I give two star reviews when I am deeply conflicted, and that was the case for this book. As with the book I reviewed prior, I picked it up last minute for entertainment on a long flight. This one was much more entertaining but I can't quite bring myself to say I liked it, because there were multiple aspects of it that really bothered me.
Unlike the last book that I (tried to) read, this book’s heroine is clear in her character – she is an addict with sociopathic tendencies, and a gift for death magic. She refers to herself as a sociopath but I don’t think she is, as she has strong bonds to some people and the ability to feel some emotions. On the other hand, she does lie easily and lacks the general empathy that most people feel. These traits are definitely not heroic and it is refreshing to see someone who is a real antihero, not someone with a strong moral compass who is just.
The story its self isn’t great – the pacing is extremely uneven, and our herione’s emotional jumps are extreme, especially in the context of her lust for magic. However, the general arc makes sense and it is compelling to watch someone who is a genuinely bad person try so incredibly hard to be good.
The side characters are a mixed bag. Some of them, like Corey, the best imagineable friend, and her sister, are really a pleasure to read. They are good foils to Erin, facing their own struggles and the challenges of being around her in their own ways. However, the love interests are really awful. If I am remembering correctly, we are now up to four, all of whom are some variation on sinfully attractive bad boys obsessed with a risky situations. Any one character like this might not be so bad, especially considering it makes sense for adrenaline junkies to be attracted to Erin, but there are four that we are introduced to, and really the description that I provided is pretty much all there is to their characters and motivations. Aside from their different names and abilities, they are completely identical, and the net effect is that they just make the scenes they are in annoying. In world Erin's attraction to them makes sense because she is shallow and driven by a lust for power, but frankly the more they are in the story, the less I want to read it. if I continue with the series, I want a meteorite to come and squish at least 3 of them so that we can watch the plot advance in their absence. Unfortunately that seems quite unlikely.
The writing is really disorganized. For just one example, see the excerpt below:
“Please follow me,” the woman directed as she led me to a room not far from the entrance. I appreciated that the meeting was in a professional setting. Victoria kept me waiting for nearly fifteen minutes. I started off seated in the oversized chair in the corner but quickly became restless and walked around the office that was half the size of my apartments.
We are told the feelings of the protagonist rather than being shown them, but that is a common literary challenge and I won’t really fault the author for having trouble with it. More notable for me is that we are told about Erin’s feelings before we are told about the thing that drives them, which makes the above issue genuinely disconcerting and distracting.
Other issues with the writing include the author uses predaceous instead of predatory as a descriptor on the next page, and describes Erin’s feelings about the worst moment of her life and its fallout as “irritation". She is supposed to lack empathy, but we are repeatedly shown that this situation really upsets her, so the muted description of her emotional response doesn’t make sense and again breaks immersion.
I found that this disorganization of the writing extended to the finale. The stakes and major players were clearly established which is good, but somehow the way the actions were described made it feel like a relatively small challenge to overcome, in part because they overcame their enemies so handily.
I was genuinely torn up to this point about continuing with the series, because Erin’s character is quite unusual but I like so little else. However, the very last page included a revelation that sparked my curiosity just enough to keep reading. I sincerely hope it will improve from here.