"I don’t just raise monsters. I am one."

The Abyss Surrounds Us had a lot of potential. Seriously, what can be better than lesbian pirates fighting for their lives while training monster puppies to destroy other ships? If we're going just by the premise, this book would be perfect for me. 

But we need to look at the execution as well, and I did feel like I was left with literary blue balls during this one. All the characters, except for Cass and Swift, could use some development in the next book. The setting itself could also use for more exciting events. A lot of the time I felt like I was sailing through a very still sea, looking at a whole lotta nothing.

I'm still wondering if the fact that I *did* like it is enough for me to come back for a sequel. It didn't blow me away like I wanted to, but I do have hope that next time I'll get everything I want from my gay pirates.

Sentence: Just okay, but the reptilian pups were cute.

This review will include spoilers for the first book. You’ve been warned.

At the end of The Abyss Surrounds Us, Cas decided to stay with the Minnow and her crew. I wish I had written down her reason for doing so, since one of my problems with The Edge of the Abyss was that I couldn’t remember why she’d have wanted to stay when staying seemed to cause her nothing but grief.

At any rate, she stayed - I think because she wanted to get more evidence on the guy who was trading Reckoner pups to the pirates, and because she loved Swift so much? Except the latter reason turned out to be less than wonderful, because right after deciding to stay with the Minnow, Cas learned that Swift had personally been responsible for Durga’s death.

So that’s Cas’s emotional state for much of The Edge of the Abyss: upset at Swift for what she did, upset at herself for essentially turning traitor and staying with pirates, and perversely drawn to Santa Elena and whatever scraps of praise she was willing to give out. Bao is somewhere out in the ocean, and Cas mistakenly thinks he’s the only free Reckoner. He very much is not - the crew of the Minnow discover others, which they nickname Hellbeasts. Every last one of them was a Reckoner pup illegally obtained and improperly raised by pirates, and they’re complete destroying the ocean ecosystem. If life in the ocean is to be saved, the pirates, all of them, will somehow have to band together, admit their mistakes, and defeat the Hellbeasts.

Considering that I disliked the first book, I should not have continued on with the series. However, I did, because I wanted to find out what happened to Bao. He was literally the only character I cared about - all the humans could have gotten eaten, for all I cared.

Unfortunately, it took half the book for Bao to show up. Until that point, I had to deal with Cas and Swift’s relationship angst. First Cas would be angry at Swift for being directly responsible for Durga’s death. Then Swift would be upset with Cas for effortlessly becoming Santa Elena’s favorite. Occasionally things would be okay between them for a short while, but it was never long before everything got fouled up again. All it took was one wrong look, or someone waking up on the wrong side of the bed, or Santa Elena smiling at the wrong trainee. I think Cas and Swift only had maybe 10 pages total in this whole book where they weren’t hurting each other in some way.

That’s really not what I want from a romance, and it didn’t help that Cas’s situation seemed more and more like Stockholm syndrome to me. Santa Elena had been manipulating Cas’s emotions from day one, and I hadn’t forgotten that Cas and Swift’s relationship had gone from dislike and wisps of something nicer to full-blown “I’m throwing away my entire former life for you” in the space of a day. I spent so much of this book wishing that Cas and Swift would just break up already. Cas had enough on her plate just trying to figure out what to do about the Hellbeasts and processing her dawning realization that she’d made a terrible mistake by staying on the Minnow.

Even though this book had more Reckoners and Reckoner battles, it was somehow more boring that the first one. I missed Bao, and Skrutskie’s decision to write this series in first person present tense sucked the life out scenes that should have been exciting or painfully intense. Unfortunately, things didn’t improve much once Bao was finally found again - watching Cas remind him of his training wasn’t nearly as enjoyable as watching her train him in the first place. Also, one revelation about him really bugged me. If there was anyone I’d have liked to be exempt from this book’s great gobs of relationship awfulness, it was Bao. At least Cas treated him better in this book than she did in the first one.

I wish I had liked Skrutskie’s writing more, and I wish I had been more invested in Cas and Swift’s relationship. Since I didn’t and I wasn’t, The Edge of the Abyss was a drag to get through and an absolute relief to finally finish. However, I’d absolutely recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the first book and wanted Cas and Swift to work out as a couple. Cas and Swift had some really good scenes near the end, ones where they actually worked together. For me, it was too little, too late. I did at least appreciate that none of the characters I kind of liked died.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

I'm finally, finally done. OMG, I made it all the way to the end.

The first person present tense POV irked me less this time around, mostly because other things irked me more. Overall, even though this book featured more Reckoners and Reckoner battles, I'd say it was more boring than the first one. And I absolutely hated Cas and Swift's romance. The book started off with the two of them at odds (to put it mildly -

). They'd take one step forward, things would be good for a couple pages, and then something would happen, usually to do with either Durga, Santa Elena, or Cas's feelings of self-loathing whenever she remembered that she was technically a traitor, and they'd end up two steps back. It was enormously unpleasant.

I can see how the ending would be good and satisfying for someone who actually enjoyed the first book and were rooting for Cas and Swift's romance. For me, the "good" moments were too little, too late. But hey, at least Bao survived. I still think Bao was one of the best things about this series. Cas didn't deserve him.

I'll have to make use of the grace period, but I'm almost done with this, and I'm so relieved. Cas finally realized how Santa Elena had been using her, Cas and Swift's relationship is 100% raw angsty pain (I think they've had maybe 10 pages total of non-painful moments in this entire book), and even poor Bao has screwed up relationship stuff going on. If Skrutskie has Bao sacrifice himself for Cas in the book's final big battle, I'm going to be so mad.

Oh, and I finally get to roll again after I finish this. I haven't looked at the rules update yet, so that'll be the first thing I do.

I'm still reading this, slowly. When I'm done I can finally roll again (I haven't actually looked at the new rules yet). I've been tempted to DNF, but I really do want to finish it and review the whole thing. I really need to push - it's technically due on Wednesday, although I have until Saturday if I count the grace period.

Santa Elena has finally decided that they're going to go get Bao, so that Cas will actually be able to fight the way she's been trained to. I hope having Bao back will improve this, even just a little.

Santa Elena just told Cas about how she rescued Code (Cas' predecessor on the ship) from slavers. Code hated pirates and tried to sabotage Santa Elena's ship, but he was caught before he did serious damage. Santa Elena molded him by doing her thing: she made sure the one person on the ship that Code sort of trusted trained him well, and then she promoted Code. It's what she does with all her trainees - she notices which ones have the potential to be problems, and tries bringing them in line by making them part of the ship's competition for her praise and attention and eventually (supposedly) her captaincy. Cas doesn't seem to realize it ("This is the captain I threw my lot in with. The woman who saved a terrified slave boy and gave him a shot at her crown." (89)), but it's what Santa Elena has done with her.

Skrutskie could do some interesting things with the story, if it finally dawned on Cas what Santa Elena was doing to her and the other trainees, but I doubt that's going to happen.