Reviews and Comments

This was a really enjoyable read overall. I picked it up in the bookstore after only reading the jacket blurb that promised queer monstrous characters, and skimming a few pages to determine that it was in fact set in Canada, which I think makes this the first urban fantasy set in Canada that I've ever read.

I'm really glad with how this turned out; Tam really has done some monstrous stuff, even though much of the agency of it is split between her and her aunt. The book really does go some surprising places, including some very cool twists in terms of character backstories, and some very peculiar and interesting creatures and places in the final act, when the characters travel to an in-between mystical realm.

I really, really liked that Tam and Janet are already dating at the start of the book, rather than there being the typical meet cute and romance arc that see so often elsewhere. And despite this being a primarily single-POV book, the author does a great job of fleshing out side characters by popping in a single short chapter here or there to explain their backstory, and does so with impressive economy.

If I had to complain about anything, it would be that the dialog feels a bit odd or stilted at times, and that Janet, Tam's love interest, feels a bit too conveniently patient and useful and motivating. She's an interestingly challenging character in the first half or so, but then becomes more of a support character and loses some of her potential complexity later on.

Still, overall this was a very compelling debut, and I'll be looking out for what the author writes next.

I'm curious to get to this in-between.

Wow that's a genuinely startling reveal, and there's a lot of incredible interpersonal messiness going on here. I love it.

The writing is a bit choppy at times, but I'm enjoying the eclectic supernatural world and the fast clip.

I loved the first book in this series, and liked the second well enough, but the final book in the trilogy has descended to just fine.

Overall, I think my main issues with it fall into two areas. First, the insistence on heavily featuring the couples from the previous books leaves much less time to focus on Alan and Jack's relationship, and I think that's to its detriment. The romance felt sectioned off and rather rushed.

Second, the book's plot is constantly throwing very dramatic events out that have little build-up and no lasting consequences. It feels like a series of fake tension bubbles that immediately burst. It's also a fairly reactive plot, with a lot of waiting.