Pen and Azael can no longer avoid their final
confrontation – which they cannot both walk away from. Driven to reclaim
Michael’s soul, Pen cannot avoid Azael and Azael is driven to bring his sister
back to his side – or destroy her and everything else in the process
But while they are focused on their epic show down,
Lilith changes the whole nature of the game: there’s a new ruler of Hell and
sibling rivalry is not part of master plan.
I loved one excellent element of this book – Lilith. Oh
yes, I loved Lilith. I loved how her mythology was so centrally part of her
story. I loved that she was the character who would not submit, who plotted so
very excellently and whose defiance should, as she pointed out, have definitely
being predicted. She is Lilith, the woman who would not submit, who would not
be secondary to any man. The death of her children was just the last straw –
just the idea that she was a gentle, submissive servant means anyone who falls
for it thoroughly deserves the stabbing they get.
Her backstory, her depiction, her craftiness and, even to
a degree, how she seems to slowly degrade down the same path when she gains
power herself. It’s really well done, contains a lot of challenges against
misogyny and is fascinating to read.
The introduction of Lilith as an independent force added
a new layer to this series that, while sorely underdeveloped (more on that
later), really widened the story. This is in addition to the ongoing
examination of why Heaven failed and how it lost its way – expanding on what was
already established in Engage.
On top of that we have some really nicely written action
scenes and lots of hacking and slashing. We had Kala and Ana – a previously
excellently established same-sex couple, one of which is a Black, disabled
angel – with a lot of excellent depiction of her furiously objecting and
fighting back against any idea that she is weaker or less capable because of her
disability. We also had some nice debate about Ana’s pacifism – and how it can
really only work for her and her campaign because she is surrounded by people
who are willing to fight on her behalf.
It did have some really good elements that I enjoyed
Despite all this I find myself curiously dissatisfied with
this book and after much internal deliberation, I think the problem is with the
actual structure of the book.
A huge amount of this book is spent telling the story
from multiple points of view. And part of this works because we see the events
how they’re actually happening as well as from the point of view of each
character. We get to see how things surprise them, how they operate in
completely different realities and it quite works artistically and
stylistically…
…if Penn and Azael weren’t the protagonists. Their POV
is, frankly, pretty dull – it comes down to an overwhelming obsession with each
other. Which, after 3 books, I kind of get long since. They’re obsessed, their
co-dependent relationship is extremely unhealthy and while it’s nice to get
some more elaborate back story on that which really emphasises how powerful this
relationship is – but it has been so overwhelming for so long. It takes this
nicely artistic style and turns it into a huge barrier that the pacing slams
into; it derails the book.
In addition to these long internal monologues about how
hard it is to fight their sibling because ISSUES is mixed in with Azael’s
eternal insecurity and Pen’s long winded love of Michael – which is yet
mooooore slow.
On top of that we get some training montage scenes which,
again, take up space. Like Michael learning how to resist compulsion or Ana
learning how to use a shield, which, in the end, doesn’t turn out to be that
useful to the plot.
I think that’s what annoys me – not just these elements
that are very good at slowing down the pace of the book but it also comes at
the cost of many excellent elements not being developed. A lot of time was
spent on Lilith’s excellent story – but Ana and Kalaziel sorely needed more
development and place in this book (in fact, if it weren’t for a short story,
these characters would have been grossly lacking in development which is
especially problematic as they represent the minority representation of the
book).
The training montages of Ana and Michael needed more
context. The whole plan of the rebels actually needed development - what
exactly was it? I still don’t know, beyond a vague sense of “change” “shades of
grey” and “choice” but they were just that vague. That needed development. What
Lilith intended for Hell? That needed developing. Some of the other angels,
their personality, motives, actions, opinions – all of this needed developing to
make all these angels something other than names on a page.
This left me kind of feeling like the book was a short
story – but a very very long one. (I know that makes no sense but I bet you all
know what I mean). It frustrated me because it had a lot of excellent points in
it but they were struggling to be seen under the padding.
