A Conclave of Shadows

The Grimm Chronicles #2

by M.J. Fletcher

Trapped between two worlds after Ronan Sparrow’s painful betrayal, Jessica Grimm will do whatever it takes to get home.

Lost and without help, Jess strikes a bargain with the wicked Alexander Pope to find a way home. But Pope has plans for Jess other than a happy homecoming. She has become a pawn in an ancient game between Pope and his most hated enemy, Merric Vale.
Using her guile and intelligence, Jess must find a path home and stop her enemies from unleashing a primeval evil on the Multiverse.

Can she survive the struggles ahead as she seeks to unravel the one mystery that has always eluded her… who is Merric Vale?

362 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 30, 2014

About the author

MJ Fletcher was born in New Jersey and now lives by the beach with his very understanding wife and daughter. He has been writing since he first stapled pages together as a child and called them a book. He finally realized his ambitions when his comic book series Adam Zero The Last Man of Earth was published by Ronin Studios. His other comic book work includes Digital Webbing Presents and The Hero Initiative. His first novel The Doorknob Society released in 2012 was nominated for a Cybil award in the young adult category. He has continued writing the Doorknob Society Saga his rollicking steampunk adventure series as well as working on numerous other writing projects.

Reviews

[Brit · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series is a spinoff from the DoorKnob Society saga, which I have to say I really enjoyed, in spite of the many grammar and spelling errors. Those errors are also present in this series, unfortunately.

Jess, the main character in this series, was one of my favorite supporting characters in the DS Saga so I was really looking forward to seeing her character develop more. I was not entirely impressed with book 1 in this series but continued on hoping for redemption of some consistency and depth of character issues.

Nope. Didn’t happen.

I felt like I was reading Jess’ shallow, inner dialogue on repeat. Also am I the only one whose thoughts immediately gravitate towards Animorphs and the Elf King from LOR in reference to Merric?

The new character descriptions, the new worlds—so amazing, beautiful, captivating. What a creative gift. What is happening to your characters MJ?

I’ve lost all emotional investment. The story became predictable, and lacked the tension that I loved from the Door Knob Society. Jess feels like a wash, rinse, repeat of Chloe.

Honestly, I would love to know more about what happened to NightShade and Chloe from this book than I care to follow up with Jess and Merric’s story.

I will probably read book 3 in hopes of having closure and redemption since MJ has a gift for cliffhangers but I’m not sure I can recommend this series. Door Knob Society, yes, Grimm Chronicles, probably not.

[Brandi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about Jess, this book, or this series. My biggest problem is that being in Jess' head is a lesson in frustration because her inner thoughts are so damn repetitive, it's annoying.

Don't get me wrong, a little bit of repetition isn't bad. But it's when the main character is going over the same topics from chapter to chapter that I start to have a problem. Especially when you consider that the chapters themselves aren't long and often times happen within moments of the previous chapters (and literally moments, not days or weeks, but minutes). Do readers really need to hear the same thoughts about Merric Vale, Ronan, LaReina, or Nyla over and over again? It is necessary to fill every chapter with at least one of those repetitive inner thoughts?

Part of that is the author's writing style, but part of it is the character he's created. She's different from kickass Chloe, and she's meant to be. But all of this constant reflecting seriously bogged down the start of this book. It wasn't until the 40% mark that things really picked up. And it's a good thing it did, because I was just about to give up trying to read this book.

From the 40% point on, the story and action picked up. Overall, it was enjoyable, but also a little predictable. Aside from two revelations, both coming from Merric, I knew the story before I read it. Figuring out what was going to happen killed any excitement I had, to be honest, and coupled with a lack of emotional investment I had for Jess, I read this simply to say I finished. It felt like the drama and tension was missing.

Part of it is the bad editing. After five Doorknob Society books, and two Grimm Chronicle books, why hasn't MJ Fletcher hired a proper editor and/or proofreader?? While the action and excitement of his first series carried me through the numerous grammatical mistakes, the slow start here gave me ample time to dream about a red pen. Examples include using "feint" for "faint", "too" for "to", and a complete misunderstanding of when to use an apostrophe S.

And part of it was that Jess' story doesn't feel new; she and her adventures feel like a watered down version of Chloe's story. Where Chloe's books felt action-packed and surprising, Jess' books, this one in particular, feel dull in comparison. I'm trying not to do the comparison game, but it's tough when the story starts to bore you, and when the characters all feel a little two dimensional.

So, would I recommend this book? Probably, but with a note that you should wait until this series is finished. MJ Fletcher loooves cliffhangers; there was one in Book 1, and there's one here (and it's a tough one to swallow). Maybe if I didn't have to wait for Book 3 I'd feel differently. But right now, I'm just frustrated that the author has left his readers hanging a-freaking-gain.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the characters in this series. Each have been through so much. Find out which myths and legends Jessica Grimm might face...they are not just scary stories to tell at bedtime.
This book is a cliffhanger, so I anxiously wait for the next book in this series to be finished and released. :)