Discussions about books and coffee/tea
This book was an interesting take on DID (Disassociative Identity Disorder) and it's effects when doctors either don't believe you or think you're just making things up. You have Carly, who is present during the day and Kaitlyn, who is only present at night. The entire premise of the book is based on what happens when one of the identities, in this case Carly, disappears altogether. The psychiatrist, Dr. Lansing, believes it to be a good thing, but Kaitlyn disagrees.
The driving force of this book, especially Veronyka's character, reminded so much of the saying from The Last Jedi, "That's how we're gonna win. Not fighting what we hate. Saving what we love". Veronyka's whole character is about wanting to save and protect everyone she loves and prevent as much bloodshed as possible, which stands in stark contrast to Val, who wants to destroy everyone and everything who has wronged her.
This book is a major call back to all the slasher films of the 80s and 90s. You have the summer camps (Friday the 13th), remote Texas inbreeds (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Halloween sibling attacks (Halloween), high school horror fanatic team ups (Scream), and dream stalkers (Nightmare on Elm Street). If you enjoy slashers films, this is definitely the book for you.
So I was super excited for this book. The mystery surrounding it made it extremely intriguing and I'm going to aim to keep it up in this review.
I'm going to freely admit, while I did love this book it took me awhile (over a month) to finish it. I wasn't even sure if I should write a review of it because it took me so long. But, here I go.
I have sort of a love/hate relationship with this book. It has great world-building and did a good job of emphasizing how language changes and evolves over time, even though it does get confusing at times. I was oblivious to some of the plot twists, but some were still pretty predictable (not that that's a bad thing). It played a lot into the idea of people seeing technology/science that they don't understand as magic or sorcery, which indicates there was some sort of devolving or apocalyptic event that happened between Andra being put in cryostasis and her waking up.
This book definitely has a very gothic aesthetic to it, especially given how much the word 'blood' and 'vultures' is used in it. Seriously, it rivals the number of times SJM uses 'mate' in ACOTAR. The entire book had a very dark setting to it, but the two kingdoms we visit are dark for different reasons. Kalyzazin has a kind of winter/snow-covered, mountainous setting while Tranavia gives off more of a creepy bog, river vibe.
God, I'm still trying to collect all my thoughts from this book. It took me almost two months to get through. Not because it wasn't good, but because it was sooooo long and because it was so emotionally charged. Mixing that with everything that's going on in the world at the moment, it took me a minute or two. But man was it a great sequel.
As far as characters go, Guinevere was the only one that had any real character development, but even that was minimal. This book definitely had a lot of plot/action (which I typically love), but that was at the expense of seeing any real character growth in most of the characters.
The world building in this book was absolutely phenomenal, but there were a lot of info dumps right off the bat. By the time you reach page 20 you've already been given a basic history of the world and info about the war, which sets the background for the rest of the story. It definitely sets a clear path for the rest of the series.
The Book Lover's Coffeehouse 