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inkandplasma
Full review available from August 3rd: https://inkandplasma.wordpress.com/2020/08/03/may-day-by-josie-jaffrey-review/
Thanks to Josie for sending me a review copy of this book, it hasn’t affected my honest review!
Trigger Warnings: blood, vampire-typical consent issues and memory-fuckery, murder, heavy drinking, non-consensual drug use.
I’m going to talk about the elephant in the room first. This book features a lovely bisexual love triangle! Killian, Jack and Tabitha! And for the first time in my life, I ship the m/f couple more than the f/f??? Who have I become, honestly. In my defense, sapphic friends, I want Tabitha to get a lovely girlfriend and live happily ever after because I adore her. I just think that Jack and Killian are both garbage idiots who deserve each other. It should come as no surprise that I adored the nemesis thing going on with Jack and Killian. After finishing May Day I read the short story prequel, Killian’s Dead, and that fleshed out their complicated relationship even more. I just loved every scene with both of them. The tangled mess of antagonism and attraction is sheer perfection to me, and Jack Valentine is hilarious at the best of times, and on her best game when it comes to sassing Killian.
I actually loved most of the characters in this book. There’s a really strong cast of supporting characters in the Seekers (the team of vampire detectives) and I love all of them. Especially Cam, who is a marshmallow to be protected. And the morals of the group are definitely on a very slidey scale, which made them really fun to read about. In Silver society, there’s the law and The Law. Breaking human laws don’t matter at all, but if you break Silver law, there are Consequences. It made for a much more interesting group of detectives than most books about human detectives, that’s for sure! The Silver society in general was really interesting, and this is my first book in the Silverse but I know I’m definitely going to pick up more when I can – the urban vampire setting is just perfect for me!
The mystery aspect of this book was really well executed. There were enough hints and bits of evidence for me to start putting things together, and I felt really engaged with the way that Jack started to uncover the truth. It took me a couple of goes to get started on this book, but once I was into the meat of the murder investigation, I was utterly absorbed. Not that I managed to guess things correctly until Jack did – but that’s why I’m not a Seeker!
I’m honestly a little bit devastated I don’t already have the sequel to this one in my hands, especially with that ending! The book wraps up perfectly for the genre, with the main mystery solved, but the threads left open for the next book have me a little bit feral with excitement.
Initial thoughts:
I can't wait for the sequel! to! this! book! And if you see me preferring the m/f relationship over the f/f relationship in this book, please look away
Thanks to Josie for sending me a review copy of this book, it hasn’t affected my honest review!
Trigger Warnings: blood, vampire-typical consent issues and memory-fuckery, murder, heavy drinking, non-consensual drug use.
I’m going to talk about the elephant in the room first. This book features a lovely bisexual love triangle! Killian, Jack and Tabitha! And for the first time in my life, I ship the m/f couple more than the f/f??? Who have I become, honestly. In my defense, sapphic friends, I want Tabitha to get a lovely girlfriend and live happily ever after because I adore her. I just think that Jack and Killian are both garbage idiots who deserve each other. It should come as no surprise that I adored the nemesis thing going on with Jack and Killian. After finishing May Day I read the short story prequel, Killian’s Dead, and that fleshed out their complicated relationship even more. I just loved every scene with both of them. The tangled mess of antagonism and attraction is sheer perfection to me, and Jack Valentine is hilarious at the best of times, and on her best game when it comes to sassing Killian.
I actually loved most of the characters in this book. There’s a really strong cast of supporting characters in the Seekers (the team of vampire detectives) and I love all of them. Especially Cam, who is a marshmallow to be protected. And the morals of the group are definitely on a very slidey scale, which made them really fun to read about. In Silver society, there’s the law and The Law. Breaking human laws don’t matter at all, but if you break Silver law, there are Consequences. It made for a much more interesting group of detectives than most books about human detectives, that’s for sure! The Silver society in general was really interesting, and this is my first book in the Silverse but I know I’m definitely going to pick up more when I can – the urban vampire setting is just perfect for me!
The mystery aspect of this book was really well executed. There were enough hints and bits of evidence for me to start putting things together, and I felt really engaged with the way that Jack started to uncover the truth. It took me a couple of goes to get started on this book, but once I was into the meat of the murder investigation, I was utterly absorbed. Not that I managed to guess things correctly until Jack did – but that’s why I’m not a Seeker!
I’m honestly a little bit devastated I don’t already have the sequel to this one in my hands, especially with that ending! The book wraps up perfectly for the genre, with the main mystery solved, but the threads left open for the next book have me a little bit feral with excitement.
Initial thoughts:
I can't wait for the sequel! to! this! book! And if you see me preferring the m/f relationship over the f/f relationship in this book, please look away
Full review: https://inkandplasma.wordpress.com/2020/05/11/the-monster-of-elendhaven-by-jennifer-giesbrecht-review/
One of the main things that keeps me coming back to this book is the atmosphere. For 160 pages, the whole thing is intoxicating. There’s not a word wasted to paint a picture of a dark and twisted town in the shadow of a mountain and the shadow of a plague. The mythology is threaded through and explained neatly so that the reader is never left wondering what’s going on, but without resorting to plain exposition – which would be off-putting in a novella length piece of writing. I could feel Elendhaven coming to life around me as I read. It left me hungry for more; more Elendhaven, more Florian and more Johann; but I’m also certain that anything extra would be unnecessary. This is a perfect bite-sized piece of fantasy-horror, and the ending is as potent as the descriptions.
The eccentric main characters themselves, Johann and Florian, were incredible. I love them. That atmospheric writing came together perfectly to make them feel fleshed out and individual, and though they are both terrible people I was rooting for them the whole time. Is there anything better than a story about plain old villains drawing you in so intently that you throw your morals out of the window in the hopes of revelling in their victory? I somehow managed to miss the clue that The Monster of Elendhaven was a queer book, so the ‘romance’ (using the word loosely) between Johann and Florian was a delightful surprise. Their relationship was what really sold this book to me. Master and servant, bodyguard and client, lovers, indifferent sorcerer and devoted monster. Their dynamic was perfect from the start, and the way their personalities meshed made them so interesting to read about. They’re both unrelentingly, unrepentantly bad in their own ways, and I think it’s the lack of concern or apology that made them so fun.
I would highly recommend the audiobook if you can get your hands on it, because the characterisations are done so well that as I was rereading a physical copy I couldn’t shake the narrator’s voice from my mind.
One of the main things that keeps me coming back to this book is the atmosphere. For 160 pages, the whole thing is intoxicating. There’s not a word wasted to paint a picture of a dark and twisted town in the shadow of a mountain and the shadow of a plague. The mythology is threaded through and explained neatly so that the reader is never left wondering what’s going on, but without resorting to plain exposition – which would be off-putting in a novella length piece of writing. I could feel Elendhaven coming to life around me as I read. It left me hungry for more; more Elendhaven, more Florian and more Johann; but I’m also certain that anything extra would be unnecessary. This is a perfect bite-sized piece of fantasy-horror, and the ending is as potent as the descriptions.
The eccentric main characters themselves, Johann and Florian, were incredible. I love them. That atmospheric writing came together perfectly to make them feel fleshed out and individual, and though they are both terrible people I was rooting for them the whole time. Is there anything better than a story about plain old villains drawing you in so intently that you throw your morals out of the window in the hopes of revelling in their victory? I somehow managed to miss the clue that The Monster of Elendhaven was a queer book, so the ‘romance’ (using the word loosely) between Johann and Florian was a delightful surprise. Their relationship was what really sold this book to me. Master and servant, bodyguard and client, lovers, indifferent sorcerer and devoted monster. Their dynamic was perfect from the start, and the way their personalities meshed made them so interesting to read about. They’re both unrelentingly, unrepentantly bad in their own ways, and I think it’s the lack of concern or apology that made them so fun.
I would highly recommend the audiobook if you can get your hands on it, because the characterisations are done so well that as I was rereading a physical copy I couldn’t shake the narrator’s voice from my mind.
