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I'm not saying it's not important, but it feels like a commercialized heavy handed messagings, and I didn't enjoy it all that much.
The art is pretty, but not quite as pretty as the cover in my opinion. Just meh on this.
I'm not saying it's not important, but it feels like a commercialized heavy handed messagings, and I didn't enjoy it all that much.
The art is pretty, but not quite as pretty as the cover in my opinion. Just meh on this.
Turns out Aspen can't do all that and keep her identity a secret. What happens to her now that the world knows who she is, what she is, and what she can do?
I'm hoping to find out, but I bought the first two issues on sale and apparently nothing past that...
Aspen Matthews is one of the Blue, a race of humans who live under the water. Except, she's been raised on the surface world, and continues to live in our world, acting as a liaison between the two worlds when possible.
When she finds a member of the Blue, deep under water, and seemingly trapped, she lets him out before she can find out any more about him.
Turns out he wants to burn everything in his path, and hey, they're on the surface. Can Aspen fight off the evil, stay off Twitter, and keep her identity a secret?
Let's see...
Gladstone's third installment in the Craft sequence takes us to an alternate Hawaii. At first, it seems that we have two different stories. But Gladtsone brings them together quite well. More importantly, Gladstone writes wonderfully strong and varied female characters who don't talk about men to each other.
Blue, Gabe, Grayson, Joe, Charlie and Ruby have survived. They’re not happy, there’s the shadow of Eli’s corpse to clear up lying over Blue and Charlie and Ruby have a somewhat tumultous relationship. There’s the swamp wolves lurking over Joe and Grayson - and being a werewolf is never easy besides that
But Gloria’s last act seems to have taken Yael, the deep, dark, massive, dangerous spirit, finally out of their lives and out to sea
Until he is drawn home - and this time the depleted Keys pack is missing Gloria, their heart, their soul, their true Alpha, their wolf-witch. To face Yael there’s only Blue, brand new to this and reeling with both revelations from the past and Yael’s desperate yearning to be human
So… this book… this entire series puts me in one of those very very awkward ones to review.
I am impressed. I am deeply impressed by the writing. I am even more deeply impressed by the characterisation, their lives and how they react to the world around them. And I’m really impressed by the world.
The whole concept of werewolves and their struggle has permeated these books. These are beings from very poor backgrounds who rarely, if ever, get the chance to complete their education or get regular work (all those days off every month). Changing is painful, traumatising and hell on their bodies to the point where most of them are pretty damaged by the time they hit 30 and 40 is the far reaches of old age - 50 completely unattainable. The life of a werewolf is grim and painful and short.
And the Wolfwitches, even if not werewolves themselves, live among that. The same poverty, the same desperate, hurting people around them, and even if not directly affected, they’re the ones who clean up. They’re the ones who put the damaged, suffering wolves out of their misery when their bodies finally turn on them.
This permeates the whole story. Even when we see things like Grayson and Joe who are deeply in love and managing to carve a sense of happiness for themselves there’s still that underlying question: still the constant nag that Grayson is old for a werewolf, even his most loving moments undercut
It permeates the past of Yael as well - Yael and Gloria, their whole history laid out here needs to be seen in this context. Gloria, the poverty, the difficulty and in comes this spirit snaring her when she’s young and desperate and then being a constant shadow - adding deeper burdens but always coming with just enough power to be useful - until he’s just the burden, the predatory force
I like this in many ways because it humanises Gloria: she as the heart and soul of this series, the foundation, the one with Yael, the great evil spiritual force that everyone is afraid of - we see how it happened, how she first succumbed: and it’s such an easy, simple, human temptation. No woo-woo nothing like that - but simply a devil’s bargain offered to someone with few options
And I see a lot of great parallels for her in Ruby - a powerful, determined, intelligent woman who, nevertheless, is young a little foolish and seeking short cuts out of her grim situation. I think there’s a reason why these characters are presented next to each other. It also shows another reason why Gloria got rid of Blue - not just to save her from Yael possession but to save her from the temptation of Yael when she’s young. Because when you’re young and poor and angry in a very unfair life Yael looks very attractive. And how, even the best of us, at our worst moments, can wish for terrible terrible things.
