Donners of the Dead - Karina Halle

*Spoilers clearly marked

2.5 stars

So, this was, mostly, a decent book. Mostly. In true Halle fashion, the creepy bits were super-creepy. Unfortunately, they were too sporadic to make up for the flat, unbelievable, and overpowering romance that, frankly, left a bad taste in my mouth.

*Spoilers marked.

=/

Unfortunately, I cannot. I cannot even pretend to care anymore. I wanted to care about this last Cat & Bones installment, but I just don't have it in me.

Truth be told, I was never a diehard fan, just a "regular" fan. I've liked, but have never loved these books. I've liked, but have never loved Cat & Bones. Particularly, Bones has annoyed me repeatedly over the course of the series. I saw him go from kinda hot/interesting hero to completely whiny, insecure man-child. He's gotten a bit better in the last couple of books, but by then, the rest of the story had fallen apart. It's been stretched farther than necessary at this point, so a definitive ending is a blessing.

The series, as a whole, hit its stride, then plummeted down into disappointmentville, and eventually rose back up to just mere mediocrity. It pays to leave your fans wanting more, rather than exasperated and counting the pages until its finally over.

At least it's over now.

I ended up DNF'ing this at 20%. I had my friend Aly completely spoil me, because, though I was bored, I really wanted to know how it all ended. BOY, am I glad I went that route. From her detailed account, I gathered that this book heads into the realm of ridiculousness. It sounds like a lame Lifetime movie crossbred with a cheesy Syfy one. Talk about reaching and left field. Wtf, I say.

Just, whatever.

Anywho, I won't drag this out any further. I wouldn't want the quality of my review to suffer...

Farewell Cat & Bones. No love lost here, obviously.

*Spoilers clearly marked.

3.5 stars.

Can I say that I’m completely satisfied with the ending to one of my most beloved series? No, but it wasn’t a complete disappointment, either. It was okay. Truth be told, this book had a lot to live up to, given that both Under the Never Sky and Through the Ever Night were amazing. I had hoped the end would blow me away and leave me smiling ear to ear. Instead, I was a bit deflated to find myself rushing through the last few chapters so that I’d just be done with it already. I hadn’t gotten the feels that I’d so anticipated and I knew it was too late. They weren’t coming.

Although I feel that Rossi’s writing has been superb throughout, it’s her characters and their relationships that really shine. Watching Aria and Perry fall for each other and then grow into their beautiful, loving, healthy relationship has been a pleasure. Why then is there so much discord between them in this book? It’s fairly short-lived, but what I wanted from this book was an Aria-n-Perry-sitting-in-a-tree FEST. There aren’t any more books for them to give me that. This was it. There just wasn’t any oomph to their interactions – not even the positive ones. It was all very cursory. Sadness.

And then there is Perry and Roar’s relationship. Best bromance evar. Why then is there so much discord between them in this book? For the first half of the book, my heart broke for Roar and his grief, but I also disliked him immensely, because he behaved so pettily. It was so strange to feel this way towards him, because I’ve absolutely loved him throughout the series. I expected better of him by now. Perry handled the situation with much grace and I was impressed, once again, at how steadfast he is and has always been. Perry is just a lovely character. A character of great integrity. He hasn’t always made the best choices, but he holds strong in his convictions that his choices are for the good of his people. I love that he didn’t let Roar rouse him. Especially when he, too, was grieving and could have used that as an excuse to lash out. Good on Perry for taking the higher road, but it saddens me that Roar behaved in such an out-of-character way. I wanted this book to be one last, long dose of that unbreakable bond and their easy camaraderie. It didn’t really happen.

As for Aria, just blah. She had her own separate storyline going and I gotta say that I couldn’t care any less about it. Introducing a new character so near the end is never a great move. The book suffered for it, me thinks. There wasn’t enough time or substance to make me care about the character or their effects on Aria. At least her relationship with Roar stayed strong. There was at least that.

Again, this isn’t a bad book. It’s just not up to the standards of its predecessors. There was little that stood out and it didn’t produce the same warm feelings the two previous books have. It was an acceptable story with an anticlimactic end.

I want to be absolutely clear that, despite my disappointment with this book, I still recommend the series. As I said, it's not up to par, but it's still better than most YA, because it's a lovely story with lovely and endearing characters that break the YA mold. I still think everyone should give it a go.

I won’t tell you not to read this, because, as always, some people loved it and, at the very least, it’s an acceptable ending. Also, how could any UTNS fan not read it? But, don’t go into it expecting what you’ve previously gotten from this series. If you’re wanting those kind of feels, I suggest you reread the first two books.

Literally, for the entire book, I almost gave a fuck, but almost doesn’t count. And now I'll never get those hours of my life back.

*Spoilers marked.

2.5 stars



This is a tough review to write, because I wanted so badly to love this one. I had such high hopes for this book after the huge disappointment that was Come Alive. I thought that with the return to Perry’s POV there was no way it couldn’t be awesome. And yet, it was only meh, if that.