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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
"Come touch, but you'll pay a price"
This book was unlike any I’ve read in a long time. Now, I’m not normally a fan of post-apocalyptic stories- I find the fall of society & the rise of archaic rules frustrating.
My main issues with these types of stories is brought up by Evie:
“I have a difficult time believing that everything good has fallen by the wayside so quickly.” Decency, morality. “It’s only been seven months. People wouldn’t have resorted to cannibalism already.”
It’s not just cannibalism, but the utter collapse of human rights. The strong- the militias and cannibals- are top & what they say, goes. They do what they want, and in a world where nearly every female has been destroyed in the Flash (the apocalypse), you can just imagine what they would do to a young girl if captured.
There were times when I couldn’t decide if I was insanely frustrated with the story or if I really liked it. I liked how the story used the tarot cards as a plot device- it was so unique! and reading about Evie's growing powers as The Empress was fun.
Evie was a refreshing heroine. She, the Queen of Plants & Princess of Poison, was in no way weak, but neither was she offensive- attacking first/asking questions later. She beckoned and waited- only retaliating when others seek to do her harm. And she retaliates in a BIG way.
"The Empress doesn't get collared, or caged, or tortured. How artfully she beckons, how perfectly she punishes..."
Now Jackson. So many thoughts, not enough time! He’s the hottie from the wrong-side-of-the-Bayou who is sweet on Evie and vows to protect her in her journey North to find her grandmother- who may know more about Tarot and Evie’s own destiny. He often made me swoon throughout the book- his determination to keep Evie safe, his feeling of failure in the face of Evie’s tears & his attempt to distract her, his intelligence, the way he made Evie promise to never give up hope- to know that he will always be there for her. There were a couple moments in the book where I wanted to give him a good shake.
Spoiler
And I felt Evie’s pain, her heart break, when Jack finally sees her. The Empress. The Red Witch. And crosses himself against her- the first rain since the Flash falling between them.Final Thoughts:
Amazing. Creative. Original. Addictive. Interesting to see where the story goes from here.
This review is most likely going to be completely incoherent, and I apologize in advance. As I write this, I am extremely sick with the worst flu I’ve had since fifth grade, when I had swine flu with a temperature of 104 and missed our class trip. But I have just finished this novel and it has me feeling a mess of emotions.
I really, really enjoyed it, but at the same time there were a few things that didn’t work for me. Somehow, this didn’t take away from overall enjoyment, or the fact that this book has possibly the most original concept I have come across in quite some time. Tarot Cards. It has everything to do with Tarot Cards, and I have never encountered a book with a premise like this.
If you’re expecting anything other than ranting from this review, you are about to be severely disappointed because all I want to do is rant about this glorious concept. TAROT CARDS. HOW HAS NO ONE DONE THIS BEFORE? Or, I mean, maybe someone has, but I haven’t come across it. WHY HAVEN’T I COME ACROSS IT?
While I–clearly–very much enjoyed the premise and overall plot–AN ANCIENT TAROT CARD BATTLE WHAT–I was not completely sold on the characters. I do love the world. I’m not sure what exactly I find so attractive about post-apocalyptic worlds. They’re always horrible, because utopias always end up becoming dystopias. There are a million examples: The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Giver… That being said, I probably enjoy books that take place after alien invasions or–in the case of Poison Princess–solar flares that burn the Earth and kill nearly everyone more than books in which a government, no matter how corrupt or ineffective, is still in power. For some reason, I really like watching a group of characters making their way across a planet lacking its usual population, facing danger at every turn, like in The 5th Wave or Angelfall. I loved following Jackson and Evie as they fought off or avoided militiamen and slavers and Bagmen and cannibals… Perhaps that says something about me, but I’m ignoring it for the moment.
Now returning to the characters, which, as I said earlier, did not completely captivate me. I am a person who generally cannot survive a book if it has sucky characters. These characters were by no means sucky, I just didn’t connect with them on the level I usually like to. Our narrator, Evie, was not compelling to me at all. She is everything that I am not–which made it very difficult to relate to her, but that’s more of a personal issue rather than a technical one–and she frustrated me at times. I did like the way Kresley Cole wrote her voice though, and she’s snarky at times which is always pleasing to me. As we’ve established, if a character is sassy, it makes them 100% redeemable in my eyes.
I had mixed feelings about the love-interest, Jackson. Sometimes I liked him. Sometimes he bothered me. He’s very old-fashioned about women, meaning that he continually talks about Evie belonging to him, as if she were an object–which Evie points out–in the first part of the book. He doesn’t treat her like an equal. And while it makes me smile when boys call their heroines “my girl” in most other books, Jack’s possessiveness of Evie made me want to stab him 90% of the time. Hopefully, this will all change in the next book–which I am planning to read. Jack can definitely be taught, and if he manages to figure out that women are equal to men, I could potentially like him quite a bit more than I do at the moment. At this point, his one redeeming quality is the fact that he either calls Evie "Evangeline" or a nickname in French. Despite myself, that’s the one thing about him that makes me smile.
There are a few other significant characters that Evie and Jack meet later in the book that I’m not going to discuss because spoilers. Don’t worry, you’ll know them when you see them. I’m sure they’ll be in the next book–which I will be reading mostly because of that evil cliff-hanger–and so I’ll talk about them then.
If you’re considering picking up this book, I’d say go for it. Although it’s not my favorite, the premise makes everything worth it. I’m excited to see where Kresley Cole takes this next. The ending has opened up a lot of possibilities plot-wise, which is exciting. Hopefully, Evie can teach Jackson some manners. I’m waiting for the day she outdoes him at something. Please…?