lezreadalot 's review for:

The Golden Ratio by Cole McCade

4.0

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“Yes,” Seong-Jae admitted raggedly, his hand stilling against Malcolm’s throat, his long fingers curling around his neck—yet there was no threat in the gesture. Only a sort of quiet clinging desperation, holding on to Malcolm’s very life.

I didn't even take that long of a break from the series, but it feels so good to be back with the boys! The author promised that things are moving in a darker direction, and that does seem to be the case with this new serial killer. The whole White Rabbit thing is a liiiiitle cheesy and a liiiiiittle gimmicky, but his methods are still so gruesome that it's legitimately scary. I think I'll enjoy the move away from episodic books where there's one villain per book who's always caught at the end. A season-long villain makes for a good change of pace. And I love the things this is bringing up for SJ and Malcolm. I love the place where they're at; pretty much secure in their relationship, but also having a lot of personal stuff that they need to get through, and that they need each other to get through. I adore default Seong-Jae with all his walls and barbs and sharp little sides, and I adore him even more when he allows himself to break down a little and cling to Malcolm. Their relationship still means everything to me, ugh. Very interesting to see more people from SJ's past. Aanga made me want to take my earrings off and get my girls to hold me back, lol, but I was still living for it. I hope we get some more Malcolm centric stuff soon too.

I'm really glad that we continue to get a lot of the girls; their friendship and whatever this relationship turns out to be means so much to me already. While Malcolm and SJ are still the main characters, I do want to see the fall out of the stuff that happened in Season One.

Spoiler

Like, I really want to see Anjulie and Gabi make a relationship work. I'm not all that interested in Anji's career rise or whatever, but I'll take anything that comes along with the girls. I'm a litttle.... surprised, I guess, at the direction the stuff with Huang and Wellington seems to be going. My hope is that their plot somehow intertwines with the main one, because I'm not sure how invested I'll be if it's just solely a side thing. I love Sade, of course. Seeing them bitchslap Sila was so cathartic. I'm a little bored of Sila, but it looks like he'll be pretty involved once again. The White Rabbit's son? Interesting.

Listened to the audiobook as read by Curt Bonnem, which I did enjoy as always. Sounds like he's pronouncing a few names a little differently, but I guess those are probably corrections from the first season. I really do wish there was another narrator for when we get POVs from the female side characters. (It is slightly awk listening to a guy narrate an f/f love scene.) But I don't think that's ever going to happen, alas, no matter how big a part they play. Nevertheless, I don't hate it or anything, and so I probably still will time my reading of the series with the release of the audiobooks for the second season, as they come out one by one. 

Content warnings:

Spoiler

a lot of death, gore, blood, dismemberment

“I go where you go,” Malcolm swore softly. “Always.”