Edge of Tomorrow
Hiroshi Sakurazaka
Haikasoru
Fiction, Sci-Fi
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Once, humans assumed they were the only intelligent life in the galaxy. Now, with the invasion of the Mimics, they know better. An alien terraforming technology that hijacked deep sea life forms, the hivelike entities have been slowly and inexorably spreading their toxic-to-humans waste, poisoning native Earth life to pave the way for the coming of their masters. Humans struggle to resist, but somehow the Mimics keep adapting and coming back stronger than ever. If somebody can't figure out how to break the cycle of defeats, the world is doomed.
Keiji Kiriya was a green recruit, a "jacket jockey" in the battle armor that at least gives soldiers a fighting chance against the incredibly resilient Mimics, when he went into his first battle - and died. Only he finds himself back in his bunk, 30 hours before the fatal blow, reliving a span of time he remembers almost perfectly.
Another death, another reset. And again... and again...
Has his mind cracked under pressure? Is it some sort of elaborate hallucination? Or has Keiji inadvertently stumbled into a secret known to only one other soldier - the nigh-unstoppable American fighter Rita, known informally as the Full Metal Bitch, who has more kills to her name than entire national armies?
This book was previously released under the title All You Need is Kill.
REVIEW: With a character, ostensibly a heroine and love interest, called the "Full Metal Bitch", one might have an inkling of why this popular Japanese sci-fi story - inspiration for a Tom Cruise film (whose title was used for this re-issue) - got its low rating from me. Try as it might to explore interesting concepts of possible time loops and alien invaders, it just cannot seem to help itself from falling back on the worst race, national, gender, and overall genre cliches, with flat, overreacting characters delivering clunky dialog and often wandering into tangents when time is of the essence (because even in a potentially endless time loop, sometimes you really do need to shut up and get on with what needs to be done or said before everything inevitably goes wrong again). Early on, I found the idea - a cross between the hell of potential extinction-level war and alien invaders with the "Groundhog Day" of a time loop only remembered by one man - intriguing, and was willing to ride along with a main character who wasn't exactly original or deep but was at least serviceable. Then I got to Rita, the crimson-armored, axe-wielding embodiment of all manner of cringeworthy stereotypes and overall sexual objectification, and it became abundantly clear that this book was written for a particular target audience that I was very, very much not. The story clunks along after that, wallowing in some disturbing fetishes, before ending up at a conclusion I guessed pretty much from the start (not a happy or satisfactory guess, but more a guess based on flat predictability). If I ever have to relive the loop of time where I downloaded this title to try, hopefully I'll remember enough to choose more carefully.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card) - My Review
The Last Watch (J. S. Dewes) - My Review
Skyward (Brandon Sanderson) - My Review
Saturday, November 1, 2025
The City in Glass (Nghi Vo)
The City in Glass
Nghi Vo
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Since fleeing catastrophe in a southern land, the demon Vitrine came to love the port city of Azril, becoming its invisible guardian and gardener. Under her influence, it rose to be a shining jewel in the land, home to wonders and scholars and music... until the angels came from the east, bearing fire and the righteous word of their master. They do not explain themselves, do not heed a mere demon pleading for mercy, and in the devastation that follows Vitrine can only watch helplessly - watch, and fling a sliver of her cursed self into one of their own. Corrupted, the angel can no longer return to the heavens, but neither does Vitrine desire his company as she mourns her city. As years, decades, and generations of mortals pass, the two are bound in an uneasy coexistence. Between them lie the ruins of Azril, the memories the demon holds in the book within the glass cabinet of her heart, and a future neither can anticipate.
REVIEW: I've been enjoying Vo's Singing Hills novellas (which have a tangential relationship to this story), so I figured I'd try some other works by the author. (That, and the audiobook fit into a gap in listening time to make work tolerable; yes, sometimes I select for time - so sue me, my job can be rather mind-numbing.) I'm sometimes a little leery of books with demons and angels, as they can traipse close to religious fiction and I'm not a huge fan of real-world religions. This tale, however, subverts several expectations. Vitrine is the one who loves the world and sees the humanity of the city, embracing its darkness and its light, coaxing it toward greatness as a bonsai gardener shapes their trees. Then the angels arrive with divine orders to level the city and destroy everyone in it. Why? They do not explain; it is not their duty or inclination to explain, to consider, let alone to care, but simply to act, destroying good along with bad if that is what they're charged to do. The rest is as much an examination of trauma and grief as it is about the growing bond between the mourning demon and the now-earthbound angel... an angel who does not understand why a demon grew so attached to the city, who has never had to spend time in the mortal world, who may never have even had an original thought that was not dictated by his divine master before encountering Vitrine; he does not even have a name, nor does the demon ever give him one. The demon tries to rebuild the city, the angel often more an obstacle than an asset, but still struggles to process her centuries-deep grief and impotent rage over the needless devastation. There are some very clear metaphors to be found in the ruins of Azril and the efforts of the immortals to process the terrible thing that happened and the seemingly-impossible task of moving forward in a world that insists on turning after everything worth living for has been destroyed. It nearly earned an extra half-star, as it has some beautiful and poignant moments, but at some point it starts meandering, and the conclusion is so exceptionally surreal that I couldn't quite work out how I felt about it as an endcap.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Paradise Lost (John Milton) - My Review
The Illustrated Good Omens (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman) - My Review
The Empress of Salt and Fortune (Nghi Vo) - My Review
Nghi Vo
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Since fleeing catastrophe in a southern land, the demon Vitrine came to love the port city of Azril, becoming its invisible guardian and gardener. Under her influence, it rose to be a shining jewel in the land, home to wonders and scholars and music... until the angels came from the east, bearing fire and the righteous word of their master. They do not explain themselves, do not heed a mere demon pleading for mercy, and in the devastation that follows Vitrine can only watch helplessly - watch, and fling a sliver of her cursed self into one of their own. Corrupted, the angel can no longer return to the heavens, but neither does Vitrine desire his company as she mourns her city. As years, decades, and generations of mortals pass, the two are bound in an uneasy coexistence. Between them lie the ruins of Azril, the memories the demon holds in the book within the glass cabinet of her heart, and a future neither can anticipate.
REVIEW: I've been enjoying Vo's Singing Hills novellas (which have a tangential relationship to this story), so I figured I'd try some other works by the author. (That, and the audiobook fit into a gap in listening time to make work tolerable; yes, sometimes I select for time - so sue me, my job can be rather mind-numbing.) I'm sometimes a little leery of books with demons and angels, as they can traipse close to religious fiction and I'm not a huge fan of real-world religions. This tale, however, subverts several expectations. Vitrine is the one who loves the world and sees the humanity of the city, embracing its darkness and its light, coaxing it toward greatness as a bonsai gardener shapes their trees. Then the angels arrive with divine orders to level the city and destroy everyone in it. Why? They do not explain; it is not their duty or inclination to explain, to consider, let alone to care, but simply to act, destroying good along with bad if that is what they're charged to do. The rest is as much an examination of trauma and grief as it is about the growing bond between the mourning demon and the now-earthbound angel... an angel who does not understand why a demon grew so attached to the city, who has never had to spend time in the mortal world, who may never have even had an original thought that was not dictated by his divine master before encountering Vitrine; he does not even have a name, nor does the demon ever give him one. The demon tries to rebuild the city, the angel often more an obstacle than an asset, but still struggles to process her centuries-deep grief and impotent rage over the needless devastation. There are some very clear metaphors to be found in the ruins of Azril and the efforts of the immortals to process the terrible thing that happened and the seemingly-impossible task of moving forward in a world that insists on turning after everything worth living for has been destroyed. It nearly earned an extra half-star, as it has some beautiful and poignant moments, but at some point it starts meandering, and the conclusion is so exceptionally surreal that I couldn't quite work out how I felt about it as an endcap.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Paradise Lost (John Milton) - My Review
The Illustrated Good Omens (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman) - My Review
The Empress of Salt and Fortune (Nghi Vo) - My Review
The Daughters' War (Christopher Buehlman)
The Daughters' War
The Blacktongue Thief series, Book 2
Christopher Buehlman
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Since the goblins came to the human lands, two devastating wars have been fought, leaving large swathes under the control of the poison-wielding, man-eating enemy who farm and butcher humans like livestock - wars that took most able-bodied men and boys, and saw horses fall to a goblin-concocted plague. Now, the third war is fought with what remains... and with women and girls in armor. Among these is Galta, daughter of an affluent duke, who is part of a unit that will be field-testing an experimental new weapon: corvids, great flightless war birds created by powerful magic. Without a cavalry, creatures like corvids may be humanity's only hope to avoid enslavement and butchery - but nobody will know for sure until the Raven Knights are tested in battle... and even before they see a single goblin, politics and tensions may cripple the ranks in the long, bloody conflict that will become known as the Daughters' War.
REVIEW: The Blacktongue Thief had a certain dark humor about it, taking place in the aftermath of the Daughters' War and with Galta, a jaded veteran who worships a goddess of death, as a significant character. She clearly had a deep history behind her, full of loss and scars. This book is her story, a prequel about her first campaign as a Raven Knight and how she went from being a somewhat hopeful noble-born woman hoping to prove herself and turn back the enemy into the far more cynical outcast readers met in The Blacktongue Thief. Unlike the first volume, there is little humor or even hope to be found here, in a tale dominated by tensions and betrayals, where victories are few and happiness fleeting between devastating losses and gore-soaked battles.
Galta is a young woman raised in the shadow of the goblin wars; her father was crippled fighting the "biters", and she has watched the family's lone surviving horse age even as she herself grew up. She proved capable as a swordswoman and eagerly joined the ranks of the experimental Raven Knights, willing to do anything in her power to defend her homeland, having no idea how fateful that decision would be. Her three brothers are all also part of this campaign in varying capacities, from a wizard's assistant to a decorated general to the drunk and corrupt heir in a unit of irregulars. though bonds between them can be complicated and tense. The war has Galta working side by side with common-born young women, a blurring of traditional class stratification that creates some problems within mankind's armies in ways that figure heavily into later developments; while the goblins are a devastatingly devious and inhuman enemy, one whose very nature precludes any manner of lasting peace or coexistence, humans being stubbornly and blindly human accounts for far more losses than anyone, especially anyone in the upper echelons, will ever admit. As Galta experiences a harsh coming of age in combat, she also has the first stirrings of passions, first with a common-born fellow Raven Knight and later with the one who will prove so pivotal to events in The Blacktongue Thief, even as she unexpectedly finds enlightenment in the doctrines of the goddess of death - a far cry from the sun god favored by her family and many noble houses, but one whose worship makes much more sense to those facing the gruesome realities of war firsthand. By the end, Galta is a far cry from the woman she was at the start of the grueling campaign, having lost almost everything she once held dear and even several things she didn't think to appreciate until they were torn away.
The story takes a while to get moving, introducing its characters and concepts and world; the land itself may be the same as the one in Buehlman's The Blacktongue Thief, but nobleborn Galta's life experience is worlds away from Kinch the thief, and this Galta is far from being the woman he encountered. (It's also been a while since I read that book; the author does a good job not assuming the reader remembered every detail, filling in relevant aspects as encountered.) The reader also gets to see more of the war corvids, intriguing creatures with surprising, if always inhuman, intelligence; this is essentially their origin story, their first test in combat, mankind's first hint of hope against the goblins since the devastating loss of horses. (It goes without saying that results are... complicated, to say the least.) Buehlman explores some interesting themes and ideas in Galta's journey, enhanced by additional notes now and again, such as journal entries from one of her brothers who serves the great and eccentric magician who created the corvids and other "mixlings", and sometimes letters from her father, who loves his children but doesn't really see them or understand them in that way of parents everywhere, blinkered by nostalgia, rank, and tradition. A few characters wind up feeling conspicuously flat, particularly Galta's boorish eldest brother, but most people become tantalizingly rounded and deep.
While there were times the story meandered and felt like it was reveling in its own despair and violence, overall it's a worthy companion to The Blacktongue Thief, a dark examination of the devastating ramifications of war.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Blacktongue Thief (Christopher Buehlman) - My Review
Bloody Rose (Nicholas Eames) - My Review
Guns of the Dawn (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
The Blacktongue Thief series, Book 2
Christopher Buehlman
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Since the goblins came to the human lands, two devastating wars have been fought, leaving large swathes under the control of the poison-wielding, man-eating enemy who farm and butcher humans like livestock - wars that took most able-bodied men and boys, and saw horses fall to a goblin-concocted plague. Now, the third war is fought with what remains... and with women and girls in armor. Among these is Galta, daughter of an affluent duke, who is part of a unit that will be field-testing an experimental new weapon: corvids, great flightless war birds created by powerful magic. Without a cavalry, creatures like corvids may be humanity's only hope to avoid enslavement and butchery - but nobody will know for sure until the Raven Knights are tested in battle... and even before they see a single goblin, politics and tensions may cripple the ranks in the long, bloody conflict that will become known as the Daughters' War.
REVIEW: The Blacktongue Thief had a certain dark humor about it, taking place in the aftermath of the Daughters' War and with Galta, a jaded veteran who worships a goddess of death, as a significant character. She clearly had a deep history behind her, full of loss and scars. This book is her story, a prequel about her first campaign as a Raven Knight and how she went from being a somewhat hopeful noble-born woman hoping to prove herself and turn back the enemy into the far more cynical outcast readers met in The Blacktongue Thief. Unlike the first volume, there is little humor or even hope to be found here, in a tale dominated by tensions and betrayals, where victories are few and happiness fleeting between devastating losses and gore-soaked battles.
Galta is a young woman raised in the shadow of the goblin wars; her father was crippled fighting the "biters", and she has watched the family's lone surviving horse age even as she herself grew up. She proved capable as a swordswoman and eagerly joined the ranks of the experimental Raven Knights, willing to do anything in her power to defend her homeland, having no idea how fateful that decision would be. Her three brothers are all also part of this campaign in varying capacities, from a wizard's assistant to a decorated general to the drunk and corrupt heir in a unit of irregulars. though bonds between them can be complicated and tense. The war has Galta working side by side with common-born young women, a blurring of traditional class stratification that creates some problems within mankind's armies in ways that figure heavily into later developments; while the goblins are a devastatingly devious and inhuman enemy, one whose very nature precludes any manner of lasting peace or coexistence, humans being stubbornly and blindly human accounts for far more losses than anyone, especially anyone in the upper echelons, will ever admit. As Galta experiences a harsh coming of age in combat, she also has the first stirrings of passions, first with a common-born fellow Raven Knight and later with the one who will prove so pivotal to events in The Blacktongue Thief, even as she unexpectedly finds enlightenment in the doctrines of the goddess of death - a far cry from the sun god favored by her family and many noble houses, but one whose worship makes much more sense to those facing the gruesome realities of war firsthand. By the end, Galta is a far cry from the woman she was at the start of the grueling campaign, having lost almost everything she once held dear and even several things she didn't think to appreciate until they were torn away.
The story takes a while to get moving, introducing its characters and concepts and world; the land itself may be the same as the one in Buehlman's The Blacktongue Thief, but nobleborn Galta's life experience is worlds away from Kinch the thief, and this Galta is far from being the woman he encountered. (It's also been a while since I read that book; the author does a good job not assuming the reader remembered every detail, filling in relevant aspects as encountered.) The reader also gets to see more of the war corvids, intriguing creatures with surprising, if always inhuman, intelligence; this is essentially their origin story, their first test in combat, mankind's first hint of hope against the goblins since the devastating loss of horses. (It goes without saying that results are... complicated, to say the least.) Buehlman explores some interesting themes and ideas in Galta's journey, enhanced by additional notes now and again, such as journal entries from one of her brothers who serves the great and eccentric magician who created the corvids and other "mixlings", and sometimes letters from her father, who loves his children but doesn't really see them or understand them in that way of parents everywhere, blinkered by nostalgia, rank, and tradition. A few characters wind up feeling conspicuously flat, particularly Galta's boorish eldest brother, but most people become tantalizingly rounded and deep.
While there were times the story meandered and felt like it was reveling in its own despair and violence, overall it's a worthy companion to The Blacktongue Thief, a dark examination of the devastating ramifications of war.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Blacktongue Thief (Christopher Buehlman) - My Review
Bloody Rose (Nicholas Eames) - My Review
Guns of the Dawn (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
Friday, October 31, 2025
October Site Update
This year just is not quitting with the cruddy stuff, but at least it let me update the main Brightdreamer Books website between crises (or rather during an ongoing one involving a malfunctioning furnace; hey, at least we have running water, which is better than we had for 11 days at the start of the month).
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Sunday, October 26, 2025
Starling House (Alix E. Harrow)
Starling House
Alix E. Harrow
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy/Horror
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: The small coal town of Eden, Kentucky is a bad-luck town if ever there was one. It's not just the poverty and poor living conditions from being so near the Gravely coal mines and power plants, but bad things seem to keep happening, accidents and deaths and explosions, often tied to the strange mists that rise in the night. Some think the town is cursed... and some look with suspicion on the secluded old Starling House, once the home of the late author Eleanor Starling, whose unsettling children's book The Underland still has a devoted following. It's been well over a century since Eleanor disappeared, but her reputation is still whispered in that way of small towns; if anyone cursed the good people of Eden, it must have been her and the strange string of successors who have inherited the place, culminating in the reclusive young man Arthur. None would believe the truth...
Opal and her teen brother Jasper have been stranded in Eden ever since a terrible accident sent their mother's car into the river over a decade ago. A high school dropout with a surly reputation, Opal struggles to earn enough money to at least save Jasper from this dead-end hole of a place. But she also is fascinated by Starling House, having been enthralled by The Underland since childhood. She even finds herself haunted by dreams of a sprawling mansion, a place that feels like the home she never had. But she never imagined she'd set foot in the place, until the night she has a fateful encounter with Arthur Starling himself. Beyond the threshold of Starling House is a place she recognizes too well from her dreams... and a dark secret worse than her deepest nightmares.
REVIEW: With the creepy Southern Gothic atmosphere and a gritty, hardscrabble heroine, Starling House looked like a great pick for October. Alix E. Harrow continues her streak of not disappointing me.
Opal is a young woman who should have given up years ago, fallen into drugs or alcohol or other traps - or simply given up on survival altogether. Her single mother didn't exactly provide a stable life before her untimely death, with neither child knowing who or where their fathers were, and Opal was in the car with the woman when they went off the bridge into the river. Things only got worse after that, as she dropped out of high school and learned to lie, cheat, steal, and grift to keep custody of her kid brother. Yet, while Opal isn't exactly the kindest or most mentally healthy person in Eden, adversity has made her dig in all the harder, made her all the hungrier and sharper, as she bends every fiber of her being and her pride toward getting her now-teen brother Jasper out and away to a better life - sacrificing herself and any potential for her own future or happiness in the process. Her quick temper and sarcastic tongue don't always help, but they're her defense mechanisms against a town that long ago branded her trouble, and against the parts of herself she deliberately buried because they were too broken and hurt to handle alone - and alone is the only way she knows how to handle anything. A small Southern town like Eden doesn't exactly go out of its way to help strangers, especially ones like Opal, though there are a few people who form a threadbare support net... people she doesn't learn to appreciate until it's nearly too late. Jasper, meanwhile, is becoming a teenager and pushing back against her mothering form of sisterhood; hard as she tries to shield him from the worst of small town hostility and the sacrifices she makes on his behalf, he's developing his own ideas of what his life will be, ideas that clash with her best intentions and efforts. This is yet another source of friction on the fraying ropes barely holding Opal together... and that's without the dreams and nightmares, some of which tie into the tale of The Underland and lead back, inevitably, to Eleanor Starling.
Arthur, meanwhile, has also sacrificed himself in his own way, as caretaker of Starling House and the legacy of Eleanor... and also the Warden working to protect a town that hardly deserves protection from a supernatural threat (not really a spoiler; this is a horror-fantasy, after all). He swore he'd be the last, that he'd die if need be to stop the cycle of new Wardens being "called" to Starling House to continue a fight that seemingly can never be won... until the redheaded young woman turns up and inadvertently offers blood to the wrought iron gates. Despite himself, he offers her a job as housekeeper to the sprawling estate, even knowing that he may not be able to save her from a fate like his own (especially not if she's already been called by the dreams), but he's denied himself so much, even companionship, for so long he can't help himself - plus he may need some assistance, as not only is the mist growing more malevolent and active, but enemies of an all too mortal variety - the wealthy, amoral Gravelys - are trying to steal Starling House (and its secrets) right out from under him.
As Opal and Arthur circle unspoken feelings for each other and their own agendas (both of which are facing increasing challenges as things get worse for them and for Eden), underlying secrets and the source of Eden's curse are slowly revealed, tied into festering wounds left generations ago by injustice, abuse, and trauma. The sins of the forefathers are compounded through the years, as the lack of consequences feeds into the entitlement and impunity of those who flout rules and common decency, while the habit of injustice becomes entrenched in a populace too willing to look the other way. All of this only makes the mist worse, building to a potentially catastrophic climax.
There are times when both Opal and Arthur let their emotions get in the way of intelligence and action; Opal in particular can break down and hole up in her own head and in the borrowed motel room that serves as a home. Her flexible morality (when it comes to people who aren't herself or Jasper; she will do anything, even sell herself out, if it means a chance at getting her brother out of Eden and away from their wretched existence) makes her a little tough to sympathize with as a main character, though Arthur can also be stubbornly obtuse and close-lipped. Still, they manage to grow, if unevenly, to confront the challenges placed before them. A few threads feel unresolved by the ending, though overall it's a satisfying and cathartic conclusion.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Witches of Lychford (Paul Cornell) - My Review
Griffin's Castle (Jenny Nimmo) - My Review
Gallant (V. E. Schwab) - My Review
Alix E. Harrow
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy/Horror
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: The small coal town of Eden, Kentucky is a bad-luck town if ever there was one. It's not just the poverty and poor living conditions from being so near the Gravely coal mines and power plants, but bad things seem to keep happening, accidents and deaths and explosions, often tied to the strange mists that rise in the night. Some think the town is cursed... and some look with suspicion on the secluded old Starling House, once the home of the late author Eleanor Starling, whose unsettling children's book The Underland still has a devoted following. It's been well over a century since Eleanor disappeared, but her reputation is still whispered in that way of small towns; if anyone cursed the good people of Eden, it must have been her and the strange string of successors who have inherited the place, culminating in the reclusive young man Arthur. None would believe the truth...
Opal and her teen brother Jasper have been stranded in Eden ever since a terrible accident sent their mother's car into the river over a decade ago. A high school dropout with a surly reputation, Opal struggles to earn enough money to at least save Jasper from this dead-end hole of a place. But she also is fascinated by Starling House, having been enthralled by The Underland since childhood. She even finds herself haunted by dreams of a sprawling mansion, a place that feels like the home she never had. But she never imagined she'd set foot in the place, until the night she has a fateful encounter with Arthur Starling himself. Beyond the threshold of Starling House is a place she recognizes too well from her dreams... and a dark secret worse than her deepest nightmares.
REVIEW: With the creepy Southern Gothic atmosphere and a gritty, hardscrabble heroine, Starling House looked like a great pick for October. Alix E. Harrow continues her streak of not disappointing me.
Opal is a young woman who should have given up years ago, fallen into drugs or alcohol or other traps - or simply given up on survival altogether. Her single mother didn't exactly provide a stable life before her untimely death, with neither child knowing who or where their fathers were, and Opal was in the car with the woman when they went off the bridge into the river. Things only got worse after that, as she dropped out of high school and learned to lie, cheat, steal, and grift to keep custody of her kid brother. Yet, while Opal isn't exactly the kindest or most mentally healthy person in Eden, adversity has made her dig in all the harder, made her all the hungrier and sharper, as she bends every fiber of her being and her pride toward getting her now-teen brother Jasper out and away to a better life - sacrificing herself and any potential for her own future or happiness in the process. Her quick temper and sarcastic tongue don't always help, but they're her defense mechanisms against a town that long ago branded her trouble, and against the parts of herself she deliberately buried because they were too broken and hurt to handle alone - and alone is the only way she knows how to handle anything. A small Southern town like Eden doesn't exactly go out of its way to help strangers, especially ones like Opal, though there are a few people who form a threadbare support net... people she doesn't learn to appreciate until it's nearly too late. Jasper, meanwhile, is becoming a teenager and pushing back against her mothering form of sisterhood; hard as she tries to shield him from the worst of small town hostility and the sacrifices she makes on his behalf, he's developing his own ideas of what his life will be, ideas that clash with her best intentions and efforts. This is yet another source of friction on the fraying ropes barely holding Opal together... and that's without the dreams and nightmares, some of which tie into the tale of The Underland and lead back, inevitably, to Eleanor Starling.
Arthur, meanwhile, has also sacrificed himself in his own way, as caretaker of Starling House and the legacy of Eleanor... and also the Warden working to protect a town that hardly deserves protection from a supernatural threat (not really a spoiler; this is a horror-fantasy, after all). He swore he'd be the last, that he'd die if need be to stop the cycle of new Wardens being "called" to Starling House to continue a fight that seemingly can never be won... until the redheaded young woman turns up and inadvertently offers blood to the wrought iron gates. Despite himself, he offers her a job as housekeeper to the sprawling estate, even knowing that he may not be able to save her from a fate like his own (especially not if she's already been called by the dreams), but he's denied himself so much, even companionship, for so long he can't help himself - plus he may need some assistance, as not only is the mist growing more malevolent and active, but enemies of an all too mortal variety - the wealthy, amoral Gravelys - are trying to steal Starling House (and its secrets) right out from under him.
As Opal and Arthur circle unspoken feelings for each other and their own agendas (both of which are facing increasing challenges as things get worse for them and for Eden), underlying secrets and the source of Eden's curse are slowly revealed, tied into festering wounds left generations ago by injustice, abuse, and trauma. The sins of the forefathers are compounded through the years, as the lack of consequences feeds into the entitlement and impunity of those who flout rules and common decency, while the habit of injustice becomes entrenched in a populace too willing to look the other way. All of this only makes the mist worse, building to a potentially catastrophic climax.
There are times when both Opal and Arthur let their emotions get in the way of intelligence and action; Opal in particular can break down and hole up in her own head and in the borrowed motel room that serves as a home. Her flexible morality (when it comes to people who aren't herself or Jasper; she will do anything, even sell herself out, if it means a chance at getting her brother out of Eden and away from their wretched existence) makes her a little tough to sympathize with as a main character, though Arthur can also be stubbornly obtuse and close-lipped. Still, they manage to grow, if unevenly, to confront the challenges placed before them. A few threads feel unresolved by the ending, though overall it's a satisfying and cathartic conclusion.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Witches of Lychford (Paul Cornell) - My Review
Griffin's Castle (Jenny Nimmo) - My Review
Gallant (V. E. Schwab) - My Review
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