Review: The House of Grey (Volume 2) - Collin Earl
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 28, 2013
Volume 2 definitely held up better than Volume 1 did. It managed to feel more like a book than a podcast, and it was a lot smoother than the first one. There were still plenty of mistakes - typos, sentences starting with the wrong word, that sort of thing. But, aside from the incredibly jarring ones (one sentence started, "The would be the...") I actually felt myself getting drawn into the story.I still say Volume 1 was too short, though. This one felt a bit longer as far as plot-coverage goes, but it felt like the first cut-off point between books should have been Volume 2's ending. There's a bit of a cliffhanger, but it's not the abrupt ending that the first book had.There's a lot more characterization in this book. While, for the most part, everybody still remains a mystery, we at least are given a glimpse into their lives. Not much gets explained, and many more questions are raised as to what exactly is going on at Coten. I'm also starting to wonder if  the series was broken up the way it was  so that each book only contained one of Mr. Gatt's classes? *grumbles*The Arthur/Artorius thing is getting a bit obnoxious, but I was pleased to see that Volume 2 greatly reduced the number of pop-culture references. I only remember there being two, really - Casey's adoration of anime, and the Michael Jordan reference. Thank you. Thank you for not repeating the horror of the Hannah Montana comment.The House of Grey is definitely an interesting series. When it's not trying too hard with the references, the dialogue can be witty, and amusing. I'm starting to wonder if listening to the podcast would be a better way to get the story, though. The written series could definitely use some editing. I know that the transition from podcast to book format can be done. Abigail Hilton did a wonderful job of it with her Panamindorah series. It just needs a bit more time put into it.(Follow my book reviews at: [...]