This is a novella, around three hours on audio, so it was an evening read. The story follows a group of friends as they prepare for a wedding. The group used to ghost hunt, so it makes complete sense that two of them, Nadia and Faiz, would want to elope at a haunted house. Their friend Phillip, for whom money is not an option, finds an abandoned Japanese manor that is supposed to be haunted by a bride. The ghost bride’s groom was killed on the way to the wedding, the story says, so she decided to have herself buried (alive? I guess?) at the site of the wedding so she can wait for him to show up. The story goes the others have since joined her in the foundations and walls of the manor. As far as places to get married go, this makes sense to me. If this is what you’re into, why not? Faiz, Phillip, and Nadia are joined by Faiz’s best friend Cat (who has recently been hospitalized for depression), and Lin. There is tension in the friend group that comes out as the story unfolds, petty jealousies and the like. To get the party started, they tell ghost stories as they wander the house, which seems to expand in ways that defy logic. There is possession, loss, mayhem, and sadness. It is horror, after all.
This was a fine novella. It was a quick evening read that didn’t ask too much of me. It didn’t have a ton of gore or surprises, but the atmosphere was right. So, give it a go if that sounds interesting to you. If you want something more detailed, scarier, or innovative, give this one a pass.
I didn’t realize that Samantha Shannon published two novella’s in connection to her Bone Season series. I was delighted that one of was Jaxon Hall’s infamous pamphlet. On the Merits of Unnaturalness. Fans of the series will be familiar with the title as it is bases of the clairvoyant community and what made Jaxon a major player in the syndicate. Under the pseudonym of the Obscure Writer, Jaxon goes through all the different types of Clairvoyance there is and grouped them in seven different orders. This also created a hierarchy among the community by ranking orders by difficult and by rare each gift is. I feel like this is a must read for fans of the books because it really clears up a lot of the different gifts that the characters have and how they relate to each other. It also explains why some are treated with more reverence then others. We understand that Paige’s gift of dreamwalking is rare but not only that, it’s part of the seventh order so it makes her even more powerful among the community and having her in his gang, it makes Jaxon more powerful too. It also cleared up more as to why the “vile augurs” were so despised and exiled to Jacob’s island. I feel like I have a better understanding on the syndicate and Paige’s life after reading this.
Speaking of understanding more about Paige’s life, the second novella is the The Pale Dreamer. It chronicles the early days of Paige in the Seven Seals. She has only been in the gang for three months and so far on desk duty. Aching to prove her worth, Paige gets a chance when a Poltergeist is set loose in London. We see that even three years before the action of the Bone Season, Paige was already brave, a little brash but a quick thinker. Her powers are still raw but you can see the glimpse of her strong she will become. This is also shows us why she goes by The Pale Dreamer. It was the name given to her by Jaxon himself. It was the events depicted in the novella that lead her to becoming his Mollisher. At the time the Seven Seals is only Jaxon, Nick, Eliza and Paige so we get the glimpse of their early relationship between these characters. Also it lays the groundwork to the future conflict between Paige and Jaxon but also not that surprising as to why Nick and Eliza chose Paige over Jaxon at the end of The Mime Order. It’s definitely worth a read for any fan but not necessary to enjoy the series as a whole as it doesn’t really add to the narrative. It just fills out the world and Paige’s backstory a little more. With a little less then a month before the release of The Song Rising, it’s a good read while you wait.
After I finished reading Empire of Storms, I decided to go back and read the prequel novellas as many of the characters we meet in these stories make appearance and play a role in the final book to come out next year. It’s very common for authors to publish novellas or short stories in connection with successful series. Most of the time they have little consequence to the actual narrative of the series themselves. They are just a fun story about the time before, or another character’s perspective. The further I got into Empire of Storms and the big reveals starting to come out, I realized that I these novellas were more important then I originally thought. The end was blending of Aelin’s present with Celaena’s past. If Aelin is going to defeat Erawan and reclaim her crown in Terrasan she is going to have call in all of Celaena’s favors. And so I went back and bought all the novellas. The five novella’s The Assassin and the Pirate Lord, The Assassin and the Healer, The Assassin and the Desert, The Assassin and the Underworld and The Assassin and the Empire tell the story of the months that lead her to be arrested and sent to Endovier where we meet her in the Throne of Glass that starts everything in motion. All five novellas were collected together and later published under the named The Assassin’s Blade.
As you may have noticed. Kate and I haven’t posted much lately. I’ve been on vacation and had every intention of updating while I was gone but I was too busy enjoying doing nothing but hanging out with my parents and friends that blogging didn’t happen. Oops. Let’s try to make up.
Cruel Crown is the collection of two prequel novellas to Red Queen. The first novella is Queen Song where we get the backstory of Cal’s mother and what really happened to her. The other is Steel Scars that follows Farley as she leads the Scarlet Guard into Norta. They both were pretty good. Giving more insight into world the books take place. Since Red Queen is told from Mare’s point of view, things like how the silver hierarchy is set up and how the Scarlet Guard works isn’t give much detail because Mare doesn’t know these things in much detail. That’s what kind of great but these little novella’s. I’ve written in the past about how it’s trendy for YA authors to write novellas or short stories that take place in between books or prequels. Sometimes they are just filler but other times they serve the purpose of filling in wholes that didn’t have time to get to in the narratives. They also usually focus on supporting or minor characters instead of the protagonists in attempt to flesh out the world a little bit but usually they are of little importance. If readers don’t read them, it’s no big deal. They will still be able to the novels without missing anything.
2 Women, So Many Books 