This second series in my little werewolf related reading drive came recommended by Sarah Rees Brennan. If you don’t know who she is, shame on you, go here and learn. Shameless promoting aside I’m thinking this will be the last review on Tumblr because I’m not sure that Tumblr is really the best outlet for such things and instead I’ll be starting a blog. Not the first in my life time and I make no promises that I’ll be able to maintain it but I’ll be moving all text heavy posts to there and I’ll link once it’s up. That way, if you are interested in what I’m reading and do, by any chance, go out and buy said books so you’ll know what on Earth I’m wittering on about so much, then you can still do so. If not and you’re sat there looking at your dash going ‘another review? are you ever going to draw again? geesh’ then you’ll be happy as a clam too.
TheRaised by Wolvesseries is written byJennifer Lynn Barnesand is written from the perspective of Bryn. The theme appears to be about defying authority and finding yourself but it’s also about relying on others and having to make difficult choices.
Bryn is human and at the age of four was attacked by a wild rabid werewolf. Though her parents were killed she was recused by Callum, the alpha of the Stone River pack. Marked and adopted by the pack she was put in the care of Ali, also human for female weres are rare, who was mated to another member of the pack. Being the kind of girl she is, who when told to do something does the exact opposite, Bryn soon finds herself up to her neck in hot water when she stumbled on freshly minted teen werewolf Chase. But turned weres are also rare and when Bryn discovers that the rabid who attacked her, who killed her parents, who she tought was dead turned Chase from human to werewolf she doesn’t know who to trust.
For her own safety Ali takes Bryn and her newly born twins to The Wayfarer, at the very edge of Callum’s territory, where Lake and her father live. Lake and Bryn have been friends since they were kids but Lake had been coming back to the pack less and less and only now does Brynn start to realise why. Together they, along with some help from Chase and Bryn’s other bestie purebred werewolf Devon, Bryn tracks down the rabid were who she discovers has been killing other kids.
The first book was, to me, very very clever because Barnes managed to tie in the weaknesses of her werewolves with a very human problem or one that a human reader could easily connect and empathize with. You really can’t go wrong with this book, the characters are wonderfully diverse in their opinions, their backgrounds and their behaviour. Barnes encapsulates all the weaknesses and strengths of her creations without it feeling forced or contrived and no one seems to have been put there just to fill a gap. What I said the Nightshade trilogy lacked in pack behaviourRaised by Wolvesmakes up for in abundance.
Book two I felt dropped the ball and can be summed up with three things.
1. Shane is a horrible horrible were that deserves far stronger profanities than horrible.
2. There’s a bunch of psychic people with powers that give Ali a tragic back story and make trouble.
3. Lucas.
You’re basically looking at around 300 hundred pages of set up for book three. So when I got to book three I was ready to write it off and when ghosts started coming into the equation I was ready to put the book down. I find the whole ‘you can’t find it but it can do damage to you’ concept irritating. Like I find zombies irritating. However, once you get to the latter half of the book it all kicks in.
There was this part with Sora, Devon’s mom, and you’ll know the part I mean, where I just burst into tears. Literally the second the implications of what was happening dawned on me there were tears streaming down my face. For Sora, for Bryn, for Devon, for Bryn. And I didn’t even like Sora. In fact, the events of book 1 kind of make it a point that you shouldn’t like Sora. Then there was this wonderful twist with Shane and the finale where Bryn is like ‘oh hi sweetie, home so soon?’. At this point you think it’s all over, Bryn’s won, everyone can go home but it just doesn’t quit.
And all the time Brynn is human. She doesn’t get changed into a werewolf. She does all these amazing things as a human and I felt that was just so great because if she had become a werewolf it might have become a crutch for her. That her strength didn’t come from herself but from the raw power that being a werewolf would give her. The other thing that amazed me was that there was no love triangle. DevonBrynChase was such an obvious route to go down and Barnes didn’t go there at all and I loved it. There wasn’t a lot of romance at all actually the majority of the focus was on pack and action which was a wonderful change of pace.
It’s kind of got an open ending and I don’t think it’s an ending you’ll necessarily be expecting or maybe you’ll even hate the ending. But I don’t think there could have been a better one. It’s very powerful in it’s own ride. Bittersweet.
I’d definitely recommend this book if you’re a fan of werewolves, and even if you’re not this might be the book that makes you one.
No comments:
Post a Comment