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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
Truly one of the best new UF series to come out recently. Love it.
Not as good as Written in Red. One reason I liked Written in Red so much was because it had Anne Bishop's wonderful voice and relationships but toned down the really dark parts. This definitely brought back more dark. Not as much as the Bloods series but still more than I enjoy.
Re-read: Half a dozen reads under my belt, and I just adore this series. I think anyone who likes paranormal fantasy with a little horror should read it, absolutely.
In this second book, Meg has started to really settle into life in The Courtyard after the the huge incident that rocked Lakeside in the last book. But that doesn't mean it's easy. Her relationship with Simon is complicated and neither of them are quite sure how to navigate it - they just know that they want to figure it out.
There is a lot of tension from outside forces that push the storyline. We have the first murmurs of the Humans First movement which the The Others obviously aren't down with. We learn about new groups of Others AND Humans. We learn where the drugs that have been causing chaos originate from. And of course, we have prophesies.
And of course we get lots of time with Meg, Simon, Tess, Vlad, the human pack, etc. I love all the characters in this series!
********************
Another great read! I love these characters so much! I find myself laughing out loud often & I can't wait to see what is next for Meg, Simon & the rest of the gang. This series is so refreshing in a sea full of books with vampires & shifters...nothing quite like this anywhere else.
In this second book, Meg has started to really settle into life in The Courtyard after the the huge incident that rocked Lakeside in the last book. But that doesn't mean it's easy. Her relationship with Simon is complicated and neither of them are quite sure how to navigate it - they just know that they want to figure it out.
There is a lot of tension from outside forces that push the storyline. We have the first murmurs of the Humans First movement which the The Others obviously aren't down with. We learn about new groups of Others AND Humans. We learn where the drugs that have been causing chaos originate from. And of course, we have prophesies.
And of course we get lots of time with Meg, Simon, Tess, Vlad, the human pack, etc. I love all the characters in this series!
********************
Another great read! I love these characters so much! I find myself laughing out loud often & I can't wait to see what is next for Meg, Simon & the rest of the gang. This series is so refreshing in a sea full of books with vampires & shifters...nothing quite like this anywhere else.
The premise of 'The Others' is unique and brilliant. Unlike most urban fantasy series, the world of Murder of Crows is tense and dangerous, verging on war between humans and others. The plot of this individual book sees Meg, recently escaped from a prophecy farm, struggling with her new wolfy relationship and making sense of her new life of freedom.
Characteristic of Ms Bishop the tone of the book swings from cutesy sugar coated relationships, all the way to almost torture porn. Some like me, may find this dichotomy too extreme, others may enjoy the mix of humor and serious darkness.
Ultimately though I think the flaws of this novel outweigh the originality of the concept. The pacing is awkwardly slow for the first third, and gets mildly more exciting for a while, but then plateaus for the majority of the book before the significant action is crammed into a short amount of page time. If only the book was shorter overall or the action evenly spread my poor brain would have been less drained keeping up with the play.
My second gripe is the majority of the book was talking - technically there was some pretty epic action within these pages, did I feel it though? Every scene appeared to consist of brief descriptions followed by conversation, even in scenes where characters were alone they spent more time in their heads than actually doing something. There seems to be this lazy trend of allowing young adult fiction be almost completely free of description (presumably under the excuse that teens like their novels fast paced and unboring) but the effect is always of floating heads, or in this case floating heads with wolf ears.
I guess if you're a huge Bishop fan, and/or a fan of this series than you will enjoy this book nonetheless, however if you are doing some forward research to determine whether to indulge in this world, I would not recommend it since the genre is already replete with urban fantasy love stories.
Characteristic of Ms Bishop the tone of the book swings from cutesy sugar coated relationships, all the way to almost torture porn. Some like me, may find this dichotomy too extreme, others may enjoy the mix of humor and serious darkness.
Ultimately though I think the flaws of this novel outweigh the originality of the concept. The pacing is awkwardly slow for the first third, and gets mildly more exciting for a while, but then plateaus for the majority of the book before the significant action is crammed into a short amount of page time. If only the book was shorter overall or the action evenly spread my poor brain would have been less drained keeping up with the play.
My second gripe is the majority of the book was talking - technically there was some pretty epic action within these pages, did I feel it though? Every scene appeared to consist of brief descriptions followed by conversation, even in scenes where characters were alone they spent more time in their heads than actually doing something. There seems to be this lazy trend of allowing young adult fiction be almost completely free of description (presumably under the excuse that teens like their novels fast paced and unboring) but the effect is always of floating heads, or in this case floating heads with wolf ears.
I guess if you're a huge Bishop fan, and/or a fan of this series than you will enjoy this book nonetheless, however if you are doing some forward research to determine whether to indulge in this world, I would not recommend it since the genre is already replete with urban fantasy love stories.
4.5 stars (but I might bump that up). This was one of the books I was most anticipating this year, and it did not disappoint! I always feel kind of hesitant to recommend this series not because I don't love it, but because there are some elements that I feel others could find problematic, even though they don't bother me? But god, I just really love these books. I love the worldbuilding and the community that's formed once Meg arrives in the first book, and I love all the characters so much. I especially love how the relationship between Meg and Simon has been developed. I love what good friends they are in this book, and how this book starts hinting more towards romance between them than the first book did (that paragraph where Monty wondered if anyone else had realized that Simon was falling in love with Meg was a lot!!!), but it doesn't overwhelm the story, and things are still being taken very gradually (which is definitely for the best, especially considering Meg's backstory). The awkwardness of the beginning with Meg thinking Simon wanting sex from her and vice versa was SO great, especially the part where Simon told her that he didn't want to have sex with her because having her as a friend was more enjoyable. I just love how Simon values Meg's friendship because I feel like that's not something I see a lot in stories like this. I feel like I should probably have more to say about this book, but basically I just loved it a lot, and I'm pretty sure it'll end up being one of my favorite books of this year. I already want to reread it (and the first one) even though I read it so recently because it's such a comfortable world for me to jump into.
http://nyx-shadow.blogspot.fr/2014/03/the-others-t2-murders-of-crows-anne.html
This felt like it could have been part of the first book; no need to split it in two.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes