★★★ ½ @mysherrilyn @DiannaLove #BloodTrinity #TBRPile
Did I miss the first book in this series? The prologue throws the reader straight into a captured scene that doesn't look great for Evalle. Within the first few chapters, I feel the same pit in my stomach for many of Ms. Kenyon's stories. Why is it that her main character is always so abused? Seriously, I am trying to recall one character that doesn't have either a tortured past or a continuous difficult life. If you want angst, Ms. Kenyon (now McQueen) is the author to read.
I have read the co-authoring between Ms. Kenyon and Ms. Love. They mesh well together as I can't tell who wrote which piece. This story is smooth to read but painful to witness. Evalle receives a raw deal in her life. She also doesn't do anything to really make it better. Her lack of maturity in knowing when to pick her battles is probably her biggest flaw. She can't seem to help herself when it comes to self-sabatoge.
The secondary characters in this story are interesting. I hope to learn more about them. I liked Storm. Other than an awesome name, he seems to be more level-headed and with little ulterior motives. I also liked Tristian. I think he's been given a bum rap. I looked ahead and see that he does pop up again later down in this series. I guess it is a good thing this book has resided on my TBR pile for so long. I can binge-read the rest of this series to get caught up.
A recurring theme in Ms. Kenyon's books is the unequivocal injustice placed upon its main characters. Evalle has no control of what she is and she knows little about herself. Yet she is placed in a position of absolute degradation and humiliation. I take issue with this kind of plot. It is in some ways easy to write it so horrible. In other ways, it is so difficult to bring about fairness and justice. Does this constant strife not depress the author? I am not saying go all Disney. I just want to know if maybe sometimes she doesn't have to stack the cards so much against the character that it comes across as insurmountable. The amount of hopelessness in books and stories like this always makes me want to just kill off the main character to put them out of their misery. And let everyone else sort out what has to be done w/o this key player. Fatalistic? Probably. A quick end to a series? Probably. But one day, I would like to see the aftermath of those who made a person so miserable they killed themselves. And realize just how bad it is w/o their help.
This urban fantasy is grim, filled with injustice, and riddled with petty gods who fuck with their minions.
