as the first two, but I think that's a me thing. Will happily read again next year at the beach, very glad to have found these in Library binding hardcover for like $6 each :D
Things I Liked:
- A Brown transman MC written well! In a YA, at that!!! I find that YA characters' decisions sometimes get annoyingly illogical (to me, age 32 lol) just because the author wants them to read as immature. But I thought Rhett was a pitch-perfect young man trying to make good choices. In this book especially he's grown into himself and become more self-assured which is nice to read.
- the author pulled off the cowboy voice extremely well. I enjoyed the prose of this book quite a bit.
- All the secondary and tertiary characters are fun too, and queer af. There's only one good white man (more on him later), and he's gay and a vampire atp (of course he is). Winifred is bi, Dan is ace (which was funny to me because, whenever a character doesn't get a love interest in a book I make them asexual in my head just for kicks, but this time he said it himself!)
Things I Didn't Like:
- I will say that I personally was over-conscious of the author. Something about the descriptions of Digby and sometimes MeiMei were off (for me) and the way Revenge and Finder talk throughout the whole thing...idk again just me, i would have appreciated seeing them use an indefinite article or two after spending (months?) with Rhett's folk.Especially if they're going to go out like that! Being over-conscious of who wrote it made me not trust the bits below, even though they seemed intentional.
- They do an awful lot of deadnaming Rhett and talking about how he hated himself and underestimated women in this book, even his mom, to the point where I was like...why are we doing this. Especially once Pap and Mam showed up. But the point of the plot was Rhett confronting his past and facing his future, so...OK? It just seemed clumsy and made me sad, especially in a bit where all the characters were laughing. It seemed like it was supposed to be dark humor, but didn't land right for me.
- Sam. The book managed to do all the things I like, and one thing I cannot bloody stand - a cis blond man love interest. He ticks every horrible cis blond man love interest trope: is inordinately perfect at everything, looks/behaves like "an angel", prose reiterates his blond-haired-and-blue-eyed-ness repeatedly, gives Rhett SEVERAL talkings-to about self hatred and how he's not lesser just because he's trans or Black etc (which would have sounded better coming from Dan or Winifred, as it did in the first two books. Or the *sorely* underutilized Digby. To ME). Rhett is also gaga for him, which is nice because their relationship is gay as hell, but also annoying because Goddammit Rhett please stop freaking out about Sam.
BUT. For all that, he manages to be likable enough, so I'm actually glad he's alive lol (not in place of Finder though, I don't see why she and/or Revenge couldn't have lived if someone close to Rhett had to die).
I appreciate that Sam is an archetype of everything society calls perfect / everything Rhett is not (except the gay part) and Rhett has self-hatred to work through. I think it's pretty well done. Personally though, I wish to see tropes like this subverted rather than repeated. It might've been nice if Rhett and Sam had worked out that self-love stuff together. I thought it was kinda going that way when Sam talked about the homophobia he experienced - he could have learned new things about what being a man meant to him alongside Rhett, or about women or different cultures. Instead he's just Mr. Perfect, (but a good one).
The Leigh Bardugo Meter of Blond Love Interests: 3.5/5.
- The Chupacabras. One more trope I don't fancy in a book - especially if it's a book about found family and queerness and how many things called monstrous are not really? Entirely evil species. The plot spends a good chunk of time on Lizzie the Lobo, (who is European but indigenous, and I think she's blond too but that's mentioned rarely thank god). She is set up as One of the Good Ones unfortunately, but at least that opens the world-building door for other good werewolves. In a historical fiction? I'll take it.
But then we have the Chupacabras. A Bingo card of evil species tropes: "Ugly." Animalistic, (and the animal side is an unloved species: reptilian). Exist in gangs, doing (bad) crimes. Have an "unusually smart" leader, who is disfigured/somehow altered from all the others of their species. People, turned into this species, lose all knowledge of themselves. This one pisses me off because the plot spends so much time on vampires and werewolves, only to be like, "but *these* (coincidentally ethnic) monsters are all bad though." Again, I would take just one non-mindlessly-evil chupacabra. Just one. Like for instance - I was CONVINCED that Finder, once turned into a chupacabra, would retain her love of Rhett & Revenge and AT THE VERY LEAST go out in a hail of silver bullets as she attempted to eat Monty's face off. But no. Just Turned, and then very quickly killed. Very disappointing moment for me.
The Naomi Novik Meter of Why is This Here, and You Were Doing So Well Too: 4/5
I really really liked this series all the way through. Quite happy to say that, because it's very rare that I'll find a book that contains my favorite things, and does them to my taste - even rarer for both those things to happen in a historical fiction. I didn't love it quite as much as the first two, but I think that's a me thing. Will happily read again next year at the beach, very glad to have found these in Library binding hardcover for like $6 each :D
Things I Liked:
- A Brown transman MC written well! In a YA, at that!!! I find that YA characters' decisions sometimes get annoyingly illogical (to me, age 32 lol) just because the author wants them to read as immature. But I thought Rhett was a pitch-perfect young man trying to make good choices. In this book especially he's grown into himself and become more self-assured which is nice to read.
- the author pulled off the cowboy voice extremely well. I enjoyed the prose of this book quite a bit.
- All the secondary and tertiary characters are fun too, and queer af. There's only one good white man (more on him later), and he's gay and a vampire atp (of course he is). Winifred is bi, Dan is ace (which was funny to me because, whenever a character doesn't get a love interest in a book I make them asexual in my head just for kicks, but this time he said it himself!)
Things I Didn't Like:
- I will say that I personally was over-conscious of the author. Something about the descriptions of Digby and sometimes MeiMei were off (for me) and the way Revenge and Finder talk throughout the whole thing...idk again just me, i would have appreciated seeing them use an indefinite article or two after spending (months?) with Rhett's folk.
- They do an awful lot of deadnaming Rhett and talking about how he hated himself and underestimated women in this book, even his mom, to the point where I was like...why are we doing this.
- Sam. The book managed to do all the things I like, and one thing I cannot bloody stand - a cis blond man love interest. He ticks every horrible cis blond man love interest trope: is inordinately perfect at everything, looks/behaves like "an angel", prose reiterates his blond-haired-and-blue-eyed-ness repeatedly, gives Rhett SEVERAL talkings-to about self hatred and how he's not lesser just because he's trans or Black etc (which would have sounded better coming from Dan or Winifred, as it did in the first two books. Or the *sorely* underutilized Digby. To ME). Rhett is also gaga for him, which is nice because their relationship is gay as hell, but also annoying because Goddammit Rhett please stop freaking out about Sam.
BUT. For all that, he manages to be likable enough, so I'm actually glad he's alive lol
I appreciate that Sam is an archetype of everything society calls perfect / everything Rhett is not (except the gay part) and Rhett has self-hatred to work through. I think it's pretty well done. Personally though, I wish to see tropes like this subverted rather than repeated. It might've been nice if Rhett and Sam had worked out that self-love stuff together. I thought it was kinda going that way when Sam talked about the homophobia he experienced - he could have learned new things about what being a man meant to him alongside Rhett, or about women or different cultures. Instead he's just Mr. Perfect, (but a good one).
The Leigh Bardugo Meter of Blond Love Interests: 3.5/5.
- The Chupacabras. One more trope I don't fancy in a book - especially if it's a book about found family and queerness and how many things called monstrous are not really? Entirely evil species. The plot spends a good chunk of time on Lizzie the Lobo, (who is European but indigenous, and I think she's blond too but that's mentioned rarely thank god). She is set up as One of the Good Ones unfortunately, but at least that opens the world-building door for other good werewolves. In a historical fiction? I'll take it.
But then we have the Chupacabras. A Bingo card of evil species tropes: "Ugly." Animalistic, (and the animal side is an unloved species: reptilian). Exist in gangs, doing (bad) crimes. Have an "unusually smart" leader, who is disfigured/somehow altered from all the others of their species. People, turned into this species, lose all knowledge of themselves. This one pisses me off because the plot spends so much time on vampires and werewolves, only to be like, "but *these* (coincidentally ethnic) monsters are all bad though." Again, I would take just one non-mindlessly-evil chupacabra. Just one. Like for instance - I was CONVINCED that
The Naomi Novik Meter of Why is This Here, and You Were Doing So Well Too: 4/5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, and Deadnaming
Moderate: Child death and Gore
damarisr's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
middlekmissie's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
inspiring
medium-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? It's complicated
5.0
What a delightful and satisfying ending to the series.
angrywombat's review
2.0
Hmm, the worst of the series but a long shot... but still enjoyable.
Basic plot - Rhett has killed the bad guy, and Sam (the love of his life) is dying so Rhett does the only thing he knows of to keep Sam alive - let him be turned by a vampire....
Then we follow along as Rhett tries to get his posse to a safe place. But he's hampered by a mysterious menacing figure - the King of the Chupacabras.
This might have been interesting - and the character of Rhett was still enjoyable to follow along, but the plot/big bad/reappearing characters came out of the blue... "come to help Rhett because they had a feeling"... This really felt that the author wanted to end up the series and the way the characters were pushed around by the plot was a tad too obvious.
The reveal of who the big bad was felt a tad ludicrous, and honestly un-earned. It felt silly rather than tense. Honestly I liked Trevesian (the warlock guy from the last 2 books) much better as he was a truly menacing characters.
Basic plot - Rhett has killed the bad guy, and Sam (the love of his life) is dying so Rhett does the only thing he knows of to keep Sam alive - let him be turned by a vampire....
Then we follow along as Rhett tries to get his posse to a safe place. But he's hampered by a mysterious menacing figure - the King of the Chupacabras.
This might have been interesting - and the character of Rhett was still enjoyable to follow along, but the plot/big bad/reappearing characters came out of the blue... "come to help Rhett because they had a feeling"... This really felt that the author wanted to end up the series and the way the characters were pushed around by the plot was a tad too obvious.
The reveal of who the big bad was felt a tad ludicrous, and honestly un-earned. It felt silly rather than tense. Honestly I liked Trevesian (the warlock guy from the last 2 books) much better as he was a truly menacing characters.
jessyp3's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0