Review: Pretty darn good
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 3, 2013
Review Courtesy of All Things Urban FantasyCORRODED continues to move a beautifully written story forward with amazing revelations and new challenges for Cherry St. Croix. Like the previous two books in the The St. Croix Chronicles. CORRODED feels like a dark nightmare with danger lurking around every corner. I enjoyed the progressive darkening of the story as it ramps up the tension and conflict for Cherry. Unfortunately the first part of the story moves too slowly for my taste and at times I felt like I was forcing myself get to the next plot point or chapter. Luckily the story speeds up and gets really exciting and action packed towards the last part of CORRODED which made the slogging first half worth it.One of the unique ideas in the The St. Croix Chronicles is the fact that our heroine, Cherry is addicted to opium. In CORRODED we get to see her yo yo between withdrawals and drug induced hazes as she seeks revenge on `Jack the Ripper'. Her downward spiral into opium and other dangers helps shows that Cherry is very flawed which is how I tend to like my protagonists because it makes their struggles from rock bottom to a `happy ending of sorts' all the more satisfying. While I like Cherry as a main character I wasn't to thrilled by her relationship with Hawke, the ringmaster of the Menagerie.Cherry's relationship with Hawke continues to be very baffling. I just don't know what I am supposed to think about him. He comes to Cherry's rescue plenty of times and I enjoyed seeing more of him as that meant the possibility of figuring him out. But I still don't get his purpose in the story aside from a sort of love interest and a way to get Cherry out of a bind. I assume his identity and background is supposed to be shrouded in mystery but he really doesn't say or do much to really make him a full character.CORRODED is an excellent dark steampunk story with a lot wonderful horror elements and a very troubled heroine who I gladly continue to root for as this dark, twisted story continues. I am looking forward to seeing where this story goes in the next The St. Croix Chronicles book which as of now has no release date.