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majaingrid 's review for:
Bloodchild
by Anna Stephens
I never actually thought I would be this invested in this series or with the characters. Yet I find myself an unravelled crying mess. This series started with great potential in Godblind, but lost me on the huge amount of characters and what came out as fragmental as result. But the potential lay in the dark plot and the world Stephen created. And she does manage to bring her characters (well most of them) to life (why else am I crying over them). Darksoul was a huge step forward because it stretched over a shorter amount of time and the characters were less over the place.
Bloodchild took it even further. It’s the longest of the bunch, with just 500 pages (my edition). It doesn’t follow as many characters as the previous books, and I’m so happy the POV’s we lost didn’t get replaced by new ones. Though there were a couple of side characters that I would have loved to see with their own POV’s because I really wanted to get inside their heads. Such as Valan, Corvus’s Second. I cared so little for him in previous books I don’t remember if he actually did anything. But now, through Tara and also The Blessed One, we got to see him much more and the way he acted made him kind of interesting through most of the book.
The book starts shortly after where Darksoul ended, with the Mireces having taken over Rilporin and the Rilporians having fled Rilpor in search for allies. And after Darksoul, they have a lot of trauma to deal with, not least Dom and Crys. And Tara’s doing the goddess’s work, infiltrating the Mireces in Rilporin. Rillirin, pregnant, struggles to keep her away from the Mireces as they believe the child will bring back the Dark Lady. I was bit worried how everything would have room to wrap up in this. But it’s a very satisfying conclusion. The ending was really fucking intense and also heart-breaking.
A lot of shit is going down in this book. It was actually bit exhausting at points. The characters are suffering. Which is also exhausting. Because I was suffering. The pacing is really good. And the fewer characters makes it less jumpy. And the grimdark continues, with battles, torture, gore, death, trauma.
All the characters has come such a long way. Rillirin has grown so freaking much since the beginning of the first book where she could barely look someone in the eye to telling the Blessed One “fuck your face” right up her face. My Tara is super brave and bad-ass, as usual. I grieve a little that Gilda barely was in the book because she’s brave and wise. And my preciouses Dom and Crys. Both broken and having to deal with what happened in Darksoul. Crys having to cope with Foxy inside him and the fact he might die to end the war. Also his relationship with Ash is the preciousest thing ever in this series. Dom being so broken and unhinged.
There’s still a few bumps down this road, which is why it’s not up among the 5 stars. It’s a little to do with that there’s still a few characters I still don’t like following their POV’s. I also wish the books, all of them, had been longer.
I’m so happy I didn’t ditch series after being partly disappointed with book one, because this series is a great grimdark series.
Bloodchild took it even further. It’s the longest of the bunch, with just 500 pages (my edition). It doesn’t follow as many characters as the previous books, and I’m so happy the POV’s we lost didn’t get replaced by new ones. Though there were a couple of side characters that I would have loved to see with their own POV’s because I really wanted to get inside their heads. Such as Valan, Corvus’s Second. I cared so little for him in previous books I don’t remember if he actually did anything. But now, through Tara and also The Blessed One, we got to see him much more and the way he acted made him kind of interesting through most of the book.
Spoiler
Then he got into torture-mode and I was like, “Really, Valan? I thought we had something going on here.”The book starts shortly after where Darksoul ended, with the Mireces having taken over Rilporin and the Rilporians having fled Rilpor in search for allies. And after Darksoul, they have a lot of trauma to deal with, not least Dom and Crys. And Tara’s doing the goddess’s work, infiltrating the Mireces in Rilporin. Rillirin, pregnant, struggles to keep her away from the Mireces as they believe the child will bring back the Dark Lady. I was bit worried how everything would have room to wrap up in this. But it’s a very satisfying conclusion. The ending was really fucking intense and also heart-breaking.
A lot of shit is going down in this book. It was actually bit exhausting at points. The characters are suffering. Which is also exhausting. Because I was suffering. The pacing is really good. And the fewer characters makes it less jumpy. And the grimdark continues, with battles, torture, gore, death, trauma.
All the characters has come such a long way. Rillirin has grown so freaking much since the beginning of the first book where she could barely look someone in the eye to telling the Blessed One “fuck your face” right up her face. My Tara is super brave and bad-ass, as usual. I grieve a little that Gilda barely was in the book because she’s brave and wise. And my preciouses Dom and Crys. Both broken and having to deal with what happened in Darksoul. Crys having to cope with Foxy inside him and the fact he might die to end the war. Also his relationship with Ash is the preciousest thing ever in this series. Dom being so broken and unhinged.
There’s still a few bumps down this road, which is why it’s not up among the 5 stars. It’s a little to do with that there’s still a few characters I still don’t like following their POV’s. I also wish the books, all of them, had been longer.
I’m so happy I didn’t ditch series after being partly disappointed with book one, because this series is a great grimdark series.