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melodyplusplus 's review for:
Magic Bites
by Ilona Andrews
Stuff I liked:
- Kate. She knows her craft. She also knows (more or less) when to back away and get some sleep. She has muscles and clothes that facilitate actual fighting. She doesn't get a fucking cinderella makeover. She's comfortable with her sexuality without her appearance necessarily facilitating it. And foremost: she's not an asshole, despite being pretty well pegged as the brooding heroine.
- The whole post-apocalyptic schtick. The worldbuilding is solid. Perfect amount of technobabble which keeps it all relatively believable.
- The near clinical description of gore. No long winded metaphors, no silly similes. Loved it!
- Nick the Crusader! I won't spoil too much, but this guy didn't get half as much chapter time as he should have. Instantly ship-able!
Stuff I liked... less:
- Though the gore and horror was smoothly described, there was a lot of sporadic, flowery language popping up here and there. Like the authors began walking down prose-lane, regretting the choice halfway.
- The manbeast were-creatures. I'm sorry, but they made me laugh. In a bad way. Every time a supposedly menacing HALF RAT/LYNX/GORILLA - HALF MAN showed up I giggled, because the descriptions are ridiculous. It might as well have been Al Gore describing them.
Give me full animal transformation, give me bi-ped lions, FINE. But the whole EYES OF A CAT - MOUTH OF A CONVENIENCE STORE CASHIER-thing was just... silly.
- Ok. This book is set in Georgia. A lot of it in Atlanta. One of the states with the biggest African American demographics of the US. And yet, finding a main character of color in this book is like looking for Waldo. With the exception of Nataraja and Ghastek (who are waaaay to exotified to count) all of the PoC are reduced to set dressing.
- The unbelievable lack of well described sexual tension. I mean, I get it, there's a long arc-romance coming, so no one's getting any action yet, but there was really not an ounce of the stuff in this book. Which was SO DISAPPOINTING.
- Kate. She knows her craft. She also knows (more or less) when to back away and get some sleep. She has muscles and clothes that facilitate actual fighting. She doesn't get a fucking cinderella makeover. She's comfortable with her sexuality without her appearance necessarily facilitating it. And foremost: she's not an asshole, despite being pretty well pegged as the brooding heroine.
- The whole post-apocalyptic schtick. The worldbuilding is solid. Perfect amount of technobabble which keeps it all relatively believable.
- The near clinical description of gore. No long winded metaphors, no silly similes. Loved it!
- Nick the Crusader! I won't spoil too much, but this guy didn't get half as much chapter time as he should have. Instantly ship-able!
Stuff I liked... less:
- Though the gore and horror was smoothly described, there was a lot of sporadic, flowery language popping up here and there. Like the authors began walking down prose-lane, regretting the choice halfway.
- The manbeast were-creatures. I'm sorry, but they made me laugh. In a bad way. Every time a supposedly menacing HALF RAT/LYNX/GORILLA - HALF MAN showed up I giggled, because the descriptions are ridiculous. It might as well have been Al Gore describing them.
Give me full animal transformation, give me bi-ped lions, FINE. But the whole EYES OF A CAT - MOUTH OF A CONVENIENCE STORE CASHIER-thing was just... silly.
- Ok. This book is set in Georgia. A lot of it in Atlanta. One of the states with the biggest African American demographics of the US. And yet, finding a main character of color in this book is like looking for Waldo. With the exception of Nataraja and Ghastek (who are waaaay to exotified to count) all of the PoC are reduced to set dressing.
- The unbelievable lack of well described sexual tension. I mean, I get it, there's a long arc-romance coming, so no one's getting any action yet, but there was really not an ounce of the stuff in this book. Which was SO DISAPPOINTING.