Elaine White's Life in Books

** Deals with death, blood magic, suicide, self harm, and incest (though I'm still not sure if that's right or not) **

So, this book dealt with a lot. It had fantasy, golem's, dragons, mages, even some steampunk elements in there. Overall, it was a little too much and too confusing to follow. So I've marked it a 3.5, rounded up to a 4, because of the potential and the overall storyline.

I liked the characters; Tarquin is the only POV and he's a great character to choose for that, because he's young, impressionable, but not without strength and opinions. Five is also a great character, and I like that even though he's mute, he and Tarquin can communicate.

However, it was almost impossible to follow, within the world, because the world-building left a lot lacking. We have multiple (what turned out to be) creature names thrown at us within the first few pages, that didn't make sense and weren't explained. At the time, I didn't know if they were the name of a humanoid species, magical species like Elves or if they were for actual animal creatures. It was only about halfway through that things were explained and that left too much guesswork on my end. What it really needed was a glossary at the start that I could bookmark and refer to when I needed it.

It deals with blood magic, which is generally frowned upon in most fantasy books, so I give it kudos for dealing with it. However, it sort of "normalises" the whole slitting the wrists and self harm thing, so I really don't like that part. It's a dangerous avenue to take.

I found the relationship between the characters really difficult to fathom, but in the end, I think I get it. The Queen and her Consort are two women, but they chose strong men with lots of daughters to breed them more daughters. What they got were two unexpected males which, technically, are useless to them, so they marry one off to a daughter who will be the future Queen, as her consort, then let the other become a mage. Anyway, as far as I see it, there's incest in there somewhere, even if they're only half-brother/half-sister. Although, honestly, the whole thing was just so hard to follow without any clarification that made sense, that I could be wrong.

Although Tarquin and Five can communicate, there's a small issue of having Tarquin responding to him, before we even know a question has been "asked" silently. Ex. Tarquin answers "Yes" then we're told that Five made a questioning sound or look. I often had to re-read a section to make sure I understood what was happening.

There's also a continuity issue where it's claimed that Faladir killed Mundir, when Tarquin explains to Five how Faladir became the steampunk-ish creature he's become. Except, he didn't kill Mundir then, because Mundir didn't die until right before this conversation, not months ago in the past.

Overall, quite disorientating, but the overall storyline is good. The use of magic, creatures and the resolution of the threat is well done. The writing is, generally, well done except for the lack of consistency within the description.