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A review by zoe_e_w
Carpe Corpus by Rachel Caine
5.0
I've plowed through the first six books of this series in what feels like record time for me, but that's because I did NOTHING ELSE besides read. But at long last comes a book that doesn't end on a cliffhanger, answers a lot of questions about the current plots, and leaves just enough closure where I can pause from the series and take a breath before diving into the next book.
Carpe Coprus did not start off exactly where the last book left off, so some of what was missed out on in the following months is briefly recapped before moving ahead with the story. Bishop still has Claire, Shane, Eve, and Michael separated, and now has full control of Morganville. Or so it seems, and soon Amelie makes an appearance to explain where she's been, and how she plans to fight back in the face of what seems like certain defeat. Bishop, who is certain of the degree of control he has over his victims, decides to allow Shane to be released from custody, in exchange for a very heavy price. Shane, Michael, and Eve then suggest as usual that Claire should just sit at home and ride out the storm. But obviously, this isn't and hasn't been Claire's style right from the start.
Claire at the start of the book is being slightly silly in insisting over and over "there's no such thing as magic." She's working with and fighting against vampires and aided by a steampunk-style difference engine powered by the soul of one of Myrnin's former victims, and she's intimately familiar with teleporting around town using magic doorways. Denial at this point is stubbornness of a satirical level, in my opinion. But aside from this streak of denial, she's also become a much harder and more focused person. No shock, as life in a war zone will either make you faster and sharper, or it makes you dead.
Shane and Claire finally get their moment alone with no interruptions, although having it happen a day after Claire's birthday in the circumstances as they were, it felt...kinda like a penny porn setup. "Oh, she's legal now, time to get buck wild." I suppose I knew it had to happen this way, because YA is all about the "wait until you're legal" lecture. But considering what had just happened not hours before said deed, I can't find it all that likely that Shane would just turn on like a lamp. But again, I expected things to turn out like this, cause some rules in YA, you don't break unless you don't really want to be marketed as YA.
From this point on, the book returns to the endgame between Amelie and Bishop, and because Claire is a creature of habit, it's not too hard to guess when her random trips out will lead her in a roundabout way to the location of the final battle, even though everyone and her mother told her not to be there. This is always the case. Claire says, "I'll just go to classes and pretend to be normal," and normal gets ripped out from under her rolled and rolled off like a used carpet.
Also given that I've been reading all the books so close together, it wasn't hard to see the foreshadowing about certain characters showing up late in the game, nor was it hard to predict how the last few chapters would go. I got to a point of almost too perfect closure at 85% into the book, and I thought, "No, there's still time for one more disaster." Yep, there was, and yep, I knew how that would go down, too.
But then the last chapter closes on a "happy for now" kind of ending. It's like the season finale to a TV series, with enough closure to cap the events from the past books, while still leaving enough wiggle room to move on to new stories in the next season. Amelie regains control of the town, and new changes go into place granting the humans more security from the vampires, even including them being allowed to carry stakes and other weapons for self-defense. There's still plenty of work to be done to rebuild in the wake of this war, but the humans and the vampires have reached a state of compromise that could make future stories very interesting if both sides honor the truce. Part of me expects trouble from both sides, and soon.
I'm glad to take a small break and breathe before moving into that new territory, but I'm also impressed at how quickly this series addicted me. I really haven't read anything quite this engrossing in a long time, and even series I really liked, I didn't feel this much need to keep pushing forward and ignore everything else. (And I do mean everything. I may need a bath now. I know, TMI.)
I give Carpe Corpus five stars, and I highly recommend this series to anyone looking for a new vampire addiction.
Carpe Coprus did not start off exactly where the last book left off, so some of what was missed out on in the following months is briefly recapped before moving ahead with the story. Bishop still has Claire, Shane, Eve, and Michael separated, and now has full control of Morganville. Or so it seems, and soon Amelie makes an appearance to explain where she's been, and how she plans to fight back in the face of what seems like certain defeat. Bishop, who is certain of the degree of control he has over his victims, decides to allow Shane to be released from custody, in exchange for a very heavy price. Shane, Michael, and Eve then suggest as usual that Claire should just sit at home and ride out the storm. But obviously, this isn't and hasn't been Claire's style right from the start.
Claire at the start of the book is being slightly silly in insisting over and over "there's no such thing as magic." She's working with and fighting against vampires and aided by a steampunk-style difference engine powered by the soul of one of Myrnin's former victims, and she's intimately familiar with teleporting around town using magic doorways. Denial at this point is stubbornness of a satirical level, in my opinion. But aside from this streak of denial, she's also become a much harder and more focused person. No shock, as life in a war zone will either make you faster and sharper, or it makes you dead.
Shane and Claire finally get their moment alone with no interruptions, although having it happen a day after Claire's birthday in the circumstances as they were, it felt...kinda like a penny porn setup. "Oh, she's legal now, time to get buck wild." I suppose I knew it had to happen this way, because YA is all about the "wait until you're legal" lecture. But considering what had just happened not hours before said deed, I can't find it all that likely that Shane would just turn on like a lamp. But again, I expected things to turn out like this, cause some rules in YA, you don't break unless you don't really want to be marketed as YA.
From this point on, the book returns to the endgame between Amelie and Bishop, and because Claire is a creature of habit, it's not too hard to guess when her random trips out will lead her in a roundabout way to the location of the final battle, even though everyone and her mother told her not to be there. This is always the case. Claire says, "I'll just go to classes and pretend to be normal," and normal gets ripped out from under her rolled and rolled off like a used carpet.
Also given that I've been reading all the books so close together, it wasn't hard to see the foreshadowing about certain characters showing up late in the game, nor was it hard to predict how the last few chapters would go. I got to a point of almost too perfect closure at 85% into the book, and I thought, "No, there's still time for one more disaster." Yep, there was, and yep, I knew how that would go down, too.
But then the last chapter closes on a "happy for now" kind of ending. It's like the season finale to a TV series, with enough closure to cap the events from the past books, while still leaving enough wiggle room to move on to new stories in the next season. Amelie regains control of the town, and new changes go into place granting the humans more security from the vampires, even including them being allowed to carry stakes and other weapons for self-defense. There's still plenty of work to be done to rebuild in the wake of this war, but the humans and the vampires have reached a state of compromise that could make future stories very interesting if both sides honor the truce. Part of me expects trouble from both sides, and soon.
I'm glad to take a small break and breathe before moving into that new territory, but I'm also impressed at how quickly this series addicted me. I really haven't read anything quite this engrossing in a long time, and even series I really liked, I didn't feel this much need to keep pushing forward and ignore everything else. (And I do mean everything. I may need a bath now. I know, TMI.)
I give Carpe Corpus five stars, and I highly recommend this series to anyone looking for a new vampire addiction.