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A review by sucitta
Stygian by Sherrilyn Kenyon
5.0
The best Kenyon book in a long time. HOWEVER--
[edited after I have been able to process my thoughts]
[PLEASE BE AWARE OF SPOILERS!]
I have small issues with things, but that is typical with Kenyon considering this series is very, very dragged out. The big issue being, what seems to be an issue for others, is how the second half of the book is copy/pasted from past books. Look, I get it. I get why she does this, and honestly, I do appreciate it. It's hard to remember EVERYTHING. I only reread certain books; I reread a few before reading Stygian. So while it didn't hinder the overall story for me, I didn't need a copy/paste of Dragonsworn; I skimmed that book just to get through it because I knew I had to read it before reading Stygian.
Phoebe could've been handled so much better considering how much Urian loved her, and how much she loved Urian. Everything was so anti-climatic and rushed between them just to get Urian back to Xyn. It felt like Kenyon purposely made me dislike Phoebe when we really didn't know Phoebe at all before this book. I found myself not liking her BECAUSE it felt like Kenyon didn't know how to write her now, and only did so to quickly get on with Urian/Xyn. And this is NOTHING against Xyn because I really like her.
It’d be great if Kenyon would stop with unnecessary No Homo jabs when she introduces characters who ARE homosexual but continues to keep them in the background. She gives a sprinkling of characters who identify outside of being heterosexual, but her stories and her characters are still Very Aggressively Heteronormative and just once I'd like to have a Hero/Hero or Heroine/Heroine Dark-Hunter book. I LOVE Davyn, but we'll probably never get more with him outside of HeeHee Flirting With Urian And Other Guys And Telling Them They Have A Nice Butt. Queer characters deserve better and deserve to have a story too.
I keep coming back to her books because she’s a great storyteller and world builder, and I still love so many of her characters. I enjoyed this book because of Urian as a character and he’s always been one of my favorite Kenyon characters.
I still don’t care about the dragons. It feels like none of their stories were really fleshed out. I get that she did them because Xyn is part of Urian’s story, but Xyn deserves her story to be told too. I’d much rather have hers than her brothers’. She really did three (3) books back to back that were all copy/pasted stories and that's lazy storytelling. I know Kenyon is better than that, because I've read it.
This review seems really harsh and that I didn't love this book, because I did! I haven't loved a book of hers in a long time, and I think the last one I really loved/read as fast as this one was Styxx. I still love Kenyon's Dark-Hunter universe, but I know she can do better with many things. And as a longtime reader, I expect better.
[edited after I have been able to process my thoughts]
[PLEASE BE AWARE OF SPOILERS!]
I have small issues with things, but that is typical with Kenyon considering this series is very, very dragged out. The big issue being, what seems to be an issue for others, is how the second half of the book is copy/pasted from past books. Look, I get it. I get why she does this, and honestly, I do appreciate it. It's hard to remember EVERYTHING. I only reread certain books; I reread a few before reading Stygian. So while it didn't hinder the overall story for me, I didn't need a copy/paste of Dragonsworn; I skimmed that book just to get through it because I knew I had to read it before reading Stygian.
Phoebe could've been handled so much better considering how much Urian loved her, and how much she loved Urian. Everything was so anti-climatic and rushed between them just to get Urian back to Xyn. It felt like Kenyon purposely made me dislike Phoebe when we really didn't know Phoebe at all before this book. I found myself not liking her BECAUSE it felt like Kenyon didn't know how to write her now, and only did so to quickly get on with Urian/Xyn. And this is NOTHING against Xyn because I really like her.
It’d be great if Kenyon would stop with unnecessary No Homo jabs when she introduces characters who ARE homosexual but continues to keep them in the background. She gives a sprinkling of characters who identify outside of being heterosexual, but her stories and her characters are still Very Aggressively Heteronormative and just once I'd like to have a Hero/Hero or Heroine/Heroine Dark-Hunter book. I LOVE Davyn, but we'll probably never get more with him outside of HeeHee Flirting With Urian And Other Guys And Telling Them They Have A Nice Butt. Queer characters deserve better and deserve to have a story too.
I keep coming back to her books because she’s a great storyteller and world builder, and I still love so many of her characters. I enjoyed this book because of Urian as a character and he’s always been one of my favorite Kenyon characters.
I still don’t care about the dragons. It feels like none of their stories were really fleshed out. I get that she did them because Xyn is part of Urian’s story, but Xyn deserves her story to be told too. I’d much rather have hers than her brothers’. She really did three (3) books back to back that were all copy/pasted stories and that's lazy storytelling. I know Kenyon is better than that, because I've read it.
This review seems really harsh and that I didn't love this book, because I did! I haven't loved a book of hers in a long time, and I think the last one I really loved/read as fast as this one was Styxx. I still love Kenyon's Dark-Hunter universe, but I know she can do better with many things. And as a longtime reader, I expect better.