4.5 rounded up

I've sat on writing a review for Monster for nearly a month, which was unfortunate. In short, I don't think it was perfect, but it was pretty damn good and I sure as hell enjoyed it.

Traitor was almost an impossible act to follow, and I believe the way the first novel dealt with Baru's sense of self is similar to the way she continues that journey in the second book. The weight of the first book, all the intrigue and action, built to her betrayal at Sieroch, and her betrayal (perhaps?) of Tain Hu. Baru's was a traitor's struggle, working to justify her actions to herself and a reassurance that this stepping stone would deliver her to power, the destruction of the masquerade, and the liberation/restoration of Taranoke.

Similarly, Monster is a meditation on monstrousness like Traitor was a meditation on betrayal. Baru feels and reckons with what she has become in her campaign for/against the Masquerade. Her immediate foil is another monster, Tain Shir, the Bane of Wives - Cairdine Fisher's first attempt at a protege. Tain Shir rejects the precepts of the Masquerade, but does not work against them, preferring her nihilism and revenge. Like Baru, she is motivated by her love for Tain Hu, but cannot understand or accept that Baru both loved and betrayed Tain Hu. The possibility for that duality cannot fit into Tain Shir's world view.

The newly apparent Cancrioth then are another form of monstrousness, and the Oriati form of our beloved Cryptarchs. The Cancrioth are physically repulsive, but their motives are largely unclear.

Dickinson has given us one sword of Damocles for Baru's world in the Oriati - Falcresti war that may be brewing and could end all civilized life in the area. I'm not sure if Baru will be able to or want to set that inevitability in motion, but suspect that hers will be the ultimate decision.