Alex Mackall (https://camkramerphoto.smugmug.com/College-Wrestling/2018-19-College-Wrestling/Iowa-State-vs-Fresno-State/125lbs-Alex-Mackall-Iowa-State-fall-Robert-Garcia)
I've been reading the second death of locke and while the first 70ish pages were a struggle it's grown on me! ft. some fanart of grey
I haven't actually finished it yet but I'm over halfway through 🤷♀️ I'll put more of my thoughts under a cut and a warning for spoilers since I'm not sure I won't give some stuff away- my current rating stands at 3.5⭐ but again haven't finished it so it might change
here's the major spoiler warning and a very stream of conscious mini review for where I'm at in the book:
I'll start with some of the things that made it hard for me to get through the start of the book, then I'll talk about some of the stuff I like (buckle in guys it's gonna be a long one)
so the first bit of the book was definitely a struggle for me because I just didn't really like grey- she seemed like such a debbie downer and unnecessarily strict, and even with her background it just didn't make any sense to me for her to be so negative. her being so hostile and angry at the gang trying to make the quest fun with roles and jobs made me irritated. and her continuing to harass and bully Sela for stabbing kier (in self-defense might I add she's 15 and was just KIDNAPPED) just made me very irritated with her
another thing was in the first 100 pages or so I eventually got really sick of her constantly yapping about how in love with kier she is, but once that toned down after the first 70 or so pages I was less annoyed. yes I understand she loves him and it can be cute sometimes but after the fifteenth "we just know each other better than anyone else he knows me better than I know myself" by chapter three I was kind of just like, yes I get it. and initially i understood why she loved kier (because she wouldn't stop yapping) but I didn't understand why kier would have a reason to love her back- but after page 250 ish the author sold me on it through backstory and more cute moments so now I can enjoy the romance
I feel like choosing to reveal that grey is the heir to Locke in chapter 3 was pretty unwise- i mean yes she is our narrator but I feel like keeping that more vague or just entirely in the dark for a few more chapters would've helped- revealing it so early sort of just killed the tension. but some of that was carried through with the reveal of the specific context of the fall of locke and her past life, so that intrigued me
I do really enjoy kier, I like reading about him and I enjoy when he's on page, but he doesn't have I think ANY flaws I can name off of the top of my head 😭he's pretty much just a Great Guy, which is great and all I'm tired of broody emotionally unavailable love interests, but I wish he had a few flaws to give him more depth. this is also probably just personal taste but I wish the author leaned more into his sassiness lol- but overall I enjoy him and I find his romance with grey cute
another thing I thought kind of snuffed out some tension was having the Grand Love Confession happen at the 50% mark- i genuinely thought it was gonna keep slow burning through maybe the 75% ish point, but it didn't and I was surprised to say the least. the yearning was getting tiring but I tie that mostly to the fact that grey was, at that point, reminding of those sad dogs that just sigh every two minutes except it was about her love for kier- if that was toned down I feel like I would've enjoyed the pining lasting longer. that being said the subsequent action and whiplash and plot movement made up for it and had me shed a tear or two when they get separated some 10 pages later
alright that's most of what made me struggle initially with the book, now let's get into the stuff I am really enjoying :D
the side characters. I love love love the little found family friend group thing they have going on- i was genuinely so sad when Sela finally got returned to her mom, like a piece of the group is just missing now. I adore brit personally (and do them and ola have something going on? 👀) and while eron was a pretty nothing burger character for me in the first half I really started to like him after the inn sequence, and I'm charmed by ola. grey and kier fit in as foils to the group very well and I love the whole dynamic (I should mention here that after the inn, when sela tethered to Brit and grey finally stopped being homicidal towards a teenager I started to really like grey more as well)
speaking of the inn, the action in this book is really good. I personally always struggle with writing combat/high stakes moments, but this author is really good at that. every time a combat scenario or some tense plot related stuff is going on I am on the edge of my seat, 100% invested. i really loved the part where grey kills that entire company because even though it was very quick with no actual fighting, the author made the lead up so tense that the payoff felt really nice. and the whole prison sequence had my blood pressure up so high I was having a great time
I actually really enjoy the magic system- people with magic being unable to use their own, but mages being able to channel magic while having none of their own. I talked to my sister about it and apparently it's not quite as original as I had initially thought, but I still really enjoy the dynamics nonetheless. as of now the dynamics between unbound pairs like ola and Brit or mare and attis haven't really been explored but I'm still intrigued by the whole idea. and typics just being Normal People is unintentionally very amusing to me
sort of similar to the magic system, the setting is very much giving Skyrim and I love that, I listen to the Skyrim ost while reading and it's great
like I mentioned earlier I started liking grey more when she stopped fantasizing murder about a 15 year old and got that aforementioned stick out of her ass- she still has moments where I'm not fully on board but generally I like her much more now
similar to kiernan for some reason my liking of him increased dramatically after he lied about being Severin
the lore around Locke itself and the conflicts with eprain and luthar, the espionage and betrayals and coups had/has me really intrigued. I'm just past the part where kier gets taken away as Severin so atm I'm very interested to know the specifics behind eprain sending that girl and trying to kidnap the kids. it could just be typical power hungry bad guys but I'm still interested to know
in a similar vein a small but important thing i hope is explored more is grey potentially being recognized by Scaelas and how all of that would go down
I'm very much enjoying the plot right now and I'm having fun, hence my rating. again tastes are very subjective and to me a five star book is a book that is either absolutely perfect in my opinion, or a book that I just loved so much I genuinely did not care about any obvious flaws. a four, in my book, is a really solid book that I can't identify anything that really put me off of it. hence this book being a 3.5- it's fun and I'm liking it right now but the beginning was so rocky it knocked it down a peg overall 🤷♀️
