Margaret Ronald
Eos
January 12, 2010
ISBN-10: 0061662429
ISBN-13: 978-0061662423
Genevieve Scelan thought she was done with magic.
She was wrong.
Sure, six weeks earlier Evie—bike messenger, supernatural tracker, and avid Red Sox fan—had been instrumental in bringing down the Fiana, the organization of magicians that had ruled Boston's undercurrent for hundreds of years. But now they were gone, Boston could breathe easy again, the Sox had a chance at the pennant, and Evie was ready to relax.
Except it turns out that when you take down the guy on top, everyone assumes you're going to fill his spot, and now Evie finds herself at the center of a whole lot of unwelcome magical attention. On top of that, a new client needs her to call up a family ghost and ask about a stolen inheritance; Evie's friend Nate has a supernatural problem of his own; and a legendary pack of hounds has been terrorizing Boston's undercurrent. And try as Evie might to deny the legacy that runs through her blood, when the Hunt is called, the Hound must run...
I have never not finished a book, not even one that I really wasn't enjoying but unfortunately, I did not finish Wild Hunt. First of all, don't even bother reading it if you haven't read the first book, Spiral Hunt, as you will be lost just like I was. Ronald throws the reader into the story with little to no background and from the get-go, I was lost and confused. Because I didn't know what had happened in the previous book, Evie's actions in this one made no sense to me and I kept trying to find some sense to the plot and that got old real fast. But that wasn't even my beef with this book, if after starting Wild Hunt and quickly noticing that my only problem was that I needed to read the first book so things would make sense, I would have gladly have gotten the first book, read it then read Wild Hunt but the writing didn't interested one bit so what would have been the point of that?
The story is told from Evie's point of view and she just seemed like a poor schmuck that got stuck in her situation and I just honestly didn't care one bit. The secondary characters seemed flat and lifeless to me. The plot didn't grab me. Evie is apparently a Hound, which are people that have really good noses and can smell things and people from miles away and she runs a business as a tracker. She's got a new client who wants her to find the owners of some missing properties but she needs to call up the client's however-many-greats grandmother to ask her where she got the stuff from and that's dangerous. She also has to deal with pretty much everyone in town thinking that she's the new boss because apparently in the previous book, she took down the old bosses.
It took me two days to read 97 pages of this book. Normally that takes me not even an hour. I couldn't bring myself to care about the story or the characters because for me to be able to do that, the writing has to interest me, I need to feel like I care about what's going to happen and I didn't one bit with Wild Hunt. I didn't like what I read, the characters were made of cardboard, the plot didn't hold my interest and unfortunately, I couldn't finish it.
8 comments:
Good review, babe. Thanks for being honest. I'm sorry you didn't like it, but that happens to all of us. If you can't make me care then I'm not gonna finish. Love ya ;)
Ouch. Honesty is always welcome so thank you for giving an honest review. The cover is stunning but I guess the book doesn't like up to it. Guess it just shows that you can't judge a book by its cover. Kind of funny... my Captcha is: Worste
Are you kidding me? This book is doing something pretty brave. Read the Strange Horizons review. I think it hits the right points better than I can explain them here without wasting a lot of time. It takes a bit of effort to get into this story. Of course, yes, it helps to read the first book before you read the second one. The point is that if you do make the effort to engage with this series, it pays off. Meaning you'll be delighted. Entertained. If this is not your thing, or you require more than just good story telling to fill your literary needs, which by the way i'm not saying is wrong or bad at all, then it's totally understandable if you don't like the book or if you genuinely think it's badly written. Otherwise, give the book a second look. Consider the story that Ronald has here, the actual ideas, characters and plot points that are on this story's proverbial table, and then imagine how you'd write that story. How would you write that story well? I'm not saying Mrs. Ronald did the best job in the universe, but she did a pretty darn good one. And I don't see anyone else out there trying these kinds of stories out. This series is strange, quirky, lyrical at times, and underscored with this weird humor that sometimes doesn't work but often enough is a pretty interesting and even sometimes beautiful outcrop of a very well thought-out, alternate world. Feel free to totally disagree with me. I just figured I'd throw in an alternate POV.
@jdecastil While I'm glad you like this series, I think Wendy is entitled to like or dislike a book without being forced to justify it to us. I've heard a couple people rave about this series and a couple who said they couldn't even finish the first book so opinions are already varied on this series as far as I can tell. The fact is, if a person has to "force" themselves to like something then it's probably not really that likable for them. The premise to this series sounds interesting to me and I may want to try it, but I have to admit that an interesting premise isn't always enough. Wendy has said that the writing and characters didn't draw her in or she would have gone out and gotten the first book to read herself. I find that if I don't like the characters or the writing style then it's hard for me to enjoy a story whether it's edgy or not.
Thanks for your honest opinion and let's let Wendy have hers, too.
Sometimes we can't like 'em all. Since this is a squeal and you haven't read the first one if this is why you couldn't get into the story? Although I do think the author has a responsibility to ensure that each book can be read and understood.
I agree with Smokinhotbooks that the author does need to make sure their book can stand alone without needing to read the other books in the series.
If the book didn't grab you, then put it down and move on to the next one. Thought you gave a good, detailed explanation of why you didn't finish the book, and I appreciated your honesty.
Hope the next book in your TBR pile works out better for you!
I agree with KC and Alexia. Nicely put.
And I also agree with Queen B, Wendy tried and gave her honest opinion - she's entitled to it. We can't like every book we read, that's the purpose of honest reviews. We all have different tastes in what we like or don't like to read.
Nice review Wendy, I can tell you put a lot effort in trying to read this book.
B - Thanks, babe! It's okay, I don't expect to like every single book I read but I was pretty bummed out about this one. Love ya, too!
Emma - You're welcome and yep, you're totally right. Ha! Funny captcha. :)
Jdecastil - Nope, not kidding you. Good to hear you liked, but I didn't and that's my opinion.
B - Thanks, babe, again! :)
K.C. - I honestly don't think reading the first book would have helped because it was the writing itself that really disappointed me, which is why I didn't see the point in trying to read the first book at all.
Alexia - Thank you! I completely agree in just moving on, I've got so many books to read that I don't want to waste my time reading something I'm not liking one bit bit I tried.. But hey, I've got a good feeling about my next read!
Donna - Thank you so much! I completely agee that we can't all like the books we read. :)
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