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A review by qalminator
Storm in a Teacup by Emmie Mears
2.0
Meh. I nearly gave up on this one, but around the 20-25% mark it started getting interesting. I still would read a chapter or two of it, then go to something else for a while.
So, the good: the Shades are fascinating creatures. What they remind me of most is the Frankenstein narrative, but instead of just one "experiment", there are a bunch happening all at once, with these newborn creatures trying to figure out their place in a violent world. Also, they were not sexual fiends/feeders, which is where a lot of authors would have gone with them.
The bad: slow to start, and, once it did get started, it didn't hold my interest well. Worse, I feel like all the characters could have handled things better, or that we needed to be given a better explanation for why certain ones (e.g. Alamea) did not. Also [SPOILER ALERT] we find out at the end that this has happened before and that there are Shades from previous attempts still around, so why didn't the Mediators already know about them, and have contingencies in place, hmm? If you want to drop that as a bombshell in the last few pages, you need to have earned it, and thought through the implications. Possibly the author plans to cover this in the next book, but, then, it shouldn't have been introduced until that next book, as it just makes a hash of the current one.
So, the good: the Shades are fascinating creatures. What they remind me of most is the Frankenstein narrative, but instead of just one "experiment", there are a bunch happening all at once, with these newborn creatures trying to figure out their place in a violent world. Also, they were not sexual fiends/feeders, which is where a lot of authors would have gone with them.
The bad: slow to start, and, once it did get started, it didn't hold my interest well. Worse, I feel like all the characters could have handled things better, or that we needed to be given a better explanation for why certain ones (e.g. Alamea) did not. Also [SPOILER ALERT] we find out at the end that this has happened before and that there are Shades from previous attempts still around, so why didn't the Mediators already know about them, and have contingencies in place, hmm? If you want to drop that as a bombshell in the last few pages, you need to have earned it, and thought through the implications. Possibly the author plans to cover this in the next book, but, then, it shouldn't have been introduced until that next book, as it just makes a hash of the current one.