purplefox 's review for:

Monstress, Vol. 2: The Blood by Marjorie M. Liu

4.25

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I liked this a bit more then the first book. I liked that Maika's mother is

not a good mom

. It made some of Maika's coldness and cruelty

(especially to Kippa, who I suspect she sees herself in)

make more sense. While at first I thought this story was avoiding the dreaded "super special chosen one" trope.

It does not.

Maika's ancestor

is the shaman empress, her aunt is the warlord, her grandmother is the Queen of Wolves, and her "goddess father" (fantasy world equivalent to god father?) is a powerful former pirate.

Her lineage is super special, she's super politically important and

she has been trained since she was a baby to fight and kill. The only thing that's stopping me from scoffing and slamming this book shut is that there are enough questions that have not been answered to get me to keep reading.