2.5 Stars
Gabriel the ‘fighter’ of the family wanted to be an artist
but for the life of him he couldn’t draw. Sitting by the pond one day with
Baital, he began to sketch the scenery in front of him. He drew the picture
over and over trying to get it right but for some reason he couldn’t. Each time
he began, he would draw a tree; but there was no tree before him, under the
tree was a girl covered in blood, though she wasn’t really there either.
Everything was wrong this day but Gabriel didn’t understand why. On his way
back home he was attacked by Ryvall; one of the ‘older’ females who despised
him, but after he managed to get away Gabriel soon learnt exactly what was
wrong with the day. Ryvall was in cahoots with Exile; a rogue revenant who had
been imprisoned for years but was trying again to take over the city, and even
the priests seemed to be allowing it to happen. Together with Lamia; a lone
revenant, Gabriel and his family set out to save the city before anymore
revenants or his family are murdered, but can he really trust her?
I was given a copy of this book for review and as is normal
for me with review books even if I am provided with a blurb, I never read it…
So the only information I had about this story was the title, and that gave
nothing at all away as far as the plot was concerned. The minute I began to
read my curiosity was piqued! I found the story intriguing, it was so
completely different to anything else I have read before, and I read…A
LOT!….But….it wasn’t long before I was totally confused! The story was very
slow, it plodded along, giving us plenty of
things to build interest but not quite enough to give us
understanding….I was getting quite far into the story and I still didn’t know
what a revenant was. This lack of information and explanation soon turned my
curiosity to annoyance. I couldn’t connect with the characters because I didn’t
even understand what they were plus the names were so unusual often not giving clue
to gender or pronunciation that it became quite a chore to read.
I really really really wanted this book to blow me away, it
started off so well and I still definitely give it 10 out of 10 for uniqueness
I am just disappointed that the plot wasn’t executed better. I’m disappointed
that the author tended to forget that although she knows all the facts the
reader doesn’t so we needed a little more in way of explanation. I certainly
wouldn’t write this book off but I think it does need reworking a little bit,
perhaps take out a few of the repetitive sentences and include a few more facts
to speed up the pace, if that was done I think it could be a really great read.
Copy supplied for review
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