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A review by serru
Roadkill by Rob Thurman
4.0
I've come to the conclusion that this series isn't really about the actual monster-of-the-week plot of each book. The plots so far have been consistently very straightforward, and mostly involves the characters hunting down whoever or whatever the new villain is that appears in the current book. They're also really simple plots for the most part, they generally follow a formula of look for villain, find villain and fight, retreat after a defeat, and rinse and repeat until the final battle where they finally get him/her. The plots are secondary, and to be honest, kind of forgettable. Yeah, there are some twists and turns and shocking moments, but they really take a backseat to the real center of the story: the characters.
I loooove the characters in this series. Cal and Niko are still feeling the aftermath of the last book with Cal wrestling with his Auphe side which seems to be growing, and was it just me or did Niko seem to be extra vigilant about Cal's safety? We get some glimpses of Robin and his new monogamous relationship (and his undead cat!), and I remain disappointed that Robin doesn't have a greater role in the story and that his new beau doesn't actually show up in this book except in one short scene in the beginning. A werewolf character named Catcher, who we met very briefly before, makes a return and even gets his own POV chapters and while I was really skeptical at the beginning, he totally grew on me. Delilah was great as always, the best female character in this series, and I love that she does whatever she wants, isn't afraid of Cal and doesn't seem to care about his monster genes, and always puts her own interests first.
There was some interesting world-building; Rob Thurman always puts unique twists onto the traditional supernatural creatures. What we learn about werewolves and Catcher's situation is really original and interesting, and I also liked her take on healers as people who have intimate knowledge of the body and essentially use telekinetic and psychic skills to basically will people's cells into healing. The villain in this book, Suyolak, is one such healer who uses his powers for evil, an anti-healer basically, and it makes him so much scarier and more powerful than the previous villains. There were a few moments where I was genuinely afraid for Cal and the others, and I had no clue how they were even going to try to fight him.
Still, the whole plot to hunt him down and kill him felt a bit like a rehash of the last two books, due to the constant chase, fight/encounter, then, after the villain gets away, they just repeat the cycle again. That said, I think this was the strongest plot so far. Ultimately, while the resolution of the final battle was predictable, the ending of the book is satisfying but bittersweet in terms of the fate of a certain character and what lies in the future for Cal.
I loooove the characters in this series. Cal and Niko are still feeling the aftermath of the last book with Cal wrestling with his Auphe side which seems to be growing, and was it just me or did Niko seem to be extra vigilant about Cal's safety? We get some glimpses of Robin and his new monogamous relationship (and his undead cat!), and I remain disappointed that Robin doesn't have a greater role in the story and that his new beau doesn't actually show up in this book except in one short scene in the beginning. A werewolf character named Catcher, who we met very briefly before, makes a return and even gets his own POV chapters and while I was really skeptical at the beginning, he totally grew on me. Delilah was great as always, the best female character in this series, and I love that she does whatever she wants, isn't afraid of Cal and doesn't seem to care about his monster genes, and always puts her own interests first.
There was some interesting world-building; Rob Thurman always puts unique twists onto the traditional supernatural creatures. What we learn about werewolves and Catcher's situation is really original and interesting, and I also liked her take on healers as people who have intimate knowledge of the body and essentially use telekinetic and psychic skills to basically will people's cells into healing. The villain in this book, Suyolak, is one such healer who uses his powers for evil, an anti-healer basically, and it makes him so much scarier and more powerful than the previous villains. There were a few moments where I was genuinely afraid for Cal and the others, and I had no clue how they were even going to try to fight him.
Still, the whole plot to hunt him down and kill him felt a bit like a rehash of the last two books, due to the constant chase, fight/encounter, then, after the villain gets away, they just repeat the cycle again. That said, I think this was the strongest plot so far. Ultimately, while the resolution of the final battle was predictable, the ending of the book is satisfying but bittersweet in terms of the fate of a certain character and what lies in the future for Cal.