Okay, so can we please just talk about The Arcana Chronicles for a minute
I love this series as a whole and I just need to rant first off though, one of my favorite Characters, Tess.
Because I love her as a character, and generally speaking, I love her alliance more than I love Evie’s most of the time. She’s in cannon, a thick girl, something that I, as a big girl, love to bits because seeing just thin women in basically all media makes it a little hard to accept myself and often times knocks down my motivation to get into better shape. One thing Kresley Cole does amazingly is character building. Evie isn’t perfect. No one in the stories are perfect, something I love. Tess isn’t the Earth shaking goddess of the cosmos she could have been if Kresley Cole had written her as having complete control over her powers.
She’s just a kid. She’s just a girl with powers she can’t control, powers that could kill her and everyone around her if she lost control. She has a nervous habit, chewing her nails that even goes so far as to cause her cuticles to bleed, a nervous habit I share, as I also do this when I’m stressed. Despite not knowing how to use her powers, she still tries to contribute. She still wants to be helpful.
Also, can we talk about her relationship with Joules and Gabriel for a moment. Because, god, I love the friendship those three have. From what I see, Gabriel is like a protective older brother to her. He almost flipped his shit when Evie forced Tess to go back in time so far back her hair was falling out(Something me and my best friend both screamed at Evie about when we got to that part of the audio book). When Evie says she’s sorry about Tess’ death in Death’s car, even Joules, whose all but foaming at the mouth to get a crack at Death, quiets down for a minute at the mention of Tess. They genuinely cared about her. They miss her. It’s nice to see relationships like this, something that is often romanticized in most media. Another good Example is is Evie with Matthew, even if Matto is being a weird bean right now and I’m screaming at Kresley Cole not to do what I think she’s leading up to.
Also, another fucking thing, NO ONE IS PERFECT. I can’t say how much I love this, because believe me, I know how easy it is to accidentally make a Mary Sue, and Kresley Cole is sooooo good at not doing that. Evie doesn’t fucking know about her powers, she questions her own sanity even after the Flash happens. She has to slowly learn about her powers, and even then, they aren’t perfect, they’re wild and emotion based, not easy to control. She slowly gets better. She’s not the instant pro and sourcing or surviving like Jack was, it’s a learned skill, something she needed to work out. Every character has their own flaws, things that are fairly consistent and aren’t glossed over. Things that make them relatable. Evie has been sheltered her whole life, she doesn’t know how to shoot a gun or drive. Jackson isn’t good with emotions, sometimes he comes on too strong, he recognizes this and works on it. Matthew’s powers screwed up his mind, Selena doesn’t trust, she’s TOO hardened by her training, Finn is that one guy who’s a total fuckboy but trusts too easily and doesn’t mean any harm. Death was hardened by his long life, he doesn’t trust. Tess is a nervous wreck, Joules is angry and clearly struggling with suicidal thoughts and depression, Gabriel can’t fucking socialize to save his life because he was raised in a fucking CULT. I could go on, but I’ll move along.
Another thing Kresley Cole does beautifully, is balancing pacing and Character development. Because by the end of the 6th chapter, I was willing to die for Evie. My poor baby thought she was going insane and she couldn’t even confide in her best friend! But, by that chapter, we already were getting a pretty fucking good idea of the wonderful misery we were in for. We were in a world where girls could control plants, guys could see the future, and there were clearly things going on that neither we, as readers, or the main character herself knew about, things that meant life or death. We knew exactly the type of shit storm we were walking into, and we were already too invested to care. THAT, boys and girls, is EXACTLY, how you capture an audience, how you have a captive audience that doesn’t want to be freed. Because I sure as hell didn’t want to be. By the end of the 1st book I was almost crying because the rest of the books hadn’t been released yet.
Also, Sol the sun card, one of the power house’s of the Arcana is Bi and Poly, something I absolutely love because FUCK YES, YOU SEE THAT BABY, THAT’S MY BABY. He was in a relationship with a guy and a girl, and it’s portrayed as a healthy loving relationship. He’s clearly torn to bits over what happened to them, and it’s not treated as weird or wrong. It’s so fucking GOOD to see this kind of relationship normalized. It’s something I hope catches on
I had more, but my brain is being a bitch tit, so please, anyone who’s read the Arcana Chronicles, add as you see fit, this book needs ALL THE FANDOM. It’s one of those series where you know there are fangirls, but the fandom is a fucking ghost town.
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