Tradepub Review: The Mark of Blood and Alchemy by Evangeline Denmark from Blink
OK, I know that Blink is a pretend Christian subsidiary of HarperCollins producing mainstream books for a mainstream audience. But I thought I’d check out this prequel to the first book of the YA fantasy trilogy, Curio, to be released in January.
Don’t bother!
Though the tale reads like steampunk wandering in a world of fantasy, it is dark, depressing, and without redeeming merit. I realize that you do not have enough room to develop either the world built or the characters’ depths in a prequel novella, in this book both are offering in a confusing manner at best.
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There are no good guys. The bad guys are stereotypical to the point where their actions are completely predictable. The supposedly good have a horrible time of thwarted love, constant death of the supposed hero, and on and on. Though the story seems interesting, and the familiar fantasy disassociation from reality is almost convincing, there is no there there. It left me depressed.
Spiritually, this is a zero
Since my star system in this blog does not allow for a zero rating, I’ve done it at .5 stars. But there is no spiritual content. It’s so ignorant, that the obvious evil has no source either.
If possible, keep your child away from this one. But then I recommend you stay away also. It does have that familiar forbidden attraction. But you know where that comes from.
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