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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
My Review:⭐️⭐⭐⭐/ 5 stars
I read the first book a few days ago so thankfully all the characters was fresh in my mind. Sebastien Saint Germain was just turned into a vampire by his uncle Nicodemus, the most powerful Vampire in the American South in 1872, after being near death. In exchange, Cecile would allow Nicodemus to erase her memories of what happened that night and of Bastien… so they could start their own lives. Bastien is disturbed from the change and does everything he can to try to turn back and be human again (and be with Cecile). Michael & Cecile try to make it work - but she suspects her friends are hiding things from her after having very vivid dreams that cannot be explained. And behind the scenes, a sinister character is trying to exact revenge on the Fallen (aka the Vampires) after generations of blood shed.
I based this rating on it simply being much better than the first book, the Beautiful. The story seems a bit more structured and easier to understand the different worlds, characters, and even the love triangle between Bastien/Cecile/Michael. The romance between the main characters in the first book was very tortured, forced, and one dimensional. I didn’t buy their little forbidden, star crossed romance. One minute they just met and the next they are in love? I learned so much more in this one. That being said, the sequel is great, but I did not love it. This whole series was a bit lukewarm for me. The love scene had me wanting more, but more so because of the injustice of waiting through two books for just that measly scene? For a paranormal YA/historical fiction based in New Orleans, a magical city in its own right, this is decent. Will I tune in for the 3rd book in 2021? Probably.
Cawpile rated May 2022:
Character - 6
Atmosphere - 6
Writing - 7
Plot - 5
Intrigue - 6
Logic - 5
Enjoyment - 6
Rating: 5.86 / 3 stars
On the reread this seriously suffers from second book energy, the whole thing felt like we were crawling towards the next book, rather than a whole story in its own right. Please don't let book 3 be like that.
---
Full review: https://inkandplasma.wordpress.com/2020/07/16/the-damned-by-renee-ahdieh-the-beautiful-2-review/
Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for the review copy of this book, it has not affected my honest review.
Trigger Warnings: blood and murder (vampires y’all), gaslighting and memory fuckery, the consent issues inherent in vampires glamouring their victims.
I honestly love Renee Ahdieh’s writing style. I just love it. In the first 60 pages alone I marked at least ten lines as potential quotes because every line is beautiful and I wanted to remember all of them. I thought it was a little weird that Bastien’s chapters were in first person while the rest of the characters were in third person, but Bastien’s chapters did give me some of my favourite quotes so I’m not complaining too much. I found this book to be a little more simple than The Beautiful, which was much more flowery language. I didn’t mind that though, as I was engaged with the plot and this didn’t have nearly as much ‘second book syndrome’ as I was worried about! In places I was a little confused about the nonchalant way that information was shown – at one point I had to go back to my The Beautiful summary because I thought a plot twist was something I was already meant to know, it was delivered so casually.
I loved Bastien in the first book, but in The Damned? He might be the only fictional man worth respecting. I won’t go into too much detail, because I don’t want to spoil anything, but considering the time setting, Bastien is excellent. He insists on so much personal agency for Celine, giving her a choice in everything that they do and I just love to see it. I love historical fiction, but not when The Man decides everything. Bastien wouldn’t do that to her. Even the love triangle wasn’t that bad – I usually hate them – because the logic behind it tracked and it was clearly based in the society of the time.
In my review of The Beautiful I said that I wanted more vampire stuff in The Damned, and I definitely got that. Seeing a character go through the newborn vampire process was really fun, and definitely had the same energy of the first book. I loved the fae aspects that were added in and how the vampire and fae history was meshed in, different from a lot of vampire books I’ve read. I didn’t realise this was a four part series (because I’m an idiot) and when I got to the 75% mark, I suddenly had the sense of impending doom that this series wasn’t going to be wrapped up in this book. As it is, I can’t wait for the rest of the series, as the end of The Damned kicked things off hard.
Character - 6
Atmosphere - 6
Writing - 7
Plot - 5
Intrigue - 6
Logic - 5
Enjoyment - 6
Rating: 5.86 / 3 stars
On the reread this seriously suffers from second book energy, the whole thing felt like we were crawling towards the next book, rather than a whole story in its own right. Please don't let book 3 be like that.
---
Full review: https://inkandplasma.wordpress.com/2020/07/16/the-damned-by-renee-ahdieh-the-beautiful-2-review/
Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for the review copy of this book, it has not affected my honest review.
Trigger Warnings: blood and murder (vampires y’all), gaslighting and memory fuckery, the consent issues inherent in vampires glamouring their victims.
I honestly love Renee Ahdieh’s writing style. I just love it. In the first 60 pages alone I marked at least ten lines as potential quotes because every line is beautiful and I wanted to remember all of them. I thought it was a little weird that Bastien’s chapters were in first person while the rest of the characters were in third person, but Bastien’s chapters did give me some of my favourite quotes so I’m not complaining too much. I found this book to be a little more simple than The Beautiful, which was much more flowery language. I didn’t mind that though, as I was engaged with the plot and this didn’t have nearly as much ‘second book syndrome’ as I was worried about! In places I was a little confused about the nonchalant way that information was shown – at one point I had to go back to my The Beautiful summary because I thought a plot twist was something I was already meant to know, it was delivered so casually.
I loved Bastien in the first book, but in The Damned? He might be the only fictional man worth respecting. I won’t go into too much detail, because I don’t want to spoil anything, but considering the time setting, Bastien is excellent. He insists on so much personal agency for Celine, giving her a choice in everything that they do and I just love to see it. I love historical fiction, but not when The Man decides everything. Bastien wouldn’t do that to her. Even the love triangle wasn’t that bad – I usually hate them – because the logic behind it tracked and it was clearly based in the society of the time.
In my review of The Beautiful I said that I wanted more vampire stuff in The Damned, and I definitely got that. Seeing a character go through the newborn vampire process was really fun, and definitely had the same energy of the first book. I loved the fae aspects that were added in and how the vampire and fae history was meshed in, different from a lot of vampire books I’ve read. I didn’t realise this was a four part series (because I’m an idiot) and when I got to the 75% mark, I suddenly had the sense of impending doom that this series wasn’t going to be wrapped up in this book. As it is, I can’t wait for the rest of the series, as the end of The Damned kicked things off hard.
4.5 stars
I'm supposed to be in my math class, not half listening while I devour the last chapters of this book being on the verge of tears.
I really hoped I read this book when I wasn't swarmed with academic priorities that caused a big lack of motivation that caused me to do futile activities instead of reading (I'm looking at you TikTok).
But I genuinely really enjoyed reading this it was so much fun (up until the end I'm going to cry)
While this does have a love triangle I'm a bit annoyed at since it's so obvious who Celine is ending up with, I was able to tolerate it and look it over, especially since it was scarce throughout the book. Which leads me into the next thing I want to talk about;
TOO. LITTLE. OF. CELINE.
I get why this book was focused on Bastien I really do and I really love him, but I wish we got to see more of Celine because I love her so much.
Also, we need justice for Pippa. My girl keeps getting put on the backburner, and is really forgotten. Plus, we barely see any of her. #Pippadeservesbetter.
I'm supposed to be in my math class, not half listening while I devour the last chapters of this book being on the verge of tears.
Spoiler
If Odette dies I'm throwing a hissy fitI really hoped I read this book when I wasn't swarmed with academic priorities that caused a big lack of motivation that caused me to do futile activities instead of reading (I'm looking at you TikTok).
But I genuinely really enjoyed reading this it was so much fun (up until the end I'm going to cry)
While this does have a love triangle I'm a bit annoyed at since it's so obvious who Celine is ending up with, I was able to tolerate it and look it over, especially since it was scarce throughout the book. Which leads me into the next thing I want to talk about;
TOO. LITTLE. OF. CELINE.
I get why this book was focused on Bastien I really do and I really love him, but I wish we got to see more of Celine because I love her so much.
Also, we need justice for Pippa. My girl keeps getting put on the backburner, and is really forgotten. Plus, we barely see any of her. #Pippadeservesbetter.
This was a 2-3 star until 3/5 of the way through. Then it was terrific.
In this second instalment of the series, we start to get answers to some of the questions that so niggled me in the opening.
This time round we begin with the aftermath of what took place with Celine and Bastien. Celine has asked for her memories to be removed in exchange for letting Bastien live. He has been turned into a vampire, thus breaking an old agreement that looks as if it’ll cause trouble. She seems to be settling into her new life, even looking forward to a future with Michael Grimaldi, but we soon learn she is not fully unaware of her past experiences.
The answers behind Celine’s immunity to the mind-altering came as something of a surprise (I wondered if there were details I’d missed from earlier). I enjoyed her determination to be true to herself, in spite of what those around her say, though it didn’t really seem that we were in a particularly different time.
It won’t come as any surprise to see Bastien and Celine are more closely linked than people might like them to be. We get hints of a much bigger picture, and the references to the past and the other worlds suggest that there could be exciting times ahead.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this prior to publication.
This time round we begin with the aftermath of what took place with Celine and Bastien. Celine has asked for her memories to be removed in exchange for letting Bastien live. He has been turned into a vampire, thus breaking an old agreement that looks as if it’ll cause trouble. She seems to be settling into her new life, even looking forward to a future with Michael Grimaldi, but we soon learn she is not fully unaware of her past experiences.
The answers behind Celine’s immunity to the mind-altering came as something of a surprise (I wondered if there were details I’d missed from earlier). I enjoyed her determination to be true to herself, in spite of what those around her say, though it didn’t really seem that we were in a particularly different time.
It won’t come as any surprise to see Bastien and Celine are more closely linked than people might like them to be. We get hints of a much bigger picture, and the references to the past and the other worlds suggest that there could be exciting times ahead.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this prior to publication.
After reading The Beautiful last year The Damned was one of my most anticipated books of 2020. Although I was very nervous that it would not live up to my high expectations, I am relieved to report that it most certainly did. This book gave me all the angst that I was expecting and hoping for, and I am so grateful for that. If I was rating this book on enjoyment it would get five stars easily. However, if I am rating this book critically then things get a little messier. There was a lot of info-dumping in this book which a lot of people would not appreciate. In The Beautiful we barely got any information, and that which we did get was merely hinted at. It's evident that the author needed to give us a lot of information but it should have been spread out more. This book also included something which I really don't like in that it included a single POV chapter from a certain character in order to further the plot. I do like multiple POVs but I also like then to be relatively consistent. I understand that this seems like I am complaining about the book when it actual fact I adored it and raced through it, unable to stop turning the pages. I am giving it five stars because of my personal enjoyment, but I can also see where the I cannot wait to reread this book, and I know that the wait for the third book will be agonising.
MUCH better and less confusing than the first one. I loved all the new characters that were introduced and geez so many plot twists throughout the book!
adventurous
dark
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 stars
I am a bit disappointed! I was really looking forward to this sequel and for quite a bit of it I was pretty bored and just didnt care.
The ending was brilliant and there were some scenes that I enjoyed so I am hoping that this was a book to set up for the final one. I think I will continue with the series but I am not 100% sure.
I am a bit disappointed! I was really looking forward to this sequel and for quite a bit of it I was pretty bored and just didnt care.
The ending was brilliant and there were some scenes that I enjoyed so I am hoping that this was a book to set up for the final one. I think I will continue with the series but I am not 100% sure.