Well, I’ve hit Book Two, and it’s almost as good as the first, which I’ll take as a rare yet wonderous thing; I have read too many series where the first book is fantastic, and then we hit Disney’s Tower of Terror for the rest.
There have been some changes in my opinions of the characters, some good, some bad. Dain, Mira, and Lilith (Violet’s mother) all grew on me over the book; I actually finished it not really wanting any of them to die. Yes, Dain is still a little too by the book, and Mira is very much her mother’s daughter, but still; they grew in my esteem. It does beg the question though that having seen how the rest of the family interacts, was Violet’s father the sole thing keeping this family from sliding into dysfunction earlier?
Sloane, Liam’s sister and new edition to the cast, has to take the award for “angry thing that can’t actually put her money where her mouth is”. Yes, being angry at Violet is understandable (increased by Violet holding letters from your dead brother hostage), but angry seems to be Sloane’s main personality, and I think Yarros can do better. Rhiannon, Sawyer, and Ridoc are going from good friends of Violet to potentially better friends than she deserves. Violet honey, when you have people that Ride or Die for you, trust them; pushing them away is only going to hurt you in the end (and potentially lead to their deaths, but hey! When you hate other people keeping secrets, keep secrets yourself.)
Which leads me to Violet herself. Oh Violet; pretending not to care and shoving everything into a box where it doesn’t hit doesn’t make you stronger, it makes you brittle. And yes, you have the right to be angry at Xaden, but can we stop with the “I don’t trust him, I can’t trust, but I want him”? All I could think of was The Beatles “You Really Got A Hold On Me”. Then we throw in the pissing contest with Cat, Xaden’s ex-flame. I’ll add points for Violet’s snark of thanking Cat for teaching Xaden how to pleasure a woman, but I’ll deduct points for the “two women fighting over a man” trope. True, Violet wants the man and Cat just wants what being married to him would give her, but still; ladies why don’t you fight over what’s better, Gryphons or Dragons? (I think that’s a tie, but that’s just me. Gryphons sound cute, but Saegyl, Tairn, and Andarna and the collective snarkiness have Dragons represent well.) For a strong character in so many other ways, Violet is not so good at the personal relationships. At least she’s great at taking bits of seemingly unimportant information and figuring out what’s actually happening, and standing up well to torture.
Xaden in this book, meanwhile, can be summed up in two memes:
and
(unfortunately, the Ponyo meme popped into my head maybe 100 pages into the book and wouldn’t get out again. So that tells you something) Though that’s when he’s on the page; I would say Violet and he spend 3/4 of this book either in the same place and not talking, or two different places and not talking. I can only hope that in the third book they’ll go back to knowing that mouths can be used for other things (like talking out relationship issues). And while I can understand why Xaden is hesitant to tell Violet certain things, I still think it’s no way to have a relationship. (Personal aside: if someone picked me up, threw me over their shoulder while I’m fighting to get back to something, and dragged me down a hallway, I would not be getting all swoony; I would be getting all kicking sensitive areas. Just because you’re taller than Violet doesn’t mean you can manhandle her.)
There is a big, rushed, action-packed battle at the end, with a lot of plot-altering developments that I’m looking forward to seeing elaborated on in Onyx Storm. Especially the two questions; is everyone seriously okay with the original decision to make swathes of people die? And is anyone else think this plot has bare bones similarities to the plot of the Doctor Who Episode “The Beast Below”?
One question about this book; so was that a shared dream, or were Xaden’s dreams bleeding into Violet’s?