“Happy endings don’t come cheap.”
Man, it feels strange being back in Gatlin with all these characters again. A good kind of strange however. I don’t know why I waited so long to visit them again, probably some fear that the spin off series will fuck up an ending I actually really enjoyed. Yeah, jury is still out on this, since this is a novella and not the ‘real’ first book of the new series, but hey whatever.
Serving as an introduction to the new series Dangerous Creatures, this short novella takes the reader back to Gatlin and right into the High School Graduation ceremony of Ethan, Lena and Link. Instead of focusing on Ethan and Lena however, this short story then follows Link and especially Lena’s cousin Ridley to New York and right into her own spin off series.
This novella is a nice little game of catching up, at least in the beginning. It is a good feeling back in Ethan’s mind, I always enjoyed his narration and good to know that he and Lena, as well as Liv and John are still going strong.
Ethan’s dad has a new girlfriend and to my disappointment it doesn’t seem like Macon and Marian have hooked up yet. There’s also a serious lack of Macon in this story. You can never have enough Uncle Macon.
Whatever, moving on.
Like every spin off set up this story slowly transitions from lovey dovey Ethan and Lena to Link and Ridley and their complicated relationship.
Link is pretty much the best so I appreciate being in his head for a while, though it is surprisingly no first person narration this time.
The Linkubus is a fun character, most of the time hilarious, genuine and witty. He also is a love sick puppy when it comes to Ridley. You have to feel sorry for Link. He genuinely loves that girl and well, Ridley is simply being Ridley. He finally confesses his feelings for her, which was pretty much an open secret and leads to a hilarious scene in which all of his friends basically flee the scene, because everyone expects Ridley’s bad reaction.
And as everyone already knew she flips out on him and leaves town.
Which leads us to the final perspective in this story and which I expect the major point of view during the rest of the series: Ridley’s perspective.
Well, I was a bit disappointed to be honest.
I don’t know what exactly I expected from Ridley’s point of view, I guess just something different. Her voice wasn’t particular interesting which surprised me. This is Ridley, she has always been one of the most fascinating characters in the series and yet, it didn’t work out for me. Her little ‘adventure’ was more interesting as an idea but the execution fell flat.
Ridley herself seemed like a different person than the one I got to know in the course of four full length novels. Maybe that is just because people view her differently than she does herself (which is pretty much natural) still I was left wanting more, wanting something else. I have this theory that some characters are not meant to be point of view characters, because that kills part of what makes them fascinating and I’m afraid that is what could happen to Ridley. Some characters work better with a little bit of mystery attached to them.
Of course this is just a novella and only a glimpse to a new series, so maybe Ridley’s voice will find its own footing and actually improve.
By the way, the ending indicated a possible love triangle. Ugh.
Conclusion: Nice little story and an easy way back into the Caster World. Not the best crafted novella, but surely enjoyable.
Recommendation: Definitely for fans of the series.