Written in Red

This book is weird...really weird. This is weird not because of the characters or the setting, or the universe, but because I should hate this book, but I don't. So, perhaps I should say that my reaction to this book is really, really weird.

Let me explain.

This version of earth begins with a group of people called The Others. They are shape shifting animals or elementals that can move from human to an animal form at will. Eventually, when european humans arrive to settle the new world, the Others, at first, try and fight them, but then they find that the humans make nice stuff so they strike a bargain: The Others will let them live on their land, and the humans will make them stuff like clothes and films for entertainment. About 200 years later we are introduced to a woman named Meg Corbin. Meg Corbin is a woman who can see a prophecy every time she gets a cut on her skin. The bigger the cut, the better the prophecy. This can make her extremely valuable to certain people, so she is kept locked away in a facility for most of her life, enduring punishment and pain if she does not do as told. She eventually runs away to a courtyard run by the Others, and asks about a human liaison job. This person works for the Others and is supposed to help deliver the mail of all the human stuff that the Others want, but don't want to have to deal with humans to get them. Meg gets the job, and she does good work at it. But the people she escaped from are still out there and they will stop at nothing to get her back.


This setting was interesting. It had a good explanation of a detailed world that seemed to have its own culture. Also, it was interesting to explore this culture and it seemed to move at a somewhat interesting pace. Each Other has an animal form that influences the way the human's act. One example would be Henry, an Other who can transform into a bear liking his tea sweatened wth honey, or seeming really tired around winter time. These small details kept me reading, and it is what made this story enjoyable.

But then we get to the heart of the problem: nothing really happens in this book. Throughout the novel we see Meg discover this world by delivering the mail and...that's it. Nothing of consequence happens until around the 90% mark, and at that point, some people may not care and skimm that ending. With any other book, this may make me stop reading and putting it on my DNF shelf, but there is such an undeniable charm in this text that I just liked reading it, despite the problems with the plot.

In the end, I liked it, and I might continue with the series. I just hope that the series picks up with the plot after this. I give it a three out of five.