#CBR9 Book 15: "The Devourers" by Indra Das

Page count: 320 pages
Rating: 3 stars

I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting when I picked up this book. It certainly wasn't whatever The Devourers ended up being. I'm still not entirely sure what I actually read. Let me try to provide a plot summary.

While out for an evening in Kolkata, India, lonely college professor Alok runs into a mysterious and handsome stranger who claims to be a half-werewolf. He weaves a tale that utterly beguiles Alok and the professor becomes obsessed with both seeing the nameless stranger again, and hearing the end of his tale. He agrees to transcribe a series of notebooks for the stranger, all so he can meet him again occasionally.

The first notebook tells the story of three shapeshifters from somewhere in Europe. They all seem to have come from different places, one from the far north, one from a distant France and one from Greece. These three predators travel together as a pack, hunting and feasting on the flesh of men, women and children as they move across the globe. They end up in 17th Century Mughal India, where Fenrir, the one from the north, becomes obsessed with a young prostitute, causing an irrevocable rift between him and his travelling companions.

The second set of documents that Alok is set to transcribe appears to be the story of Cyrah, the young Muslim woman who is raped by Fenrir, a creature determined to reproduce, which his shapeshifting kind is normally unable to do. Cyrah is disgusted by him and unwilling to bear the child, but nonetheless wants to confront the creature who forced her, and have a reckoning. She allies herself with Gevaudan, Fenrir's former companion, and together they develop an uneasy truce as they try to track Fenrir through India.

Alok is further ensorcelled by the tales he transcribes, correctly deducing that they narrate the origins of his mysterious stranger's parents. He is both repulsed and fascinated by the tale, trying to disprove what he's reading as fiction, even as he becomes convinced that the nameless stranger is telling the truth about the dark creatures who lurk on the outskirts of human society.

There are several shapeshifting myths explored in the pages of this novel. There are the werewolves and other shapeshifter beliefs of Europe, and the rakshasas of India. It is a book that in parts absolutely disgusted me, as there is far too much graphic description of people being murdered, torn apart and eaten. There seems to be an inordinate amount of attention paid to all kinds of bodily excretions, be it piss, shit, blood or semen. Some sections of the book were incredibly slow and rather boring to me, whilst in other sections, the story flew by and I completely lost track of time.

One of the things that disgusted me was Fenrir's arrogance, his casual rape of Cyrah and his conviction that he somehow loved her, and could make her love him in return. His determination to reproduce, and force her to carry his child to term, without any care for her wishes or bodily autonomy. Generally, with the exception of Gevaudan, who becomes a bit more sympathetic as the story goes on, probably because he tries to restrain himself from straight up murdering innocents while he travels with Cyrah, the shapeshifters are all utterly awful. I really wanted to give up on the book several times, but decided to keep reading to the end, no matter what, since this was the book I voted for in the upcoming CBR book club, and I was damned if I was going to DNF a book of a mere 300 pages when I stuck with The Count of Monte Cristo till the end.

There are some interesting themes explored in this book, like the nature of gender identity and the ability to change shapes at will. It's clearly implied that some of the shapeshifters have been female, but they seem to have been harder to accept by the others. All the shapeshifters, be they werewolves or rakshasas, seem to have strange, semi-incestuous sexual relationships, where the ones that nurture the young also are the ones that intitiate them into sexual rites. This was yet another aspect that didn't entirely sit right with me.

I liked the bits about Cyrah and Gevaudan and the friendship that developed between them. Most of the other parts, I had to force myself to finish. I'm rating the book 3 stars, because it's clear that it is doing something different and unusual, and I suspect the book just isn't for me. Like The Lobster, which I saw last year, a movie that is pretty much universally hailed as brilliant and super funny, and which I still haven't been able to make up my mind about, but that I'm pretty sure I didn't, in fact, like (I just cannot get over what they did to the dog), even though parts of it made me howl with laughter.

In yet another example of how small the world really is now that we are connected via the internet, I'm pretty much certain that this book was written by the brother of someone my husband and I befriended years ago on a Hellblazer fan forum. When I added the book to my Goodreads TBR list last year, said person liked my status. I didn't really think much of it, as this sort of thing happens all the time. But they share the same surname, and some Facebook snooping later has convinced me that yes, my internet acquaintance Abhimanyu, who I've discussed many nerdy things with online for years, and whom I've chatted with in the pub on one of our visits to New York, is indeed the brother of the author of this book. It just makes me even more sad that I didn't like it more. I'm really sorry, Abhi, that your brother's book didn't work for me. I didn't hate it, but I certainly have no wish to ever re-read it. There were way too many gross parts (and the whole rape thing) for me to ever want to do that.

Judging a book by its cover: While I'm deeply conflicted about the contents of this book, I absolutely love the cover. What I can only assume is Cyrah, the unwilling victim at the centre of the tale, with the scroll telling her story, the leaves, thorns, berries and flower, not to mention the bone-like branches make the book look wonderfully mysterious and inviting. The cover was one of the things that drew me to the book and I still find it striking, even though I'm coming down on the dislike of the actual book in the end.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR9 Book 2: "Breath of Fire" by Amanda Bouchet

Page count: 448 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer! I was granted an ARC copy of this through NetGalley. That has in no way influenced my review.

Spoiler warning! This is the second book in The Kingmaker Chronicles and as such this review may contain mild spoilers both for the first book in the series, A Promise of Fire and for the beginning of this book. If you're new to the series, start with book one. If you like going in not knowing anything, come back and read this review once you've finished the book.

Griffin has discovered the truth about Cat's parentage and past and is none too happy about it. After throwing one hell of a tantrum, he seems very surprised when Cat has retreated to her old room in the barracks, believing that he can no longer stand to be near her. After revealing the full truth of her past to him, they reconcile most ardently and then begin to consider what to do about the upcoming Power Bid in the region. Cat is the rightful heir of Fisa and knows that at some point, she has to confront her tyrannical and sadistic mother and end her reign once and for all. The third country in the region, Tarva, are making overtures towards invading Sinta and Griffin and his family need to figure out what to do to protect themselves until they can further consolidate power.

Cat suggests recruiting the aid of magical creatures to guard their borders. In order to do so, they first have to go see a Chaos Wizard and then complete a dangerous and elaborate quest in a maze in the ice caves in the mountains. Only Cat and Cato, one of the other members of Beta Team are allowed into the caves. Griffin, Carver and Flynn have to wait outside. Cat has been granted Ariadne's thread, which will never run out, so she and Cato can find their way back out, but inside the caves, they have to face a number of challenges and Cat comes to discover new and surprising gifts granted to her by her godly protectors.

Once they've survived the maze and Artemis' challenges, they have to travel to actually persuade the giant centaurs they want to recruit to join their cause. This involves trying to outsmart a hydra and another set of challenges. When they finally do make it back to Sinta, it's clear that the best way to gain access to the Tarvan capital and its royals is by competing in and winning a hugely popular bloodsport tournament, held every four years. The winners are granted an audience with the Tarvan rulers. Gaining access to the palace could allow Beta Team to usurp power without having to go to war. The tournament is fiendishly difficult, however, and it's going to take a lot for them to win.

A Promise of Fire was one of my favourite books last year and combined an interesting and elaborate fantasy world, complete with a lot of influence from Greek mythology, with a satisfying, slow-burning romance. One of the few things that annoyed me about the book was that Cat had yet to tell Griffin about her mother and her true identity when the book ended. Extremely frustratingly, Bouchet chooses to have Griffin discover the truth between books, so to speak, off-page and not from Cat directly. He is absolutely livid, throws the mother of all temper tantrums, completely trashes their bedroom (to the point where he cleaves their bed in two with his sword) and generally manhandles and yells at Cat (who is still recovering from a near-death experience), acting completely at odds with the character we got to know in book 1.

When Cat is hurt and heartbroken and leaves to take refuge in her old room in the barracks, believing Griffin to be so disgusted with her and her family legacy that he can no longer love her, she is surprised to find that when she wakes up from a long, healing sleep, he has been frantically looking for her since she disappeared and wonders why she would leave him. Having read the preceding chapters, I am totally with Cat - confused about Griffin's mercurial turnaround and sudden declarations of eternal devotion and crazed possessiveness. What follows is several chapters of slightly uncomfortable love making, as it's clear that Griffin really needs to assert his dominance over Cat (or something). This beginning really threw me off and made me wonder if I was reading the same writer.

Luckily, the book got better again, with Cat getting over some of her deeply held trust issues and confessing the truth about her past and her abilities to Griffin's entire family. She and Griffin then take Beta Team and go off to fight/recruit mythological monsters and you get more of the road trip feel that worked so well in the first book. Yet during Cat and Cato's ordeals in the ice caves, there was another misstep that made me feel uncomfortable and which I've seen described in other reviews as likened to male rape, and I find I have to agree. Event specific spoilers to follow!

Artemis the goddess is attended by a very skilled archer, who insists that in order for them to succeed in their quest, Cato has to service her (and possibly the goddess). If he refuses, it's quite clear that the archer will kill both him and Cat, so it's not like he's able to give clear and unforced consent here. It is later described how he was pretty much drugged with an aphrodisiac and had to provide his sexual services for the best end of two days, while the goddess Artemis watched them the whole time. The whole incident has clearly not been very enjoyable for him, but is just glossed over, as the female archer was really hot, after all (as it often is in other popular media too, season one of Orphan Black springs to mind - if the woman is hot enough, consent is probably not required from the man).

Spoilers over!

With the beginning of the book, and this storyline leaving a bad taste in my mouth, I still enjoyed much of the book. Even so, the plot felt more disjointed in this book than in the previous one, jumping around a lot more, from challenge to challenge. While I appreciate the author skipping out on all the boring transport bits, it got a bit frenetic at times.

Apart from his initial flip into bizarro Griffin, our hero is mostly very supportive of his incredibly powerful lady love. As is often the case with very alpha dudes, there is a lot of assertions of "Mine!" in a way that I've never found guys to need to do in real life, but so often happens in these kinds of stories. Once assured that Cat loves him just as much as he does her, though, he seems perfectly comfortable with her magical and political legacy and ceding power and authority to her, as she is clearly the one prophesied to overturn the current (and pretty shitty world order) and unite the three countries into one new super-realm. At the beginning of the book, he gets a bit bull-headedly protective, but this too changes and he mostly lets Cat do what she does best, which is kick ass.

Cat grows a lot more comfortable with the idea that she can be a ruler without being like her crazy, psychopathic mother and that the prophecies about her doesn't necessarily spell out doom and apocalypse, just a much needed revolution with power being wrested from those who abuse it. The three countries need more benevolent rulers and she and Griffin can do a lot of good, if they succeed in their mission. Having learned the hard way not to make any attachments, she comes to accept that she can love and trust Griffin, his family, Beta Team and her found family at the circus, without being worried that they'll reject her because of her psycho mother or her scary powers. Becoming more comfortable with accepting affection and support from others also makes her more confident and skilled.

I hope that the final book of the trilogy has less of the things that seriously bothered me in this book (and that nearly reduced my rating to 3.5 stars) and more of what made the first book so good. Sadly, Heart on Fire is not out until January 2018, so I'm in for quite the wait.

Judging a book by its cover: Yet again a cover that focuses on the strong female protagonist (and not any of the many dudes of the story), I still think it's sad that they appear to have changed cover models, so the woman portraying Cat looks completely different. Nonetheless, she's wearing leather armour and looking impressively muscled, while holding a sword and trailing fire. I'm assuming the heavy use of blue mist is meant to evoke the ice caves where a dramatic part of the novel takes place. I don't like this as much as the first one, but it's still better than a LOT of fantasy covers out there.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.  

#CBR8 Book 133: "My Lady Jane" by Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows and Brodi Ashton

Page count: 512 pages
Rating: 4 stars

According to history, when King Edward VI, Henry VIII's son died young and childless, certain noblemen who wanted to make sure a ruler of the Protestant faith ruled the country put his young cousin Lady Jane Gray on the throne. She ruled for nine days, before Mary Tudor arrived with her armies, removed the poor girl and had her beheaded. This book bears a vague resemblance to that story.

In the England of this story, the conflict in England isn't between Catholics and Protestants, it's between non-shapeshifters, also known as Verities, and shapeshifters, better known as eðians (pronounced eethians). King Henry VIII himself turned into a great big lion, on occasion, but even so, the eðians are generally hunted and distrusted by the populace in general. Princess Mary is staunchly against them and want them all killed, while young King Edward and his best friend and cousin, Lady Jane Grey read everything they can about them and would like nothing more than to discover eðian abilities of their own.

Sadly, Edward appears to be dying. He has been told by Lord Dudley, his chief adviser and his physicians that he's suffering from "the affliction" and that he is unlikely to have long, certainly not long enough to marry and produce a male heir. Luckily Dudley has a plan to secure a succession that will make sure an eðian-friendly ruler ends up on the English trone. He suggests that Edward change the line of succession to ensure that his cousin Lady Jane's heirs inherit. Of course, Jane needs to be married to produce heirs, but Dudley has just the candidate. His younger son, Gifford. There is the minor difficulty that Gifford Dudley is an eðian and spends every day from sunup to sunset as a magnificent stallion, but any heirs would be conceived at night anyways, so Dudley is sure Jane wouldn't mind too much.

When the extremely intellectual Jane finds out that she's to be married off within a few days, she travels to the Dudley estate (carrying with her a suitable supply of books to entertain her) to meet her intended. Unfortunately, because of some rather shameful nightly pursuits, Gifford (just call him G) has let it be known that he's a rampant womaniser. It's more socially acceptable than what he gets up to. Hence his older brother mistakes Jane for one of his younger brother's many suspected floozies and Jane believes her impending husband is a lecherous libertine (he's not, he's actually a poet). Nor does anyone deem it appropriate to tell her about her husband's eðian status, so she has quite the surprise the morning after her wedding, when the groom turns into a big horse in the middle of her bedroom.

As Edward takes a rapid turn for the worse shortly after the wedding, his sister Elizabeth warns him that he mustn't trust his physicians and he realises that Dudley is up to no good, and that Jane may be in terrible danger as well.

This is a delightful farce of a book, where we follow the points of view of Edward, Jane and G (he never liked the name Gifford) as the story progresses. Since there are three authors, I suspect each of them took one character and wrote their sections. Having loosely based the first half on actual historical events (if you ignore the shapeshifters), the second half is pure fantasy and a lot of fun. The book is clearly inspired by The Princess Bride, with the narrators occasionally interrupting the narrative to address the reader directly. Readers will recognise that most of Gifford's poetry is strikingly similar to that of one William Shakespeare. There is humour reminiscent of Monty Python and Blackadder, while at least one plot development brings to mind the lovely Ladyhawke, one of my favourite eighties movies (I'd love to get a version with a non-synthy soundtrack).

I've seen this book included on several best of 2016 lists, and while I'm not sure I enjoyed it enough to include it in my top ten of the year, it's a very enjoyable romp from start to finish. My one complaint is that the book is a bit long and I think some of the parts in the second half could have been edited a bit more. As a huge fan of Tudor history in general, and having always been sympathetic to poor Lady Jane, the nine days queen, who really didn't have much choice in the matter and was a political pawn her entire life, it was nice to see a story that reimagines a much happier ending for her. Possibly not the book for you if you take your history very seriously, but highly recommended for anyone who wants a fun, creative and irreverent reimagining of history.

Judging a book by its cover: While on first look, this may seem like any old historical novel, with your red-headed girl in Tudor era clothing and a big red font bringing your attention to the title, you need only take a closer look to see that there's more here. In little "hand-written notes" and arrows pointing to the girl on the cover, the writers explain that "Sometimes history gets it all wrong". The other notes say "It's not easy being queen" and "Off with her head".

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.  

#CBR8 Book 111: "Six-Gun Snow White" by Catherynne M. Valente

Page count: 207 pages
Rating: 4 stars

From the blurb:
From New York Times bestselling author Catherynne M. Valente comes a brilliant reinvention of one of the best known fairy tales of all time. In the novella Six-Gun Snow White, Valente transports the title's heroine to a masterfully evoked Old West where Coyote is just as likely to be found as the seven dwarves. 

A plain-spoken, appealing narrator relates the story of her parents - a Nevada silver baron who forced the Crow people to give up one of their most beautiful daughters, Gun That Sings, in marriage to him. With her mother's death in childbirth, so begins a heroine's tale equal parts heartbreak and strength. This girl has been born into a world with no place for a half-native, half-white child. After being hidden for years, a very wicked stepmother finally gifts her with the name Snow White, referring to the pale skin she will never have. Filled with fascinating glimpses through the fabled looking glass and a close-up look at hard living in the gritty gun-slinging West, readers will be enchanted by this story at once familiar and entirely new.  

This novella is a clever retelling of the classic German fairy tale, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Having moved the narrative to the Old West, the girl at the centre of the story, the half-blood daughter of a Crow Native American woman and a wealthy prospector, grows up alone and unloved on her father's ranch. She entertains herself with card tricks and sharp shooting, her only companions the impersonal servants and the wild animals in the ranch menagerie.

When her father eventually remarries, it is to a beautiful young woman who takes it upon herself to civilise "Snow White", as she names her stepdaughter. Mrs H's lessons of love involve Snow performing the duties of all the female servants (all of whom were let go after the wedding), nearly drowning in icy milk baths meant to make her skin paler and various kinds of physical and emotional abuse. Having never had anyone show her any attention at all, Snow takes it all, without complaining. Her stepmother has a dark and mystical mirror, where Snow sees visions both of herself, and Mrs H's past. Eventually her stepmother gives birth to a baby boy, but only in the mirror. The child seems to grow fast and he and Snow have a strange connection.

Snow leaves the only home she's ever known, riding off to find the Crow, hoping to reunite with her mother's people. She travels through frontier towns and mining villages, defending herself against all manner of aggressions. She spends some time prospecting in a ruby mine along with seven rugged men. A ruthless Pinkerton agent trails her tirelessly, hired by her stepmother to catch her, so he can cut out her heart and bring it back to Mrs. H. Snow can be bested by no man, however, and escapes the detective with her heart intact.

Eventually arriving at a town populated by women, cast out from other places, Snow begins to find some solace and peace. The reach of her stepmother's powers are long, though, and once Snow stops running, she'll be easier to catch.

The story is told in an oddly poetical manner, narrated in a special cadence, which even when you read it seems very oral. Transposing the classic fairytale to a new setting makes you see the story in a new light. Valente certainly makes the story more feminist and diverse, highlighting how lost Snow is, never fitting into her father's world, or that of her mother. Mrs. H, Snow's stepmother isn't merely a one-dimensional villain. It is made clear that the way she treats Snow is a somewhat harsher way than she herself was treated before she got married. Mrs. H turned to witchcraft to gain power, Snow runs away instead. Only towards the end does she see the caring and nurturing side of womanhood.

This novella incorporates a lot of mythology, both Native American and Western. It plays with the reader's expectations and the well-known story tropes, re-inventing the old tale for a new time. Because the narrator imposes a sort of distance in the way the story is told, I never emotionally connected with it as much as I wanted to, but I was entertained and impressed. It's also not a very long story, so I didn't have time to get bored - which was not the case when I read Valente's twist on Russian folk tales, Deathless. 

Judging a book by its cover: The Charles Vess cover for this novella is absolutely gorgeous. Snow triumphantly rearing on her loyal horse Charming. Her stepmother, Mrs H, kneeling holding up a bloody heart. The various animals and creatures of the wilderness coming in from the left, looking as if they're about to stampede over the stepmother. I pretty much love everything about this.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR8 Book 104: "Crimson Bound" by Rosamund Hodge - double Cannonball!

Page count: 448 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

From Goodreads, because I'm lazy and it's mostly a pretty good summary (I will point out the ways in which is it not afterwards):

When Rachelle was fifteen, she was good - apprenticed to her aunt and in training to protect her village from dark magic. But she was also reckless - straying from the forest path in search of a way to free her world from the threat of eternal darkness. After an illicit meeting goes dreadfully wrong, Rachelle is forced to make a terrible choice that binds her to the very evil she had hoped to defeat.

Three years later, Rachelle has given her life to serving the realm, fighting deadly creatures in an effort to atone. When the king orders her to guard his son Armand - the man she hates most - Rachelle forces Armand to help her find the legendary sword that might save their world. As the two become unexpected allies, they uncover far-reaching conspiracies, hidden magic, and a love that may be their undoing. In a palace built on unbelievable wealth and dangerous secrets, can Rachelle discover the truth and stop the fall of endless night?

Inspired by the classic fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, Crimson Bound is an exhilarating tale of darkness, love and redemption.

Rachelle lives in a world where there are evil things lurking in the Forest and they believe that three thousand years ago, an evil entity known as the Devourer, god of the forestborn, swallowed the sun and the moon. A brave pair of siblings, known as Zisa and Tyr managed to recover the sun and the moon, and bind the Devourer in sleep for millennia. But soon, Rachelle's aunt, the village wood-wife (wise women trained to protect people against the evil of the forestborn) announces, the Devourer will awaken, to swallow the sun and moon once more.

With the foolish impulsiveness of youth, Rachelle decides to try to figure out a way to subdue the Devourer once more, should he really return. She starts walking in the woods, attracting one of the dangerous servants of the dark forces. She keeps courting danger, until one day, he persuades her to remove her protective charms, and (naturally) attacks her. Once marked by a forestborn, an individual has only two choices. Kill someone before three days are up, or die. Rachelle fights the compulsion, but ends up killing her aunt. She does discover, from the sinister and seductive forestborn who marked her, that the only way to defeat the Devourer, is with Zisa's legendary bone swords, believed lost forever.

Three years later, Rachelle is living in the capital, and is one of the king's order of penitent bloodbound. She was marked by the Forest and killed to stay alive, but has not fully submitted to the call of the Forest and become fully forestborn yet. Instead, she spends every waking hour hunting down the wicked creatures that threaten innocent civilians. She has a semi-flirtatious relationship with Eric D'Anjou, the Captain of the King's bloodbound, but refuses to give into his attempts at seduction, refusing to become another notch on his belt.

After foiling an assassination attempt at the King's bastard son, Armand, she is ordered to be his bodyguard. As Rachelle has only just gotten word from the shadowy forestborn who changed her that the Devourer will be rising as soon as the next Solstice, she has only a few weeks to try to locate Joyeuse, one of the bone-swords the legendary Zisa used to free the sun and the moon. Stories say it is hidden "below the moon, above the sun". She certainly does not have time to baby-sit one of the King's many illegitimate sons, especially one who has been proclaimed a saint by the populace after he was allegedly marked by a forestborn, refused to kill, but still survived after three days. He did lose both his hands, and now has silver ones he wears instead. The blurb claims he is the man she hates the most, this is wildly exaggerated. She despises him, believes he is a liar and a fraud - as there is just no proven instance of anyone surviving three days after encountering a forestborn, unless they kill someone, like she did.

As the assassination attempt on Armand that Rachelle foiled is not the first, she is told to accompany him to one of the King's sumptuous country estates. Rachelle is persuaded to bring her fully human friend Amelie, who wants to basically be Rachelle's stylist, now that she has to appear at court functions. Armand tells Rachelle a legend from his region of the country, that makes her believe that the sword she is looking for, may in fact be hidden somewhere in the palace they will be staying. As it is impossible for her to be on guard duty and keep on searching, she reluctantly enlists Armand's help. She is still convinced he is lying about how he lost his hands, but the more she observes him, the more unlikely it seems that he wants any kind of glory or fame, and he is clearly deeply uncomfortable being venerated by the general populace.

The return of the Devourer draws ever closer. Rachelle and Armand are running out of time and the closer to the solstice they get, the more the sinister Forest seems to be encroaching on the royal residence, even though protective spells are supposed to be all over the grounds. Will Rachelle find the legendary sword and stop the Devourer, before it's too late?

What I liked:
- I absolutely adored the dark fairy tale told at the beginning of many of the chapters, relating the story of Zisa and Tyr. There were clearly elements of Hansel and Gretel, but with much darker undertones throughout, and there are clearly other folkloric tales mixed in there too. The horror that the siblings go through and what Zisa is willing to sacrifice to rescue her brother is lovely. Creepy and fantastic as all the best fairy tales are.
- The various folklore elements woven throughout the story. 
- The sinister creeping dread of the Forest, and the almost vampire-like forestborn. The bargain the marked have to make to continue living and the ever-present threat that they submit fully to the call of the Forest, and become fully inhumane.
- I liked Rachelle's complexity, even though I didn't always like her. She made an incredibly stupid mistake in her youth (some TSTL behaviour right there), but strove so hard to atone for it. Working to fight the threats from the Forest and saving innocents, even as she believed herself wholly damned.
- The sweet and genuine friendship between Rachelle and Amelie.
- I liked Armand as a character. His cut-off hands and his silver replacements (that burn him when the metal gets too hot) was suitably gruesome. I was also impressed when it was finally revealed what actually happened to him - the full extent was both cool and horrible.
- The concept of the wood-wives, local wise-women who could weave various charms to protect the populace against the creeping evil of the Forest. Zisa was apparently the first of the wood-wives and they pass down the knowledge through the generations.
- I mostly liked the decadent Renaissance French court setting.
- I liked the monsters Rachelle had to defeat, both in her everyday fight against the encroaching Forest and when looking for Joyeuse. 
- The plot wasn't entirely predictable (for all that some things were pretty obvious to me from early on). There were a lot of cool reveals along the way.

Did not like:
- Erec D'Anjou. He gave me the creeps from the moment he showed up. He was an arrogant creep and the way he treated Rachelle was condescending and appalling. The fact that he was presented as charming, handsome and a supposed third in the love triangle of the story was baffling to me. He was pond scum.
- Rachelle's initial aversion to Armand really did seem very extreme and was really never well explained.
- Nor was her sudden change of heart, where she pretty much out of the blue loves him. Not at all sure at what point her feelings changed from distrust, disdain and slight loathing to true love.
- Absolutely and utterly hated the whole love triangle.
- The structure of the story was a bit messy and the book could have been tighter plotted. The ending seemed a bit confused and rushed.
- The Little Red Riding Hood inspiration was tenuous, at best. 

This is Rosamund Hodge's second book, and from what I can see from various reviews, a lot of people don't think it's as good as her first book, Cruel Beauty. As there was a lot that I really liked about this book, I'm now even more excited that I have the supposedly better book still to read. As some reviews also say that the plots are a bit reminiscent of each other, I think I'm going to wait a bit, so the books don't suffer too much in comparison.

Judging a book by its cover: I've seen some people complaining that the cover of this book is too close to Rosamund Hodge's debut novel, Cruel Beauty, but I honestly don't see why this is problematic. The books are published by the same company, they probably wanted to make it more obvious the books were by the same author. The spiralling stair motif is a cool one (even though it has very little to do with anything in the actual book), whilst the black and white, with the bright green of the trees and the splash of red of Rachelle's cloak are lovely contrasts. The way the trees seem to be moving ever closer to the stairs is a nice call-back to the encroaching Forest in the book.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR8 Book 52: "Silver on the Road" by Laura Anne Gilman - Cannonball!

Page count: 400 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Isobel has grown up in the town of Flood, in the saloon inhabited by the Old Man, the devil himself. It is known to all who live in the Territory, the area west of the Mississippi, that the devil always deals a fair hand. If you make a Bargain with him, he will give you exactly what you want, but you need to be careful you are sure exactly what you ask for. When Isobel turns sixteen, she is free to make her own way in the world, or to stay in Flood, continuing to work in the saloon. Yet Isobel yearns for more. She wants respect and power and the devil offers to make her his Left Hand. He already has a Right Hand, serving him well. Now he offers Isobel the chance to travel the Territory and be his eyes and ears. She accepts, despite warnings from others, but realises very quickly that she had no idea what she signed up for.

The day after her Bargain is signed, Isobel is sent off into the wilderness accompanied by Gabriel Katsun, an enigmatic card sharp who offered to mentor her on the road. Isobel is confused and a bit hurt that she's being sent away from the only home she's ever known, but can't deny that she's being given exactly what she was dreaming of before her birthday. Not that she's given any indication of what she's supposed to do or learn while on her journey. This is clearly something the devil expects her to discover on her own. After a few initially rough days, as Isobel gets accustomed to riding and sleeping rough, they settle into a pleasant routine. As they ride further away from Flood though, it's clear that there is something badly wrong going on in the Territory, some mysterious evil of unknown origin, causing sudden sickness or whole towns to be emptied entirely of both people and livestock. While she feels helpless and confused, it's also clear that as the devil's Left Hand, it is young Isobel's job to track down the source of this contamination and try to stop it.

I really didn't know entirely what to expect from this book, but it appeared on more than one best of 2015 list in the latter half on last year, and the premise sounded intriguing. The devil in control of a large area of land in the Old West, with a sixteen year old girl as his agent? The book was on sale after Christmas, and as is so often the case, I bought it and promptly forgot about it, until it was selected as the May 2016 selection of the Vaginal Fantasy Book Club. Having followed the ladies for four years, I am fully aware that there are the occasional great selections and the frequently quite rubbish selections in this club. This book has a solid 4.0 rating on Goodreads however, and I remembered all those positive reviews I'd read. It seemed like a good time to try something different.

Unlike my husband, I'm not really a huge fan of Westerns. I've seen a few, and I watched the husband play through the entirety of Red Dead Redemption, but it's not a genre that I have a lot of experience with or find especially appealing. This book takes its time to establish the setting and the characters, and because we follow along with Isobel, we learn as she learns. That means things are only very slowly revealed and the reader needs to be patient. Don't expect a break-neck pace or a number of thrilling action set-pieces (although there's absolutely a creeping danger lurking and the occasional really shocking display of danger). A lot of the book is Isobel and Gabriel slowly riding through the countryside, with Isobel learning the ways of the riders and the lay of the land.

This is an alternate history of sorts, where while the United States were in their infancy, the large unsettled area west of the Mississippi is controlled by the man the Christians like to name the devil. He is clearly a man of great power, but it doesn't seem unlimited and he certainly doesn't tempt men or women into sin, as they are more than capable of doing that themselves. Within his territory, his word is law and he has ancient agreements with the native peoples and the various creatures and spirits who dwell there. Different rules apply, and its inhabitants are sometimes blessed with unusual powers. Gabriel, for instance, can sense water and Isobel's old friend Alice can coax plants to grow. After making her bargain with the devil, Isobel becomes aware that she too has powers, but are they her own to do with as she pleases, or is she but a tool for the Old Man?

While Isobel and Gabriel spend a lot of time alone on the road together, there is refreshingly not a hint of romantic tension between them, only a growing friendship and the bond between an mentor and his charge. Gabriel has made his own bargain with the devil, putting himself in that man's debt. By taking Isobel around the territory, protecting her and showing her the ways of the riders, Gabriel will, at the end of a successfully completed mission, be given a measure of peace. He is a mysterious character, whose past is not fully revealed, but it is clear that for reasons not yet revealed to Isobel and the reader, he is bound to the Territory somehow, and the years he spent away in the United States came at a cost to him. He is connected to the land in a different way from Isobel, although I suspect the extent to which and the truth of his origin will be revealed in a later book.

This is a coming of age story, with Isobel having lived a sheltered life for her first sixteen years, wishing for more than she could handle and having to come to terms with what her bargain will actually entail. As the true extent of the danger is revealed, her initial instincts implore her to tuck her tail between her legs and flee back to Flood. This is obviously not an option, however, and as the story progresses, Isobel, cast adrift without any real guidance, has to try to figure out she can actually do in her capacity as the Left Hand of the devil and what responsibilities comes with the bargain she struck. While there are other powerful beings in the Territory, she acts for the Old Man and is therefore expected to figure out a solution. She may only be sixteen, and she may not have known what she actually asked for, but she's stuck in the bargain she made, and does a lot of growing up over the course of the story.

Clearly this is the first book in a series, and while some of the danger has defeated and contained at the end of the story, there is much left to do for Isobel and Gabriel. According to the author's website, the second book is out in October of this year. As I really liked the world-building, the quiet pacing, the various characters established and am intrigued to see where the story goes next, I'm absolutely going to keep my eye out for any sequels. This was a surprising and satisfying read.

Judging a book by its cover: It's not exactly the most exciting of covers, and I doubt I would have added this book to my TBR list and later bought it in an e-book sale, if there hadn't been so much positive hype about this book in the second half of last year. The cover isn't very flashy, but captures the content remarkably well. This is a slow-paced and introspective book and the many earth tones of the cover fit the story really well. The dusty ground, the sparse mountains. The dark-haired, plainly dressed girl, clearly meant to be Isobel, glowing with silver light to show her powers and connection with the Territory. Having all the writing be in silver, the colour of protection is also fitting. Now that I've read the book, I'm glad they didn't do something colourful and attention-grabbing with the cover. It's simple and elegant and very fitting.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.