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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
Surprisingly, more can be told in the Cal Leandros series. I'm really glad that she continued with the series. The changes in Cal in this book definitely throw a huge curve in the story. I wonder what could happen next.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
We used to have a neighbor when I was ten, for a few months before we moved again as we always did. She’d once told me that I was no better than I had to be. I hadn’t gotten that as a kid, and Niko for once hadn’t felt the need to explain it to me. No better than I had to be; seriously, what did that mean? I’d long since learned what it meant, and I knew Suyolak was no better than he had to be either, certainly no kinder than he had to be.
IT'S ROAD TRIP TIME! Sure it might be a cliche, but shoving Robin into a car with anyone and driving across the country is bound to be a disaster, especially when it means he has to be away from his new boyfriend ;) Anyway, I just really love this book and you could hardly pick a more mismatched group of people to throw in a car together. Obviously a classic trope for a reason.
There's a lot of great character dynamics going on with the close quarters, and it's great to see more of Rafferty and Catcher. I also love Catcher's POV and the parallels between Rafferty & Catcher and Niko & Cal. I'm a bit disappointed that Promise was not included here, but I absolutely love Deliilah so it's great to see more of her. I know it's by no means a 'healthy' relationship, but I love her and Cal together and if nothing else at least they are being 'honestly dishonest' with each other as Niko would say. Too bad she took things a bit too far finally.
Suyolak is a great villain and as a result this book has a lot of great body horror moments with all the diseases and really just a lot more 'horror movie' moments in general so it's nice to get a slightly different tone than some of the other books. Also I love the progression of Cal's Auphe powers here, although they do suffer a setback as well. I know it's awful but the more Auphe Cal is the happier I am, which is why the next book in the series is always a struggle for me -_-; Oh well, onwards and upwards!
IT'S ROAD TRIP TIME! Sure it might be a cliche, but shoving Robin into a car with anyone and driving across the country is bound to be a disaster, especially when it means he has to be away from his new boyfriend ;) Anyway, I just really love this book and you could hardly pick a more mismatched group of people to throw in a car together. Obviously a classic trope for a reason.
There's a lot of great character dynamics going on with the close quarters, and it's great to see more of Rafferty and Catcher. I also love Catcher's POV and the parallels between Rafferty & Catcher and Niko & Cal. I'm a bit disappointed that Promise was not included here, but I absolutely love Deliilah so it's great to see more of her. I know it's by no means a 'healthy' relationship, but I love her and Cal together and if nothing else at least they are being 'honestly dishonest' with each other as Niko would say. Too bad she took things a bit too far finally.
Suyolak is a great villain and as a result this book has a lot of great body horror moments with all the diseases and really just a lot more 'horror movie' moments in general so it's nice to get a slightly different tone than some of the other books. Also I love the progression of Cal's Auphe powers here, although they do suffer a setback as well. I know it's awful but the more Auphe Cal is the happier I am, which is why the next book in the series is always a struggle for me -_-; Oh well, onwards and upwards!
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
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
First book in the series to disappoint me. It wasn't bad, but it was nowhere near as exciting as previous books. Too much narration and backstory harping, rather than moving on with the plot. By book 5, Thurman should be able to expect her audience to know at least some background to her universe, rather than explaining every detail every time. I was disappointed that Niko didn't get pov chapters this time. Catcher's chapters didn't add anything to the story other than to make the ending unnecessarily sad. Still a decent book and a great series. I continue to love Cal's development and his brotherly codependence. Here's hoping for a better Niko storyline in the next book.
Another one, even though I wasn't super in love with these guys. (But I'd checked out three, trying to figure out which on was next, so it was here.)
Road trip, which is fine, I was getting tired of New York City. It was .... another pleasant but not amazing book. Although I'm ready to take a break from these guys for a while; both of the main two are kind of annoying me and...meh. I dunno.
Road trip, which is fine, I was getting tired of New York City. It was .... another pleasant but not amazing book. Although I'm ready to take a break from these guys for a while; both of the main two are kind of annoying me and...meh. I dunno.
Fifth book in the Cal Leandros series, and Rob Thurman appears to have learnt her lesson from the disappointing "Deathwish".
Again, the narrative is told in the first person but (thankfully) this time, Rob Thurman does not take it chapter about to have different characters speaking. Whereas "Deathwish" had it brother about per chapter (who 'sounded' far too alike), "Roadkill" only has Cal Leandros narrating, with his sections 'book-ended' by a chapter told by a completely different character, complete with their own distinctive voice.
This is a return to form!
Again, the narrative is told in the first person but (thankfully) this time, Rob Thurman does not take it chapter about to have different characters speaking. Whereas "Deathwish" had it brother about per chapter (who 'sounded' far too alike), "Roadkill" only has Cal Leandros narrating, with his sections 'book-ended' by a chapter told by a completely different character, complete with their own distinctive voice.
This is a return to form!
Rating: 6 stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Depth of the Characters: 6 stars. Rob Thurman is a master at this.
Where it ranks in the series thus far: #1 - hands down the best and most emotionally engaging book of an already fantastic series.
This book made me cry. Not one or two random tears...this book made me sob like a baby that just had her favorite blanket stolen from her. Not because this was the end of the series (which it thankfully isn't) and not because...no, I cried because this book was just...so...damn...good.
Okay, so crying myself into a massive headache sounds like a strange reaction to a good book. Lord knows it has only happened to me once or twice before. I guess the real reason i cried was due to the characters.I felt the pain and frustration of these characters...for the impossible choices they had to make. The characters of Niko, Cal and Robin have always been some of my favorites in any type of fiction, but with Roadkill we had the added bonus of Rafferty and Catcher. and they were the ones I was most drawn to here. I'm not really going to say anything about them (to avoid another weeping fit) other than to just let anyone reading this know that their relationship was so spot on perfect. And it mirrored the relationship between Cal & Niko...which was part of the reason their story destroyed me on such a deep level.
Rob Thurman has long been one of my favorite authors, but with Roadkill she had vaulted to the top of the pack.
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Depth of the Characters: 6 stars. Rob Thurman is a master at this.
Where it ranks in the series thus far: #1 - hands down the best and most emotionally engaging book of an already fantastic series.
This book made me cry. Not one or two random tears...this book made me sob like a baby that just had her favorite blanket stolen from her. Not because this was the end of the series (which it thankfully isn't) and not because
Spoiler
we ended up losing one of the main characters (which i spent a good deal of the book believing we would, but thankfully once again didn't happen).Okay, so crying myself into a massive headache sounds like a strange reaction to a good book. Lord knows it has only happened to me once or twice before. I guess the real reason i cried was due to the characters.I felt the pain and frustration of these characters...for the impossible choices they had to make. The characters of Niko, Cal and Robin have always been some of my favorites in any type of fiction, but with Roadkill we had the added bonus of Rafferty and Catcher. and they were the ones I was most drawn to here. I'm not really going to say anything about them (to avoid another weeping fit) other than to just let anyone reading this know that their relationship was so spot on perfect. And it mirrored the relationship between Cal & Niko...which was part of the reason their story destroyed me on such a deep level.
Rob Thurman has long been one of my favorite authors, but with Roadkill she had vaulted to the top of the pack.
I've come to the conclusion that this series isn't really about the actual monster-of-the-week plot of each book. The plots so far have been consistently very straightforward, and mostly involves the characters hunting down whoever or whatever the new villain is that appears in the current book. They're also really simple plots for the most part, they generally follow a formula of look for villain, find villain and fight, retreat after a defeat, and rinse and repeat until the final battle where they finally get him/her. The plots are secondary, and to be honest, kind of forgettable. Yeah, there are some twists and turns and shocking moments, but they really take a backseat to the real center of the story: the characters.
I loooove the characters in this series. Cal and Niko are still feeling the aftermath of the last book with Cal wrestling with his Auphe side which seems to be growing, and was it just me or did Niko seem to be extra vigilant about Cal's safety? We get some glimpses of Robin and his new monogamous relationship (and his undead cat!), and I remain disappointed that Robin doesn't have a greater role in the story and that his new beau doesn't actually show up in this book except in one short scene in the beginning. A werewolf character named Catcher, who we met very briefly before, makes a return and even gets his own POV chapters and while I was really skeptical at the beginning, he totally grew on me. Delilah was great as always, the best female character in this series, and I love that she does whatever she wants, isn't afraid of Cal and doesn't seem to care about his monster genes, and always puts her own interests first.
There was some interesting world-building; Rob Thurman always puts unique twists onto the traditional supernatural creatures. What we learn about werewolves and Catcher's situation is really original and interesting, and I also liked her take on healers as people who have intimate knowledge of the body and essentially use telekinetic and psychic skills to basically will people's cells into healing. The villain in this book, Suyolak, is one such healer who uses his powers for evil, an anti-healer basically, and it makes him so much scarier and more powerful than the previous villains. There were a few moments where I was genuinely afraid for Cal and the others, and I had no clue how they were even going to try to fight him.
Still, the whole plot to hunt him down and kill him felt a bit like a rehash of the last two books, due to the constant chase, fight/encounter, then, after the villain gets away, they just repeat the cycle again. That said, I think this was the strongest plot so far. Ultimately, while the resolution of the final battle was predictable, the ending of the book is satisfying but bittersweet in terms of the fate of a certain character and what lies in the future for Cal.
I loooove the characters in this series. Cal and Niko are still feeling the aftermath of the last book with Cal wrestling with his Auphe side which seems to be growing, and was it just me or did Niko seem to be extra vigilant about Cal's safety? We get some glimpses of Robin and his new monogamous relationship (and his undead cat!), and I remain disappointed that Robin doesn't have a greater role in the story and that his new beau doesn't actually show up in this book except in one short scene in the beginning. A werewolf character named Catcher, who we met very briefly before, makes a return and even gets his own POV chapters and while I was really skeptical at the beginning, he totally grew on me. Delilah was great as always, the best female character in this series, and I love that she does whatever she wants, isn't afraid of Cal and doesn't seem to care about his monster genes, and always puts her own interests first.
There was some interesting world-building; Rob Thurman always puts unique twists onto the traditional supernatural creatures. What we learn about werewolves and Catcher's situation is really original and interesting, and I also liked her take on healers as people who have intimate knowledge of the body and essentially use telekinetic and psychic skills to basically will people's cells into healing. The villain in this book, Suyolak, is one such healer who uses his powers for evil, an anti-healer basically, and it makes him so much scarier and more powerful than the previous villains. There were a few moments where I was genuinely afraid for Cal and the others, and I had no clue how they were even going to try to fight him.
Still, the whole plot to hunt him down and kill him felt a bit like a rehash of the last two books, due to the constant chase, fight/encounter, then, after the villain gets away, they just repeat the cycle again. That said, I think this was the strongest plot so far. Ultimately, while the resolution of the final battle was predictable, the ending of the book is satisfying but bittersweet in terms of the fate of a certain character and what lies in the future for Cal.