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mirrorchaser 's review for:
The Damned
by Renée Ahdieh
In all fairness to this series, I also didn't like the first book so if you did like the first book you may be safe reading this one.
First and foremost, these books are in general, quite forgettable. In both cases (picking up this book after it came out and writing this review in February after finishing the book in October) I had to look at my notes to refresh my memory on what actually happened during the books. I read a lot so I don't expect to remember the intricacies of every book that I read but I do generally expect to remember general plot points, main character's names, and some things about the universe. Picking up the second book in this series (and writing the review) was like a blank slate. I could read these books again in a year and probably have zero recollection of ever reading them at all.
Comparatively, [b:The Beautiful|42265183|The Beautiful (The Beautiful, #1)|Renée Ahdieh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1547578763l/42265183._SY75_.jpg|65881999] and [b:The Damned|53131137|The Damned (The Beautiful, #2)|Renée Ahdieh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1570224902l/53131137._SY75_.jpg|65882266] hardly seem to be from the same series. They are so different, and they both aren't good. While The Beautiful was told through the eyes of Celine, our naive (but pretending she isn't) female lead, The Damned is told from the perspective of Sexy Vampire Bad Boi Seb-but call me-Bastian. I did prefer this perspective, because Bastian knows a lot more about the world that they live in and despite the world-building dump that we normally would never get in a second book (worlds are supposed to be built in the first book, Y'all) it works because Celine sees NOLA through a very different lens.
The author also introduced a lot of new characters and expanded on preexisting ones. Sure, this isn't unusual for a second book in a four book series but the author clearly wanted me to care about these other characters and I didn't care about them. I just didn't.
It was also kind of difficult for me to process/accept that the first book was contemporary fiction with a fantasy element and now we are getting a full blown fantasy novel. That's a big change for someone to make half way through a series. Maybe someone more analytical would appreciate the fact that Ahdeih made sure the world you see through Celine's eyes is authentic to Celine and what she knows about the world but I am not a literature graduate student. I just want a good read.
One star because I do stay.. intrigued once the actual plot starts. That counts for something in my book.