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A review by thebakersbooks
The Dust Feast by Gregory Ashe
4.0
4/5 stars — the most chilling installment of the series so far
In the third book of the Hollow Folk series, new threats advance the series plot and ratchet the fear factor back to eleven. While I thought the novel's construction was sound from a technical standpoint—Gregory Ashe's strengths in winding the story around a terrifying mystery worked to great effect—I personally felt the major antagonist's involvement in child sex trafficking was an unnecessarily dark place to take the narrative. The bad guys have already been established as terrible people; while those horrors exist in the real world, reading about them even in passing saps much of my enjoyment of a book. As always, a disclaimer: your mileage may vary! I lean toward books that stick to lighter subject matter, but I'm attached to these characters (which speaks to Ashe's skill in character development).
Vie's circle of friends, allies, and acquaintances continues to grow in The Dust Feast. His relationship with Austin plays a larger role in the story than in any of the previous books. I'm rarely interested in romantic subplots, but it's refreshing to see Vie relaxing and allowing Austin and others (most notably his foster mom, Sara) to get inside his guard and help him both materially and emotionally. Those interpersonal relationships and Vie's increasing stability and self-assurance are, for me, the high points of this series.
My reviews of the first two books mentioned hints of racism and fatphobia creeping into the narrative. I still attribute some of that to the way the author has Vie describe people, but it's becoming more blatant as the series progresses. So far, the only sympathetic fat character I've noticed is Sara, the foster mother, and Vie never mentally refers to her as "fat." He does, however, apply that word to two other female characters introduced in this book, along with detailed descriptions of their strangely proportioned, undesirable bodies. At the very least, this series has a problem with linking ugliness (in the MC's eyes) to negative characters. The first book dodged issues with racism by avoiding them; this one contains the passage "she still looked like she’d be more comfortable chopping wood or plowing a field or towing an airplane by her teeth than doing social work. Her features marked her as Native American: skin copper-bright; long, dark hair; and the eyes as wide and dark as a Wyoming night sky," and also the phrase "a pleasantly multiracial woman." I don't even know what the second one is supposed to mean, but it feels strange.
Finally, the quality of editing seems to have dropped off in this book. I stopped counting after a dozen typos. Basically, I'm frustrated because this story has good bones, but it's gone to a darker place than I'm comfortable with and it's straying into bad territory vis-à-vis characters who aren't white and conventionally attractive.
I'm listing a quite a few negatives, but the book's good aspects still outweighed the bad. Ashe's prose occasionally strays toward the poetic, contrasting beautifully with the gritty themes and stark setting. Austin and Vie work on bumps in their relationship with maturity I appreciate, even if it seems a bit much for sixteen-year-olds. Vie is a stereotypical "tough guy" in many regards, but he shows emotion, even to the point of tears at some points. The creepy atmosphere of Mr. Big Empty is back, especially at the end of The Dust Feast. Vie and his squad face off with a terrifying new enemy whose description was really the stuff of nightmares.
My verdict? I recommend the book with reservations to those who enjoyed the previous two. The treatment of race, appearance, etc. in the fourth book will make all the difference in my overall assessment of the series.
** an incomplete list of content warnings: mention of rape, mentions of pedophilia, child sex trafficking, child abduction, graphic violence, self-harm, drug addiction, homophobia and homophobic language **
In the third book of the Hollow Folk series, new threats advance the series plot and ratchet the fear factor back to eleven. While I thought the novel's construction was sound from a technical standpoint—Gregory Ashe's strengths in winding the story around a terrifying mystery worked to great effect—I personally felt the major antagonist's involvement in child sex trafficking was an unnecessarily dark place to take the narrative. The bad guys have already been established as terrible people; while those horrors exist in the real world, reading about them even in passing saps much of my enjoyment of a book. As always, a disclaimer: your mileage may vary! I lean toward books that stick to lighter subject matter, but I'm attached to these characters (which speaks to Ashe's skill in character development).
Vie's circle of friends, allies, and acquaintances continues to grow in The Dust Feast. His relationship with Austin plays a larger role in the story than in any of the previous books. I'm rarely interested in romantic subplots, but it's refreshing to see Vie relaxing and allowing Austin and others (most notably his foster mom, Sara) to get inside his guard and help him both materially and emotionally. Those interpersonal relationships and Vie's increasing stability and self-assurance are, for me, the high points of this series.
My reviews of the first two books mentioned hints of racism and fatphobia creeping into the narrative. I still attribute some of that to the way the author has Vie describe people, but it's becoming more blatant as the series progresses. So far, the only sympathetic fat character I've noticed is Sara, the foster mother, and Vie never mentally refers to her as "fat." He does, however, apply that word to two other female characters introduced in this book, along with detailed descriptions of their strangely proportioned, undesirable bodies. At the very least, this series has a problem with linking ugliness (in the MC's eyes) to negative characters. The first book dodged issues with racism by avoiding them; this one contains the passage "she still looked like she’d be more comfortable chopping wood or plowing a field or towing an airplane by her teeth than doing social work. Her features marked her as Native American: skin copper-bright; long, dark hair; and the eyes as wide and dark as a Wyoming night sky," and also the phrase "a pleasantly multiracial woman." I don't even know what the second one is supposed to mean, but it feels strange.
Finally, the quality of editing seems to have dropped off in this book. I stopped counting after a dozen typos. Basically, I'm frustrated because this story has good bones, but it's gone to a darker place than I'm comfortable with and it's straying into bad territory vis-à-vis characters who aren't white and conventionally attractive.
I'm listing a quite a few negatives, but the book's good aspects still outweighed the bad. Ashe's prose occasionally strays toward the poetic, contrasting beautifully with the gritty themes and stark setting. Austin and Vie work on bumps in their relationship with maturity I appreciate, even if it seems a bit much for sixteen-year-olds. Vie is a stereotypical "tough guy" in many regards, but he shows emotion, even to the point of tears at some points. The creepy atmosphere of Mr. Big Empty is back, especially at the end of The Dust Feast. Vie and his squad face off with a terrifying new enemy whose description was really the stuff of nightmares.
My verdict? I recommend the book with reservations to those who enjoyed the previous two. The treatment of race, appearance, etc. in the fourth book will make all the difference in my overall assessment of the series.
** an incomplete list of content warnings: mention of rape, mentions of pedophilia, child sex trafficking, child abduction, graphic violence, self-harm, drug addiction, homophobia and homophobic language **