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A review by somecharm
Chaos Rises by Pippa DaCosta
4.0
Chaos Rises was my first book by Pippa DaCosta and I went into it with open eyes, it's set in the same world as Pippa's other series of books (ironically I have the first in that series on my kindle and didn't know it) and features a mix of old and new characters.
I can imagine that reading the first series would have cleared up some of my questions about this book but as they say hindsight is 20/20.
I enjoyed Chaos Rises, it had a good concept of demons and humans kind of - and I say kind of in the loosest possible way here - co-existing in LA. It follows Gem or Gamma and her brother Del or Delta in their journey as half-bloods - a cross between a netherworld demon and a human - although it looks like Gamma and Delta were created rather than merged during the Fall.
They were with the Institute just before the Fall and after the Fall they were unleashed by a Prince of Hell on post-Fall LA where they struggled to survive in a world they knew nothing about. Enter Allard - a higher demon with a good human vessel and a taste for the brutal things in life.
We barely hear or see Delta as he is "demon-napped" in the first chapter of the book and we only really hear of him from Gamma where she tries to find him. Allard is a character I didn't like in the slightest - though I think he was written well I just didn't like him, he was a classic abuser and it was disappointing to see Gem fall for it so easily - at least in the beginning.
Towards the end she took him down nicely and that was amazing, totally unexpected. I honestly thought Gem's human character was far too nicey-nice and not hard enough for a life of demon living; she suppressed her demon with a drug invented by the Institute - PC34A - which took away all of her badass demoness until the end.
In terms of characters I think my favourite has got to be Torrent - a higher water demon with a tail! - and he seems to have changed post-Fall. He's a really nice guy in this book though we do find out that before that he may not have been quite so nice.
The concept of Chaos Rises was good if maybe a little short page-wise. I would also have liked to have seen a little more of a build-up on relationship between Gem and Torrent as I ship that but it was more of a "I've betrayed you, you've betrayed me, I'm sorry, I'm sorry" kind of vibe for most of the book - though well written!
The concept of demons is one that I've always enjoyed and I like the different types of species of demon in Chaos Rises - ice demons, fire demons, the lesser species of demon (various beasties - the scorpion type one is vicious) and my personal favourite: Chaos demons - I've read some books where a chaos demon is written badly but in Chaos Rises it was written really well.
The next best part about demons is the Prince of Pride - now the ending of the book has opened the next one up real nice and I'm looking forward to its release.
The story flowed pretty good with a couple of minor halts in story-line but they were quickly brought back up to speed with some good dialogue and just the right amount of description. The only thing - I think - that made me not give this book 5 stars was the systematic abuse from Allard towards not just Gem and Del but every demon under his power; the demon fights, the stock auctions, the fact that they were considered stock etc.
Besides this, I enjoyed the book a lot and I'm waiting with baited breath to see when the next one comes up for request.
I can imagine that reading the first series would have cleared up some of my questions about this book but as they say hindsight is 20/20.
I enjoyed Chaos Rises, it had a good concept of demons and humans kind of - and I say kind of in the loosest possible way here - co-existing in LA. It follows Gem or Gamma and her brother Del or Delta in their journey as half-bloods - a cross between a netherworld demon and a human - although it looks like Gamma and Delta were created rather than merged during the Fall.
They were with the Institute just before the Fall and after the Fall they were unleashed by a Prince of Hell on post-Fall LA where they struggled to survive in a world they knew nothing about. Enter Allard - a higher demon with a good human vessel and a taste for the brutal things in life.
We barely hear or see Delta as he is "demon-napped" in the first chapter of the book and we only really hear of him from Gamma where she tries to find him. Allard is a character I didn't like in the slightest - though I think he was written well I just didn't like him, he was a classic abuser and it was disappointing to see Gem fall for it so easily - at least in the beginning.
Towards the end she took him down nicely and that was amazing, totally unexpected. I honestly thought Gem's human character was far too nicey-nice and not hard enough for a life of demon living; she suppressed her demon with a drug invented by the Institute - PC34A - which took away all of her badass demoness until the end.
In terms of characters I think my favourite has got to be Torrent - a higher water demon with a tail! - and he seems to have changed post-Fall. He's a really nice guy in this book though we do find out that before that he may not have been quite so nice.
The concept of Chaos Rises was good if maybe a little short page-wise. I would also have liked to have seen a little more of a build-up on relationship between Gem and Torrent as I ship that but it was more of a "I've betrayed you, you've betrayed me, I'm sorry, I'm sorry" kind of vibe for most of the book - though well written!
The concept of demons is one that I've always enjoyed and I like the different types of species of demon in Chaos Rises - ice demons, fire demons, the lesser species of demon (various beasties - the scorpion type one is vicious) and my personal favourite: Chaos demons - I've read some books where a chaos demon is written badly but in Chaos Rises it was written really well.
The next best part about demons is the Prince of Pride - now the ending of the book has opened the next one up real nice and I'm looking forward to its release.
The story flowed pretty good with a couple of minor halts in story-line but they were quickly brought back up to speed with some good dialogue and just the right amount of description. The only thing - I think - that made me not give this book 5 stars was the systematic abuse from Allard towards not just Gem and Del but every demon under his power; the demon fights, the stock auctions, the fact that they were considered stock etc.
Besides this, I enjoyed the book a lot and I'm waiting with baited breath to see when the next one comes up for request.