theblackdog

This is one of those stories that reminds me of an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? except it wouldn't fit into a 24 minute show. This would need to be several episodes.

Harvey is an easy character to connect with. Haven't we all been that 10 year old kid in February who hates the dreary gray days of winter and it is going to be forever before spring break gets here? Once you hear of an opportunity to do something fun, you're going to jump all over it, even if you don't realize there is a catch until much later.

It was hard for me to put this book down once I started, though it's a short read. There are a few elements of horror but nothing overly scary, and thankfully Barker did not only use a trope of “the power of love” as the way for the evil to be defeated. It is more of seeking actual justice and exposing what is really going on.

Still, the Holiday House sounds like a fun place to visit. At least until you learn the price of your stay.

This was another fun tale from The Hangman's Daughter series that doesn't take place entirely in Schongau, but in the city of Regensburg. Here we finally get to see more of Jakob's past during the war and an event that will come back to haunt him nearly 25 years later. Of course Simon and Magdalena get tangled up in what happens to Jakob in Regensburg without even trying, but the action gets interesting, and there's a lot you have to pay attention to. Of course you might be able to figure out who the real bad guys are early on, but you still want to know what they are up to. I think one part of the ending was wrapped up a little too neatly, but in a historical context it makes sense. Still, I wouldn't have minded it going another way.

The series still seems to be going strong, so I am curious how the next book will hold up.

Lex has become more fascinating, and we have only moved forward a month since end of Boundary Crossed. A few hanging threads were resolved in the start, including learning what ultimately happened to her sister Sam. Actually I am glad that wasn't dragged out into a whole long drama. There are plenty of other situations to worry about instead. Lex is just trying to get along but she doesn't fit in and the rest of Clan Pellar isn't helping.

Actually I just realized that we don't see as much of Lex's power being used that we saw in the first book. However, we see some other awakenings and perhaps we will see more of her boundary magic in the next book.

My thought is this series has gone more from Lost Girl to Buffy, except the supernatural isn't necessarily trying to take over the world or awaken old demons, at least not yet. I look forward to the next book.

The book doesn't quite suffer from being boring because now all the initial action happened in the first book, but events must be set up for the third book so nothing happens here. However, it does seem like Lyra was dumbed down because she makes some decisions that I don't think she would have made. I never understood why she actually bothers to get in the car with Sir Charles, who randomly spoke to her at the museum. Yes, I get it she was running from the “police” and may have thought she wanted to get away but she wasn't that trusting of people in The Golden Compass. That's another thing; there are two guys specifically after Will and the letters from his father, and then they just kind of vanish after they almost catch Lyra at Oxford. It seems like they were working for Mrs. Coulter or Sir Charles, so I would have expected to see them show up in one of the other worlds. Also how does Mrs. Coulter suddenly have such a command of the specters that she can make them do things that they never did before? They did not take to the air until “she made them forget they were bound to the earth” and now they can conveniently attack the witches? That seems to be lazy way of creating a new problem for characters who didn't have to face the a problem before.

Pullman also seems to like killing characters once their “task” is done, and it feels a bit unnecessary. Scoresby leads Grumman to a mountain to meet with the knife bearer, now let's kill him. Grumman meets Will and helps him, oops, time to die now. At least the death of Sir Charles actually fits the plot and most of the character motivations.

Here's hoping the third book is better.

This was a fun world-building book. I loved watching the relationship develop between Flora/Florian and Evelyn, while dealing with the background of an empire of colonizers vs the natives and the world itself. I thought learning of why the mermaids are so important to the sea was a clever way to give them more agency than them just existing.

I did take off half a star because I felt there was a plot thread that wasn’t well resolved and that was the story of Xenobia. It felt incomplete. There’s events and stories told that could have led to her regaining some of what she lost. It’s possible we will see more of her in a future book.

I am thrilled to get to see queer representation and love in here, even if the dominant society does not approve. I thought the handling of genderqueer characters was done well for the setting.

For a heads up, there are references to an incident of sexual assault. However, this is definitely worth reading if you’re into queer romance, magic, action, and seeing some later justice in the world.