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A review by jodiesackettbrown
From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Okay, waaayyy too much graphic sexual content for my liking, but that aside...WOW!
Without spoiling the delicious surprise toward the last fifth of the book, this is a wonderful bit of storytelling weaving and recasting bits of existing monster folklore with original myths in a masterful way. Though I could see a few story moves telegraphed in advance, there were loads of plot twists I didn't see coming--how delightful?!
I'm glad I stuck with this one--I almost didn't. The start was a bit slow and previewed the graphic sexuality that resurfaced more than a few times and the push for overt consent was a bit heavy handed. This caused me to start and stop reading about three times before I committed. I listened to this on audiobook and finally at about the 3.5 hour mark, I was solidly hooked.
Without spoiling the delicious surprise toward the last fifth of the book, this is a wonderful bit of storytelling weaving and recasting bits of existing monster folklore with original myths in a masterful way. Though I could see a few story moves telegraphed in advance, there were loads of plot twists I didn't see coming--how delightful?!
I'm glad I stuck with this one--I almost didn't. The start was a bit slow and previewed the graphic sexuality that resurfaced more than a few times and the push for overt consent was a bit heavy handed. This caused me to start and stop reading about three times before I committed. I listened to this on audiobook and finally at about the 3.5 hour mark, I was solidly hooked.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, and Violence