Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Deadbeat Druid

Funny thing: as I started listening to this book, I quickly realized I barely remembered the events of the previous one. Book 1? Yeah, sure, that one still feels fresh in my memory. Book 2? Ummmmm. The small recaps sneaking into the early chapters of Deadbeat Druid helped some, but I still ended up dredging up my notes and review for Trailing Park Trickster. I’ve concluded the reason the second book barely stuck with me is because of how the events were split in it between POVs/all the problems I had with its structure in general. A good reminder that the shape of a story matters as much as the substance.

Anyway, on to Deadbeat Druid! While much like its predecessor it keeps Adam and Vic apart for a huge chunk of the story, there’s no big split between “the main quest and a sidequest.“ They’re clearly on the same journey throughout, just making their way to the same destinations from different directions—both literally and figuratively. Overall, the plot here is a lot more solid, and in terms of themes and character interactions the book goes back to all the things that made White Trash Warlock, the trilogy starter, so great for my tastes.

I loved the interactions between Adam and Bobby, how their relationship has evolved since the first book, and how different they still remain. But now they’re able to live with those differences, acknowledge them, and seek compromise. Honestly, I think these two are among my favorite fictional brother pairs. And then there were also all the other relationships within the Binder family that included the dead among them as well as the living—I don’t want to go into spoilers, but damn, there were some really powerful moments.

I mostly liked how the storyline with the elves got concluded, though there are some aspects that could use more clarity. Though as far as I understand while the first trilogy is concluded, the series itself is getting extra books, so perhaps the points that made me feel that way are going to get addressed later. I was once again slightly annoyed by the fact that a lot of it was pushed into Vic’s chapters—don’t get me wrong, I like his friendship with Ardent and his complicated dynamics with Silver, but Adam has so much more baggage with both and the elves are always more fun for me through his POV. I did get some of that fun closer to the end of the book though, and that was great.

One of my favorite things about the story was the discussion of forgiveness and letting go of the dark parts of the past and how you aren’t obliged to forgive anyone, actually. You can move on and rebuild yourself without doing that. This is an idea I strongly agree with, and I liked how it shined through the narrative here. I also liked the parts focused on memories and feelings and how they shape us, although those were… more vaguely done, I think? Maybe because those parts were sort of Vic-centric. Overall, even with Vic strongly involved in the main plot for a change, I just really loved Adam’s chapters more and felt like he was the better character to tell this story with. Or maybe it’s just that the author writes Adam better!

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janchamp's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

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kal517's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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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literarycavy's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective 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? No

3.5

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pvbobrien's review

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adventurous emotional 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

3.75

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therainbowshelf's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

I really enjoyed this satisfying conclusion to Adam Binder’s story. Slayton does an excellent job of crafting an engaging and thoroughly entertaining story. There were a few things that felt held back on such as everything that happened with Vran, but it didn’t feel underdeveloped, feeling instead like it’ll come up later.

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mallorypen's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

What a satisfying conclusion to an enjoyable trilogy! It’s not easy to have an engaging plot that grows and twists over three books, but I think the author did a wonderful job planning the plotlines and delivering a gripping, unique and moving story.

One of my favorite things about the story overall is the concept of the sole bond between Vic and Adam. One of my main thoughts going into this third novel was that we hadn’t really been given time to really see how Vic and Adam‘s relationship was outside of this magical pole that found them together, however, there were some great flashback moments and other ways of the story, eventually help to show their relationship. However, the pain of feeling their soul bound being severed - it was such a great point in the story, and I really appreciated that when they saw each other they didn't scramble to reinstate the soul bond. I also really liked towards the end of the novel, as Vic is making all of these plans for their lives, and Adam is thinking of all the ways that he and Vic can grow together, they still decide one, not to reinstate their soul band, and two, they start dating to give themselves time to really get to know one another and experience, the relationship versus being just pushed together by magic. I thought that was a really unique take on soul bonds, because a lot of them, I feel like are so ride or die, and that concept of choice is sort of taken out of the equation.

Not to say Vic and Adam aren’t ridiculously ride or die. Though I really did enjoy the plot line, there was a sense of, and another thing, and another thing, and another thing that I think is an inherent risk in building these kinds of deeply plotted, lots of twist, and turn kind of stories. When Adam vanished after imploding him and John at the city of the dead, my first thought was oh here we go again. That said, there wasn’t any part of the plot that I feel like ought to have been taken out.

I really love the idea of these demons taking away the regrets and sharp emotions that might stop someone from moving on. It makes me think that this author probably goes to therapy and is using coping concepts in this unique literary way that I thought was really well done.

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