Cerise is trying to protect her large, poor family
clinging to existence the Mire. This section of the Edge has long been used as
a dumping ground for the Weird Kingdom of Louisiana – and is now used as
another stage in the brewing cold war between Louisiana and its neighbour
Which is where William comes in, dragged back into
fighting for Adrianglia‘s secret service, The Mirror. He thought he was free of
them – but the offer for revenge and to protect children like himself is too
much to pass up.
How many times have I said that I love the world building
of this series? In fact how many times have I said I love every bit of world
building Ilona Andrews has ever done ever? This author (or authors since I
understand it’s a husband/wife author team) is the supreme master of world
building. I love it.
Particularly what I love about this – beyond the magic
system, the world (with both the magical world of the Weird and the Broken and
the Edge straddling the pair, eking out an existence between the two, helpless to
be part of either and often suffering from the manipulations of their dominant
neighbours), the creatures, etc is the way this contrasts with the last book in
the series. It would be easy to just say “the Edge” has the same culture – or even
to have the Weird just be our world with magic added. But we have different
countries in the Weird with different technology, different cultures, different
principles and specialties. But it’s the Edge that really shines here – because
we have the same theme of low resources, extreme poverty and very localised
society governed by ad hoc courts, local militias and constant feuding. It’s
the same basis to both societies – but the larger Edge near Louisiana and the
very different ways that The Weird Louisiana treats the Edge here – the Mire (a
place to dump exiles) as well as the extremely dangerous swamp creates a very
different cultural sense. The same rough land with similar themes but with a
definitely different culture.
This also has Cerise sharply contrast with
Rose. Because her family has powerful magic and numbers and connections she
has many advantages that Rose does not. But all those connections and magic
means she has less options – being mired in the feuds means she cannot isolate
herself from that greater society, her family’s magic makes it much harder for
her to cross the boundary. It’s interesting that we can take, ostensibly, two
women in very similar situations (young but with high responsibility, beset by
powerful outside forces, helped) and still have very different pressures in
their lives. It’s the same story told very differently.
And told very well – lots of action, excellent pacing,
excellent conflict and awesome female protagonist who isn’t perfect, is
sometimes overwhelmed but is still very strong, determined, intelligent and
ready to step up way above her comfort zone because she has to – all with a
very strong confidence in her skill and prowess.
I like her a lot. And she stands in a family with other
intelligent, brave and capable women as well – whether her scientist aunt or
her, frankly terrifying, grandmother (I have a soft spot for little old ladies
who terrify everyone around them. Especially an old woman willing to chew out
an evil necromancer for not saying hi to his granny).
This book has a romance. Of course it has a romance.
However, it does lack in a lot of romance tropes, in particular romance not
being the actual focus for the characters. While it certainly flares up
especially towards the end of the book, for the majority of the book is not
about the romance. For the most part Cerise and William work together –
sometimes antagonistically and reluctantly (because nothing says true love
quite like hating each other first) – towards common goals that have very
little to do with how hot they find each other. There’s even very little “zomg
so hot so hot let me describe how hot!” every five seconds which I definitely appreciate.
In some ways the romance feels almost superfluous – not because it gets in the
way of the plot but because the plot doesn’t rest on it at all – which I really
appreciate.
What I appreciate less is William’s careful reminding of
himself that touching women without their permission is so wrong. Obviously
that’s not bad – but the fact he has to remind himself so clearly is troubling;
it’s supposed to show that William, as a werewolf, is dangerous and animalistic
but I still don’t particularly appreciate being expected to follow a love
interest who has to carefully remind himself that rape is bad.
William one of the main characters, is White. And our
protagonist, Cerise… she is described as:
“tan face, full
mouth, narrow nose, large almond eyes framed in sable eyelashes”
Which certainly sounds like she is a woman of colour or
could be. Is it adamantly depicting a WOC to an extent she will definitely
be read as non-white given the
pressures of the societal default? I am less sure. Other POC are more
background. The head of the Mirror – a major spy organisation – is a Black
woman (but that’s a little promoted to obscurity)
There are no LGBTQ characters despite a large cast,
sadly.
While the diversity isn’t as much as it could be or I’d
wish – the story, the world and the writing remains everything I always expect
from this author. It’s exciting, well paced, layered and with an incredible
world.
