Taste of Marrow

Books That Burn reviewed Taste of Marrow by Sarah Gailey

Review of 'Taste of Marrow' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

Taste of Marrow gracefully handles the transformation of a betrayer from the first book into a protagonist in the second. The way Hero and Houndstooth’s relationship was handled in River of Teeth meant that the dynamic in ToM is completely believable despite their relatively brief acquaintance before this point. If RoT is characterized by grief and revenge, ToM adds sorrow and rage to the mix, as the heist which pulled them together is over and they’re dealing with the aftermath. While the characters are in suspense, I’m grateful that as a reader I wasn’t in the dark about whether or not certain characters were alive. That meant a lot of the suspense and anguish was over whether they’d find out the answers, and what they’d do about it, not what the answers were. Please don’t mistake this for a lack of tension or uncertainty, there’s plenty of that, with long …

Taste of Marrow gracefully handles the transformation of a betrayer from the first book into a protagonist in the second. The way Hero and Houndstooth’s relationship was handled in River of Teeth meant that the dynamic in ToM is completely believable despite their relatively brief acquaintance before this point. If RoT is characterized by grief and revenge, ToM adds sorrow and rage to the mix, as the heist which pulled them together is over and they’re dealing with the aftermath. While the characters are in suspense, I’m grateful that as a reader I wasn’t in the dark about whether or not certain characters were alive. That meant a lot of the suspense and anguish was over whether they’d find out the answers, and what they’d do about it, not what the answers were. Please don’t mistake this for a lack of tension or uncertainty, there’s plenty of that, with long stretches where I was on the edge of my seat, but there’s particular feeling of being lied to as a reader, and this story avoids that. The scenes between Hero and Adelia, especially when Hero finally talks about why they retired... goddamn I love that scene. This is a quieter story than the first one (at least until the finale), and as much as I loved the heists from before, I love the quiet moments between characters who might not like each other personally but are committed to being their own kind of decent.