Great Imaginations

I don't know one blogger who didn't love Anna Dressed in Blood. I'm sure they exist, but they are not someone I know. I liked it a lot, but it wasn't true love. I gave it four out of five stars, and I believe the reasoning was that I couldn't connect to the characters--that I didn't like them very much. Well, as much as I hoped that wouldn't happen again, it did.

I found the characters to be flat, one-dimensional, and for the most part, completely unlikable. Athena was selfish, Hermes was a pushover, Aiden was googly-eyed over Cassandra without any personality of his own, the villains were your typical 'muahahah' kind, and Cassandra was a shell of a person, her only purpose to move the plot along. 

Obviously, this was incredibly frustrating for me as a reader. I've seen reviews for this book that complimented the writing. Uhhh...I can't say that I agree. No disrespect to those reviewers, but this book was SERIOUSLY lacking in transitions. There were places where the writing was super choppy, and there was a lot of dialogue where I was unsure who was speaking. Maybe this is because I analyze everything I read and read a lot slower than I used to, but it bothered me. A lot. 

As far as the story itself goes, I didn't like the first thirty pages or so, and I was sorely tempted to give it up. We have Athena coughing up feathers and come boring girl named Cassandra going about her day-to-day activities with not much else going on. Athena and Hermes are dying, that's all we know, and it takes a while to go anywhere beyond that. 

I just couldn't connect. I didn't like the characters, I didn't like the writing, and I don't believe the opening chapters were plotted well. Things did finally start to get interesting, but it was past the point of me caring. I am certain that I would have put this book down to read something else if I had not been given TWO copies for review from the publisher. I felt obligated so I finished. 

One of the things I determined from reading Anna Dressed in Blood was that this author excelled at storytelling. And while I liked what she did with the Greek myths (and as a mythology purist this is hard for me to admit), I thought the storytelling was pretty blah. Sure the second half of the book moved along at a decent pace, but if you don't engage the reader you are writing for, it's not exactly something I can compliment. 

It's not all bad though. She did something daring with the myths and I have to give her credit for that. I thought most of her imagery was pretty decent though I would have enjoyed it more if it hadn't been choppy, choppy, choppy. Everything just felt so abrupt and in your face and that is NOT how I felt about her previous work. 

I feel like I should maybe rate it lower than what I am, but I finished it. The book kept me interested enough to push on past the halfway point and that deserves something from me. And then I did appreciate the creativity the author used in her topic of choice. Will I be sticking around for the next book in the series?

Unlikely.