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josiah17's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
"Vengeance is mine, sayeth Our Lady, and I am Her priest."
Great sequel to Priest of Bones in almost every way, even though it's more of the same. The plot maintains a sense of the same repetition from the first book with Tomas Piety managing his gang. Almost slice of life kinda stuff, but simply very bleak and violent. However there's a good chunk that explores a different city and delivers some fantastic political intrigue. Lots of different variables introduced in this book throughout and the plot clearly begins to head in a grander direction.
I also felt the side characters were better written here. Particularly the primary side characters in Bloody Anne, Ailsa, Luka, and Billy. Especially Ailsa who Tomas spends majority of his time with. She's really a fascinating and incredibly intelligent individual. Billy is also simply fascinating with his gift of the cunning. And I must express how much I love Tomas Piety's narrative voice. I said it in my review of Priesr of Bones: he has such a distinct tone and execution of his perspective on the world. It feels so well-realized by McLean. He's a fantastic, and harrowing, main character.
I think really the writing as a whole was slightly improved. McLean has a way with describing the ambience of an environment and conniving motivations, partially due to how well he's set up the grim reality of this world. Although the prose remains a little repetitive in some cases with certain phrases and whatnot.
Ultimately a very enjoyable read. The scheming in this series is simply entertaining to read. Could bump this to a 4.5 in time. Really looking forward to seeing how the last two books play out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Gore
Minor: Body horror
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