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A review by eesh25
The Damned by Renée Ahdieh
3.0
3.5 Stars
Note to self, the next time you think you're reading the last book in a series, maybe check to make sure that that's actually the case? That way, you won't end up having to rethink all your opinions toward the plot of the book.
Honestly, this was a weird reading experience for me. If you're familiar with Ahdieh, then you know that she's previously written two duologies. So I just assumed that it was the same with this series. I don't find out that this was only the second of four books until I finished it, realized the ending left like 50 plotlines up in the air and googled the series to see if there were going to be more books. Which there were because this was never planned as a duology!
At the end of The Beautiful, we left Sebastian turning into a vampire and Celine having her memory of anything relating to him erased. And Michael deciding to be an opportunistic douchebag by taking his chance with the girl without her memories. I really don't like Michael, something that doesn't change throughout the novel.
Now, the way I thought the story would go is that we'd deal with the memory issue, Seb's new vampirism, and his evil sister. Then there would be a happily ever after. Instead, the book introduces a bunch of new elements relating to Celine's past, potential new villains, and just a whole other major plot. And I couldn't figure out why the author was doing that because I thought this was the last book! But, having thought about it now, there were some very interesting developments. And I loved getting to know some of the side characters more. Arjun, for example, played a much bigger role.
The rating is still 3.5, though, because the book took some time to get interesting. It was always easy to read, but some parts felt a bit unnecessary. Like Odette's POV. I don't know what it had to offer to the story. And it was so ridiculously overdramatic that I couldn't take it seriously. I also thought certain parts were rushed, and why was Bastian's sister barely mentioned for over half the novel?
Also, the book's take on vampires is nothing new. It reminded me of The Vampire Diaries (the show), and it's not as if we haven't read about or seen vampires in media before. They're kinda old news at this point. So the whole I-am-darkness, I-am-a-monster stuff was tedious and took me out of the story. Odette's POV was the worst, but Sebastian's wasn't great either. Though the latter got much better and Odette only got two or three chapters.
My favourite POV was Celine's, except for the love-triangle. Which wasn't actually a love-triangle because there was no way Celine was gonna chose fucking Michael. So it was just annoying. Also, Celine made a few choices, regarding Michael, that I didn't agree with.
Overall though, this was a fast, engaging read. I do wish the book took itself a little less seriously because the purple prose-y ness was a bit much this time around. But for the most part, I liked the book and I'm looking forward to what'll happen next. I'm hoping that the next two installments will be better paced and, with plot intro out-of-the-way, more cohesive.
Note to self, the next time you think you're reading the last book in a series, maybe check to make sure that that's actually the case? That way, you won't end up having to rethink all your opinions toward the plot of the book.
Honestly, this was a weird reading experience for me. If you're familiar with Ahdieh, then you know that she's previously written two duologies. So I just assumed that it was the same with this series. I don't find out that this was only the second of four books until I finished it, realized the ending left like 50 plotlines up in the air and googled the series to see if there were going to be more books. Which there were because this was never planned as a duology!
At the end of The Beautiful, we left Sebastian turning into a vampire and Celine having her memory of anything relating to him erased. And Michael deciding to be an opportunistic douchebag by taking his chance with the girl without her memories. I really don't like Michael, something that doesn't change throughout the novel.
Now, the way I thought the story would go is that we'd deal with the memory issue, Seb's new vampirism, and his evil sister. Then there would be a happily ever after. Instead, the book introduces a bunch of new elements relating to Celine's past, potential new villains, and just a whole other major plot. And I couldn't figure out why the author was doing that because I thought this was the last book! But, having thought about it now, there were some very interesting developments. And I loved getting to know some of the side characters more. Arjun, for example, played a much bigger role.
The rating is still 3.5, though, because the book took some time to get interesting. It was always easy to read, but some parts felt a bit unnecessary. Like Odette's POV. I don't know what it had to offer to the story. And it was so ridiculously overdramatic that I couldn't take it seriously. I also thought certain parts were rushed, and why was Bastian's sister barely mentioned for over half the novel?
Also, the book's take on vampires is nothing new. It reminded me of The Vampire Diaries (the show), and it's not as if we haven't read about or seen vampires in media before. They're kinda old news at this point. So the whole I-am-darkness, I-am-a-monster stuff was tedious and took me out of the story. Odette's POV was the worst, but Sebastian's wasn't great either. Though the latter got much better and Odette only got two or three chapters.
My favourite POV was Celine's, except for the love-triangle. Which wasn't actually a love-triangle because there was no way Celine was gonna chose fucking Michael. So it was just annoying. Also, Celine made a few choices, regarding Michael, that I didn't agree with.
Overall though, this was a fast, engaging read. I do wish the book took itself a little less seriously because the purple prose-y ness was a bit much this time around. But for the most part, I liked the book and I'm looking forward to what'll happen next. I'm hoping that the next two installments will be better paced and, with plot intro out-of-the-way, more cohesive.