Review: Awesomely Brutal
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 14, 2013
October goes through some serious self-discovery in this book, and McGuire doesn't make that easy. Moreso than any others, this book is a horror novel. The bad things that happen to the characters are stomach-churning.WHAT I LIKE-----* The evil -- McGuire's imagination for the antagonist in this book scares me a bit. She generally does an excellent job ensuring her villains "are people, too", but she outdoes herself in this book.* The hard f*ing choices -- Toby frequently says "I have no choice" in some form or another, and that drives me crazy. There is always a choice. BUT, McGuire makes this part of Toby's growth, giving her harder and harder choices until Toby has no choice but to accept accountability for the choices she makes. McGuire doesn't shy away from making these choices nauseatingly difficult.* The characters - McGuire doesn't disappoint in the continued development of each member of the cast. With the exception of Tybalt (more below).WHAT I DON'T LIKE-----* MOVE THIS TYBALT THING ALONG ALREADY. I do like that McGuire is having Tybalt and Toby's relationship grow over several novels. It's not a flash-in-the-pan so-hot-I'm-going-to-explode-and-figure-out-the-rest-later kind of thing. That's refreshing. And yet, there's such a thing as TOO SLOW. In fact, if Tybalt is only going to be in the book less than 10% of the time, that makes it difficult for anything further to develop between them. Granted, in this book, the interactions between Toby and Tybalt are frought with depth. But it's been three books, and the most we've gotten is a kiss on the forehead. If things don't progress in the next book, I might have to shoot myself in the head.If you like urban fantasy with a true dark-side, characters that develop in complex layers, and gradually developing romantic relationships, you'll like all of the first three books in the series.If you're looking for a book that has a satisfying romantic relationship within itself, this series will probably frustrate the hell out of you.