Merit and Ethan are finally getting married. Everything
is finally going her way
Until Sorcha returns, bringing winter to summertime
Chicago, threatening the entire city and having one terrible demand: that the
city and over Mallory and Merit
But no-one believes that her ambition is so simply
satisfied with revenge
I am a little bemused about the mayor taking the lead so
much. In fact, this has been a thing that has bemused me throughout this
series: why is the mayor all powerful, how come they have so much authority and
why is no-one else involved? I mean, if the third biggest city in America is
evacuated because of a supernatural menace isn’t the president obliged to make
a speech or something? Shouldn’t the governor of Illinois actually notice?
The story gets more and more epic but at the same time it’s
clear the author wants this to be very very local. This is the Chicagoland
vampires, it’s a story about Chicago so even when we probably should spill a little
beyond the borders.
I think this probably centres on a general underlying
issue I’ve had with this series from the beginning. It has an element of
simplicity that kind of hangs on the story. Like keeping the story focused only
on the Chicago authorities, making the mayor pretty much a complete authority
within her realm and having her and her minions make decisions which are pretty
dubious. It serves very much to make our main characters look intelligent,
insightful and martyred but it’s a little clumsy (we see something similar ion
how this series is pretty disjointed in how vampires are treated, flirting
between viciously hated and violently oppressed minority to moderately
tolerated/ignored other and back again within a pretty short space of time).
This bleeds over into the plot as well – it’s quite
predictable with a lot of conflict resolved quite easily. Ethan makes a speech.
Mallory manages to translated a centuries old mystery in a couple of hours. It
adds to the story being a trifle… predictable? The arc is not one that surprised
me even once and there was nothing resembling a twist
But… it’s still very fun. It’s one of those books that
asks me to question whether twists, originality or a great deal of complexity
is necessary. The story was predictable and simplistic – but still emotionally
engaging: invoking anger at the terrible way the vampires are being treated. Excitement
from the battle scenes and some decent, engaging development of Ethan and Merit’s
relationship and their concerns over the prophecy that says Merit will become a
parent. None of these are original and, yes, a lot of them are very predictable
– but that didn’t make the characters any less engaging. These same patterns
have been continuing for a long time in this season – but I still largely enjoy
them. I like Merit, she’s fun, capable, not as bright as she’s written but
still nifty without being overpowered. She also has some excellent female
friends – which has been a major issue in the series before now: other women
were demonised or occupied a relatively small role in the story. But increasingly
we’re seeing Mallory move to become her own, skilled fun character who is
taking a prominent space in the story and not constantly tormented by her own guilt
which is an excellent step forward
Though I have to say I’m not a massive fan of Ethan or
Merit and Ethan’s relationship. Nor their end game (I think this whole baby
ideation seems to have dropped on her from nowhere apparent). Sure he’s finally
respecting her as an equal and deciding that he shouldn’t be putting his
Sentinel in a little secure box somewhere, but my gods it took him a long time
and he still has to constantly fight that instinct.
I also wish that over this series the very few POC had
more prominent roles. Or there had been some LGBTQ characters (after 13 books +
short stories. Really).
Working my way to the end of the review, I have to say my
comments about the sometimes dubious plot limitation, simplistic railroading
and coincidence still apply: but none of this is a deal breaker. None of this
stopped the story from being engaging. None of this stopped the book from being
fun. None of this stopped me from caring about Merit, being angry on her behalf
and being excited by the action she faced. I still laughed at her and Mallory
bouncing off each other and still felt her worry over the world they lived in.
Basically, these issues don’t change the core important element of this book –
and this series – it’s fun, it’s enjoyable; sure it’s not my favourite series
but it’s a series I’ve returned to happily again and again and again.
