Reviews with content warning for Death - Trailer Park Trickster

I think it's a solid middle book, but it stumbles through many of the pitfalls that many second books in a trilogy do. Everything in this book as set up to get us to book 3, and I think some of the weaknesses in the writing that were present in book 1 came to focus a little more because of it. I still liked reading about Adam and Vic and their journey to getting together (though my dumb ass missed that months had passed between the second to last chapter of the first book and the start of this one), dealing with the death of someone in the family you thought you knew really well, and the magic. I guess I just do not care about the politics of elves and whatnot and I really just felt like it dragged in spots. I still finished it and it got me interested enough to get to book 3, but I did feel like it stumbled a bit.

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kal517's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.0

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tifftastic87's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

Just as fun and creative as the first.

Adam Binder is a young man with a gift, one that often feels like a curse. Now a full warlock, though not as powerful as the one he is still tracking, Adam is a called home to Oklahoma by his aunt's cat. Something is wrong and he's on his way, without even calling his boyfriend, or his job.

Again in this book we get a journey, but the journey this time is told through the perspective of Vic as he journeys from Denver to Guthrie with Argent the Elf. Vic is coming to terms with being a reaper and learning about Adam and the spirit world. While he grapples with this, Adam grapples with his family history and his new relationship with his mom and brother, who have both followed him to Guthrie. Can he have a new life in Denver and who is the warlock and how is he related to Adam, and further, what is wrong with his cousin? Midway through the internal conflict becomes external with Vic finding himself witness to a secret plot from the sea elves to overtake the Court of Swords, Adam discovers the warlock is after his cousin, and Vic discovers the secret about Adam's dad that has been hidden from him.

I really liked how Vic became a main character, how his and Adam's relationship was explored and how the family trauma was shown to run deep, back generations. Adam is still deeply scarred from his upbringing, but not enough that he can't start to trust and watching how Vic handles that was very touching. These two characters are so respectful of each other and I appreciate how Vic being bi is handled and presented.

Overall, a wonderful YA hero story with a bit of magic and journey vibes.

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wardenred's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

He had no prayers. He had no gods, and the closest things he’d met to them were jerks.

Well, this was... pretty different from the first book, even though it's a direct continuation of the same story. A lot of the things I enjoyed about White Trash Warlock are still here: the awesome "parallel worlds" setting with its awesome rules, the Tarot-themed elven courts, the magic, the complex politics between all the supernatural beings, and that whole vibe of big powers placing people as pawns on a cosmic chessboard. I very much enjoyed Adam's storyline, the juxtaposition/intersection of the mundane and the magical in the mystery plot that follows his aunt's death, and the way he continued reforging bonds with his estranged family.

What I didn't love was the other part of the story. I liked Vic in the previous book, but once he become a prominent POV character, a lot of the engagement kind of fell away. Somehow, he turned out to be flatter than I expected. I wasn't a fan of "splitting the party" and having Vic wander off a lot into the elven lands without Adam. I think a big part of that was that it was more boring to see those magical landscapes from the POV of a near-complete outsider, someone discovering this stuff for himself for the first time. Through Adam's eyes, all those dangerous wonders had an added mistique because he was already familiar with them and *still* constantly discovering something new. I would've also preferred to see certain big events in Arden's and Silver's storylines through Adam's eyes rather than Vic's, because while Vic does build his own rapport with both of them, it can't beat Adam's dynamic with Arden developed in the first book, or what Adam's history with Silver adds to their present interactions. Adam's relationship with Vic also kind of meandered throughout the book, and not just while they spent those big chunks of time apart, but when they were together in a scene, too.

Honestly, the way the split into two POVs here was a disappointment compared to the POV split in the book one, because here it was mainly just "A is here doing X, B is there doing Y, then X and Y storylines intersect," which is a pretty normal thing to do for sure! Except compared to how Bobby's chapters in the first book turned Adam into an unreliable narrator and vise versa and showcased how different a shared history can be... it just felt flat.

Nevertheless, there were a lot of intriguing moving parts to the plot, a lot of unanswered questions that I'd love to figure out the answers to, and once again, a tense cliffhanger. So I very much intend to finish the trilogy. I also suspect that a lot of the weaknesses I saw in this book wouldn't bother me so much if I wasn't comparing it to all the things the first book did better!

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pvbobrien's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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? Yes

3.5

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mallorypen's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.25

Another super-solid sequel and I am here for it! This was almost better than the first book, and that is sometimes hard for me once the romantic leads are together or the direction has already been set. However, the real conflict between Vic and Adam (communication really do be everything) plus the evolving family dynamics kept me hooked, as well as the b plot of the elves plotting against one another and the conflict between the Winter court.

The twists in this novel were just as good if not better than the first. I was guessing along with Adam as to the true nature of the Druid, and even though

the great grandfather was introduced later and wasn’t seeded earlier in the story,

it didn’t strike me as clumsy or lazy writing to introduce him as such.

I also felt that now that I was fully immersed in the world building and had bought into all the characters, the stakes felt higher though the conflict (family loss versus loss of all humanity) in the a plot was ostensibly smaller. I loved Adam dealing with the repercussions of becoming a warlock, and that his actions ultimately saved him from being a target for the Druid in the end.

The introduction of Vren was fresh and interesting: with all the elves taking a somewhat similar approach to humanity and the differences between them and elves, Vren as a kind of asshole teenager with a core of goodness is refreshing. I also really loved the baby steps into Vic’s new identity as a reaper; it didn’t completely take over his character, but it built throughout the story until the climax with his father and then his battle with the Druid.

I might have to buy the next book in the trilogy simply to find out what happened next!

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silver_lining_in_a_book's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

4.25

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