Eric Nord

If you liked or loved The Blacktongue Thief, this is a must read.

I really enjoyed the tone of the book as it's slightly darker at times than TBT, but still contains those random moments of hilarity. The battle scenes are grizzly and realistic, I always felt the main character potentially might die at any moment. There are some very deep moments of love within the book, between characters and between owners and pets. These owner/pet interactions are written with such clarity that the author must have based them from experiences he has had in his life.

The one negative of this book is that it can be too terse at times. There are large events that are mentioned, but not explored. I would have wanted to go deeper into these moments as it felt like the events were not detailed enough to give justice to the magnitude of loss the characters experienced.

One last thing I'd like to mention is the effect this book has had on me in my life. The animal scenes within the book deeply resonated with me as my dog Archi passed away during my reading of this book. Experiencing the grief of pet loss in real time as characters experienced similar fates broke my heart. These events helped me to acknowledge my feelings of loss and reflect back on my time with Archi. I'm not sure I could ever put into words how much my dogs, Archi and Vala, mean to me, but this book made me further appreciate the love Archi brought into our family and the lasting connection he'll always have on my life. It also made me thankful of the time I have left with Vala.