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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
This was More like a 2.5 star book for me T.T
I received this digital copy in exchange for an honest review!
So at the end of my review of The Beautiful I said that I felt the series had a lot of potential, and despite not being wild about the book I was rather excited for the sequel. I figured The Damned would put Celine at the centre of a Vampire vs Werewolf conflict, and in some ways I was right, but at the same time so, so, wrong.
I asked for more vampires and The Damned definitely delivered. The lack of vampire action was one of my biggest issues with The Beautiful, but this book has supernatural creatures in spades. There’s a whole lot of world development in this one, some of which should have been mentioned in the first novel, but this book really revealed New Orleans’ supernatural underbelly and I loved it.
Again, the way Renée drags you into her world is amazing. I felt like I was standing on the streets of New Orleans with the characters, and everything felt so lavish and beautiful. This was one of the things I enjoyed the most about The Beautiful, and it’s sequel certainly makes use of the authors skill again!
The blurb makes it sound like we’ll be following Celine’s perspective, but instead The Damned’s main focus is Bastien. I could definitely see why the Renée would give us both perspectives, as Celine and Bastien are apart for most of the book, but I did find it rather irritating that his perspective was in first person. I understand why first person was used for the villain in The Beautiful, and I actually really enjoyed this clever way of using a change of tense, but it didn’t have the same results in The Damned. There were also so many different perspectives happening in this book, and if I’m honest most of them didn’t add very much to the plot; instead, the perspectives felt very “woe is me” and I don’t feel like they added much to the narrative, in fact I think the switching POVs made the first third really drag.
If the first half was a drag then the second half was a rip-roaring mess. So much happens and no one, including the reader, is given enough time to process anything. Admittedly this messy second half stuffed full of reveals was way more fun and definitely saved this book for me. It was a whirlwind I didn’t mind being stuck in. Due to this rather rushed approach we lose a fair bit of character development, especially for the people Celine associated with. Who the heck were those girls in the shop? I still don’t know and I’ve finished the book. I also think the love triangle aspect with Michael should have just been left out. Their relationship was never given enough time to develop, and I never at any point believed that Celine would choose to marry him; it felt like the trope had been added for no real reason other than the minuscule amount of drama it caused.
I think The Damned has really solidified that this series probably isn’t for me. The Beautiful had so much potential but the sequel just didn’t manage to live up to it, and I think that’s due to the amount of character development and plot shoehorned into it. I was hoping for vampires and werewolves in New Orleans, and instead this book took me, rather suddenly, to a whole other place and I was disappointed.
Recommend: This book definitely wasn’t for me, but I think if you really enjoyed The Beautiful then you’ll enjoy its sequel
I received this digital copy in exchange for an honest review!
So at the end of my review of The Beautiful I said that I felt the series had a lot of potential, and despite not being wild about the book I was rather excited for the sequel. I figured The Damned would put Celine at the centre of a Vampire vs Werewolf conflict, and in some ways I was right, but at the same time so, so, wrong.
I asked for more vampires and The Damned definitely delivered. The lack of vampire action was one of my biggest issues with The Beautiful, but this book has supernatural creatures in spades. There’s a whole lot of world development in this one, some of which should have been mentioned in the first novel, but this book really revealed New Orleans’ supernatural underbelly and I loved it.
Again, the way Renée drags you into her world is amazing. I felt like I was standing on the streets of New Orleans with the characters, and everything felt so lavish and beautiful. This was one of the things I enjoyed the most about The Beautiful, and it’s sequel certainly makes use of the authors skill again!
The blurb makes it sound like we’ll be following Celine’s perspective, but instead The Damned’s main focus is Bastien. I could definitely see why the Renée would give us both perspectives, as Celine and Bastien are apart for most of the book, but I did find it rather irritating that his perspective was in first person. I understand why first person was used for the villain in The Beautiful, and I actually really enjoyed this clever way of using a change of tense, but it didn’t have the same results in The Damned. There were also so many different perspectives happening in this book, and if I’m honest most of them didn’t add very much to the plot; instead, the perspectives felt very “woe is me” and I don’t feel like they added much to the narrative, in fact I think the switching POVs made the first third really drag.
If the first half was a drag then the second half was a rip-roaring mess. So much happens and no one, including the reader, is given enough time to process anything. Admittedly this messy second half stuffed full of reveals was way more fun and definitely saved this book for me. It was a whirlwind I didn’t mind being stuck in. Due to this rather rushed approach we lose a fair bit of character development, especially for the people Celine associated with. Who the heck were those girls in the shop? I still don’t know and I’ve finished the book. I also think the love triangle aspect with Michael should have just been left out. Their relationship was never given enough time to develop, and I never at any point believed that Celine would choose to marry him; it felt like the trope had been added for no real reason other than the minuscule amount of drama it caused.
I think The Damned has really solidified that this series probably isn’t for me. The Beautiful had so much potential but the sequel just didn’t manage to live up to it, and I think that’s due to the amount of character development and plot shoehorned into it. I was hoping for vampires and werewolves in New Orleans, and instead this book took me, rather suddenly, to a whole other place and I was disappointed.
Recommend: This book definitely wasn’t for me, but I think if you really enjoyed The Beautiful then you’ll enjoy its sequel
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is everything I remembered from the first novel: Celine and Bastian are in love. In the end, Bastian gets attacked, becomes a vampire, and Celine loses her memories. There is a love triangle with a not-yet werewolf. It is set in 19th-century New Orleans. So I needed some time to get into The Damned. Which is a me-problem. I know. But the book is also not very good.
The writing style is very overdescribtive. At the same time, I don't feel any emotions for the characters. The bond between Bastian and Celine is just there. The pining, the longing, don't translate from the page into my head. At the same time, the villain of the book (and probably of the series), Émilie, just doesn't land as a villain. She is supposed to be a madwoman, but her actions are too obscure. How are her actions getting her the revenge she wants? What is even worse is that she is correct in her anger. Similarly, the werewolves are morally better than the vampires with a better societal structure, and I don't understand why they are not portrayed in a better light. The fairy subplot comes out of nowhere. It might have been included, simply because fairies became big at that time.
Young Adult vampire literature often fulfils certain tropes. One of them is the tortured vampire love interest. As the title suggests, Bastian sees himself as damned. But why? He doesn't seem particularly religious. His lifestyle has not changed. Ahdieh tosses words around (like damned or blood foe) that simply don't mean anything.
One exception to this mess is Celine. Her memory loss constantly felt like something was wrong and I, as the reader, could very easily sympathize with her. I wish we could have spent more time exploring this aspect.
Honestly, the setting and characters would be great for a crime novel. But as it is, The Damned is cheesy in a very annoying way and can be easily forgotten.
Hätte nicht gedacht, dass mich Band 2 noch mehr verwirrt als Band 1...
Dieses Mal sind es weniger die verschiedenen Perspektiven sondern die Erzählstränge, die aus dem Nichts auftauchen und keinen näheren Grund haben und auch nie aufgelöst werden.
Eigentlich hätte man alles was wirklich relevant war (und zu Ende gedacht war) zusammenpacken würde, hätte man am Ende etwa 200 Seiten. Der Rest verläuft sich im Sand und wird nie wieder angesprochen obwohl es zwei Kapitel vorher noch der Grund dafür war warum dieses oder jenes getan wird...
Dieses Mal sind es weniger die verschiedenen Perspektiven sondern die Erzählstränge, die aus dem Nichts auftauchen und keinen näheren Grund haben und auch nie aufgelöst werden.
Eigentlich hätte man alles was wirklich relevant war (und zu Ende gedacht war) zusammenpacken würde, hätte man am Ende etwa 200 Seiten. Der Rest verläuft sich im Sand und wird nie wieder angesprochen obwohl es zwei Kapitel vorher noch der Grund dafür war warum dieses oder jenes getan wird...
Unfortunately, I was disappointed by this one. I found Emily May's review better explains exactly how I feel.
I read The Beautiful as my second book of 2020 and, after the atrocity that was The DNF'ing of Wolfsong by T.J. Klune, I found it to be refreshing, different, and fun. I ended up rating it 5/5 and giving it the highest honor 'round these parts: a spot on my "best-books" shelf.
That said, as the months have passed since reading it, I'll be honest: I don't remember most of what happened in The Beautiful even if what little memory of it remains is pleasant. Because of this, I naturally began to wonder if I would end up enjoying The Damned as much as book one once it finally came out.
Unfortunately, no, I didn't enjoy this one so much. It was still a really fun and refreshing read, but its lack of focus really dragged it down.
One of my biggest pet peeves in all of literature is when authors can't stick with a consistent type of POV. For example, one character's POV could be in first-person present tense which, as we've learned from The Hunger Games and its brethren, is not a bad way to write a POV, but then we switch to a different character and their POV is...third person omniscient immediate past tense? What? Fortunately, The Beautiful is, from my foggy memory, free of this problem, but The Damned is where this becomes a real issue for me as a listener/reader. Another thing that made this incredibly annoying is that we at last get a good chunk of the novel from Bastien's POV, it's in that first person present tense I mentioned before and he's the only character who gets that type of POV throughout the whole book. I genuinely am baffled as to why that is and this weirdness is only exacerbated by Lauren Ezzo's extremely rough French accent, as, for some reason I cannot fathom, they did not hire a male narrator for the one single character who is in the first person POV who is, incidentally, a man and Ezzo is left to flounder her way through complicated accent work she is very clearly not equipped to do. Her "Yorkshire" accent for Pippa was also extremely grating, as she would start sentences off as, "Now That's What I Might Call Yorkshire," before quickly devolving into, "Does Ezzo believe Yorkshire is in the American midwest and that Pippa is a cowboy?"
Despite this extreme flub on the part of the audiobook producers, I still found the story to be engaging and, despite the way it was written, it is incredibly fun to read Bastien's POV, as he provides a personal touch to the first third of this book, which is missing our main character, Celine (for good reason, since she lost her memory at the end of book one) that is sorely needed. I think I will end up struggling to recall certain details as time passes, though, and I expect that to be worse than it already is for me and The Beautiful, which is unfortunate, but true. This book's story, while fun and interesting, had a hard time holding my attention for long periods of time and I am already fuzzy on many details.
This is the first book of Ahdieh's that I didn't love, which I consider to be impressive, since I still liked the bulk of it. My biggest issues lie in the messy execution of finer details and the poor narration by Lauren Ezzo on the audiobook. I'll certainly be reading book three if and when it happens, but until then, I'll be content to busy myself with something else.
That said, as the months have passed since reading it, I'll be honest: I don't remember most of what happened in The Beautiful even if what little memory of it remains is pleasant. Because of this, I naturally began to wonder if I would end up enjoying The Damned as much as book one once it finally came out.
Unfortunately, no, I didn't enjoy this one so much. It was still a really fun and refreshing read, but its lack of focus really dragged it down.
One of my biggest pet peeves in all of literature is when authors can't stick with a consistent type of POV. For example, one character's POV could be in first-person present tense which, as we've learned from The Hunger Games and its brethren, is not a bad way to write a POV, but then we switch to a different character and their POV is...third person omniscient immediate past tense? What? Fortunately, The Beautiful is, from my foggy memory, free of this problem, but The Damned is where this becomes a real issue for me as a listener/reader. Another thing that made this incredibly annoying is that we at last get a good chunk of the novel from Bastien's POV, it's in that first person present tense I mentioned before and he's the only character who gets that type of POV throughout the whole book. I genuinely am baffled as to why that is and this weirdness is only exacerbated by Lauren Ezzo's extremely rough French accent, as, for some reason I cannot fathom, they did not hire a male narrator for the one single character who is in the first person POV who is, incidentally, a man and Ezzo is left to flounder her way through complicated accent work she is very clearly not equipped to do. Her "Yorkshire" accent for Pippa was also extremely grating, as she would start sentences off as, "Now That's What I Might Call Yorkshire," before quickly devolving into, "Does Ezzo believe Yorkshire is in the American midwest and that Pippa is a cowboy?"
Despite this extreme flub on the part of the audiobook producers, I still found the story to be engaging and, despite the way it was written, it is incredibly fun to read Bastien's POV, as he provides a personal touch to the first third of this book, which is missing our main character, Celine (for good reason, since she lost her memory at the end of book one) that is sorely needed. I think I will end up struggling to recall certain details as time passes, though, and I expect that to be worse than it already is for me and The Beautiful, which is unfortunate, but true. This book's story, while fun and interesting, had a hard time holding my attention for long periods of time and I am already fuzzy on many details.
This is the first book of Ahdieh's that I didn't love, which I consider to be impressive, since I still liked the bulk of it. My biggest issues lie in the messy execution of finer details and the poor narration by Lauren Ezzo on the audiobook. I'll certainly be reading book three if and when it happens, but until then, I'll be content to busy myself with something else.
Definitely liked this one much better than the first one. This one moved a little bit faster than the last. The romance is slow due to the plot line but the action is more abundant. We learn more about the world the characters are living in this time around as well. Some of the previous mysteries of book one that were mentioned with no explanation as to what any of it meant are answered. There's less repetition of thoughts and feelings as well. We don't have Celine going on and on for a full page about the same thing. We actually get more of Bastien's perspective this time and a few others are thrown in as well, which seemed a little out of place even though it kept the book moving. The book ends on another cliff hanger but its not nearly has dramatic as the first book. I feel like it ends but doesn't necessarily leave the reader with wanting more.
Ich war so gespannt auf „The Damned“ und wie die ganze Geschichte mit Sébastien und Celine weitergeht. Das Cover sieht wieder so toll aus und ich finde es klasse, dass der Piper Verlag das Originalcover übernommen hat. Auch der Klappentext spricht mich direkt an. In meiner Rezension zu Band eins habe ich ja geschrieben, dass ich hoffe das Renée Ahdieh das Potenzial richtig nutzen wird. Deswegen waren meine Erwartungen für Band zwei auch etwas höher und nach dem lesen kann ich sagen, dass meine Erwartungen erfüllt wurden. Alles in allem gefällt mir „The Damned“ besser als der erste Teil. Renée Ahdieh hat einen tollen Schreibstil. Er ist flüssig zu lesen, sprachlich an die Epoche angepasst, spannend und emotional. Ich konnte das Buch nicht aus der Hand legen und ich habe es innerhalb von zwei Tagen beendet.
Die Charaktere sind hier wieder sehr greifbar dargestellt und mit Celines Erinnerungsverlust gibt es einen Ausgangspunkt, den ich sehr interessant finde. Zwar lag der Schwerpunkt oft mehr auf Sébastien, aber dennoch kam Celines Geschichte/Entwicklung und auch die der Nebencharaktere nicht zu kurz. Renée Ahdieh hat hier ein gutes Gleichgewicht gefunden. Beim lesen wurde es zur keiner Zeit langweilig und auch an Spannung hat es nicht gefehlt. Es gab Wendepunkte und Überraschungen, die ich so nicht habe kommen sehen.
„The Damned“ ist ein würdiger zweiter Teil dieser Reihe und für mich war er sogar besser als Band eins. Das tolle Setting, die interessante Thematik mit den Vampiren und der Hof der Löwen sorgen für eine gelungene Geschichte, die man sich nicht entgehen lassen sollte. Da die Bücher aufeinander aufbauen, sollte man definitiv Band eins vorher lesen.
Von mir gibt es eine Leseempfehlung.
Die Charaktere sind hier wieder sehr greifbar dargestellt und mit Celines Erinnerungsverlust gibt es einen Ausgangspunkt, den ich sehr interessant finde. Zwar lag der Schwerpunkt oft mehr auf Sébastien, aber dennoch kam Celines Geschichte/Entwicklung und auch die der Nebencharaktere nicht zu kurz. Renée Ahdieh hat hier ein gutes Gleichgewicht gefunden. Beim lesen wurde es zur keiner Zeit langweilig und auch an Spannung hat es nicht gefehlt. Es gab Wendepunkte und Überraschungen, die ich so nicht habe kommen sehen.
„The Damned“ ist ein würdiger zweiter Teil dieser Reihe und für mich war er sogar besser als Band eins. Das tolle Setting, die interessante Thematik mit den Vampiren und der Hof der Löwen sorgen für eine gelungene Geschichte, die man sich nicht entgehen lassen sollte. Da die Bücher aufeinander aufbauen, sollte man definitiv Band eins vorher lesen.
Von mir gibt es eine Leseempfehlung.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
fast-paced
Amazing. Better than the 1st one. Tons of complex plots converge so satisfyingly, clarifications for all the lore skimmed over in the first book (that were unexpectedly really interesting!!) and a multitude of different perspectives that made the story so much more exciting. Can’t wait for the third!!!