Katharine Corr

Originally posted on Just Geeking by.

Content warnings:
This book contains scenes of death, blood, violence, gore, human sacrifice, slavery, tyranny, misogyny, and forced captivity. There is a scene where someone is being eaten alive by undead creatures and another character kills them to end their suffering. There’s an emotionally abusive relationship between a husband and wife which includes obsession, control and manipulation. In one scene a female character is groped and threatened with sexual assault but nothing further happens on page.

In Daughter of Darkness, Katharine and Elizabeth Corr have created a world based on Greek mythology. Deina is a Theodesmioi, a human who has been marked by a god and has the ability to channel some of their power. Despite their abilities, the Theodesmioi are not all powerful, rather they are slaves who earn their freedom by performing rites. Every increment of time earned off their indenture time is marked on their flesh in the form of rite-seals. They are bound to their workplace, whether a city or ship, by a collar that prevents them from leaving.

It’s a life that Deina is desperate to escape from, and when a lucrative offer from the tyrant king Orpheus appears to give her that chance, she can’t volunteer fast enough. Of course, any offer of freedom and a huge chest of gold isn’t going to come without strings attached. Along with several other Theodesmioi from her House, Deina is given the task of heading into the Underworld to retrieve Orpheus’ dead wife Eurydice and return her to the king.

As Theodesmioi of Hades, Deina and her companions are known as Soul Severers and spend a lot of time around death. But that doesn’t normally involve going into the Underworld. It’s unheard of, and it’s dangerous. To complicate matters, the only way to complete the task and survive to claim her freedom is to work with the Severers going with her. Deina isn’t a team player at the best of times, especially not when her team includes her former childhood friend who betrayed her and a misogynist who believes women are weak and useless.

Heading into the Underworld, Deina is as prepared for a difficult journey as she can be… or so she believes.

Daughter of Darkness is one of those books that I’d heard a lot about, and yet it failed to make a big impact on me. I found the story and characters to be predictable, and a big part of that was the book’s title. It gave away the biggest reveal of the whole novel in my opinion, and honestly, I spent the entire time just waiting for what was already on the cover to be officially confirmed. There was only one reveal in the book that came as a surprise, and that was because the authors only hinted at it briefly. Everything else just felt overly spoon-fed, as though the reader wasn’t smart enough to pick up on any clues.

I enjoyed aspects of the world-building that the Corr sisters had created, such as the concept of Soul Severers. I liked the idea of having a job in society that existed to save people pain when they were nearing death, or in accidents. In Daughter of Darkness, it’s mentioned that one of the Severers helps lead a young child to the Underworld when they are fatally injured in an accident, saving them from a painful death and letting them die painlessly.

At first, I thought that the entire book was misogynistic, but a little research shows that the authors have in fact based their rights of women in their book on how they were in Ancient Greece. That being said, I felt that their version of the pantheon was overly focused on male deities. The only Houses of Theodesmioi mentioned are for male gods, and female goddesses are mostly named in passing. The only one specifically named is Hecate, as Deina prays to her multiple times. I don’t know whether they were intentionally missed out and therefore, only male gods have marked Theodesmioi or they just were not mentioned in this book.

Either way, it bothered me because while Ancient Greece might not have given women many rights, when it came to mythology their pantheon is filled with many prominent goddesses. It felt very odd to me not to have them included in a book based on Greek mythology.

I didn’t dislike Daughter of Darkness, and it’s a solid three stars for me, but I’ve got to be honest; when it comes to trips to the Underworld there’s only one author for me and that’s Rick Riordan. It’s going to take quite a lot to beat The House of Hades, the fourth book in The Heroes of Olympus series. This one ended on a cliffhanger that promises a lot more drama to come in the next book, and I’m hoping it will deliver with less predictability.

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… (mais)

A Song of Death and the Maiden

"Sing, O muse, a song of Death and the maiden"
Deina is a Soul Severer for the House of Hades, one marked by the god of the underworld to serve him. She has lived in the House as long as she can remember, allowed only short walks and a little privacy while she works to pay off her indenture.
But she has Chryse, her fair and lovely friend. Chryse who must be saved, freed, above all else.
But working off their servitude is slow going, so when a chance arises for Deina to win her freedom on a quest for Orpheus the tyrant, she doesn't hesitate.

Loyalties will be won and broken, lives will be fought for and sacrificed, and before their journey is over, Deina and her companions will learn many truths than they never wished for.
But at the end of the day, is not freedom worth all?

I started this book without a huge amount of interest. I enjoyed studying the ancient myths in high school, but since then I haven't really found myself taken in books and stories about the gods and the ancient heroes. I'm not exactly sure why, it's just not my aesthetic.
However, I actually loved this book. I previously enjoyed A Throne of Swans by these authors, and I feel that this ancient era suits their writing style even better than the European fairytale, even though that tends to me more my style.
I figured out a few things early on that made me think there wouldn't be any surprises, but even still at the end there were a few unexpected revelations, which is always fun.

I think the Underworld portion of this book feels like a mix between a Hunger Games novel and the land of Faery as portrayed in Cassandra Clare's novels. The constant bloodthirsty tasks and challenges they have to get through whilst deciding whether or not they trust each other or not, the landscape unpredictable and the inhabitants untrustworthy to the extreme.

I enjoy the way that the Corr's play with the old myths without sticking too closely to them. There were a lot of fun little references and concepts.

I am looking forward to the next installment!

Recommended for fans of The Hunger Games, The Mortal Instruments, Holly Black, Intisar Khanani, and grand adventurous myths.… (mais)

Despite a slow start, I really enjoyed "A Throne of Swans" which was inspired by "Swan Lake".. I loved the way the nobility could shape-shift into swans and I thought Aderyn was a worthy protagonist. Although naive at times, she was also loyal and brave to her friends, family and domain. Lucien came across as an obnoxious jerk at first but he really was a sweetie and very protective of Aderyn.

The world building was complex and the story moved at a steady pace all the way through. The action, plot twists, violence and political intrigue kept me interested and turning pages. However, I was a bit disappointed with how A Throne of Swans ended but it did ensure that I would be reading the sequel when it comes out to see how the authors finish the series.… (mais)

First published at Booking in Heels.

So the basic premise is that every noble family can transform it will into certain birds. Aderyn’s family are swans, her advisor’s family can turn into ravens… etc. Noble family = bird. The non-nobility are known as ‘the flightless,’ and are generally seen to be lesser by the majority of the upper classes. Aderyn, however, cannot fly, which is a secret she must desperately protect in order to retain control of her homeland.

That in itself is a fairly unique concept. Not the shapeshifting itself, as there are all sorts of Swan Lake allusions in A Throne of Swans, but that’s just what forms the background of a fascinating, twisting story with political machinations, backstabbing and evil doings. Sometimes the villains are obvious in fairytale-esque novels like this one – not so in A Throne of Swans. I had no idea who would betray Aderyn, or who was plotting against whom. It was fantastically done and every twist was a genuine surprise.

It’s written reasonably well, with some beautiful descriptions. The prose flows and the dialogue is unstilted. It’s well-paced and an absolute page-turner – I ‘flew’ (ha) through this in two days, and could have done so much quicker if I didn’t have to work. I honestly regretted every moment that I wasn’t reading this book.

The ending is perfect, and I loved how grey it is. It’s not an idyllic, romantic rainbow ending, nor is it an awful, dark cliffhanger. It’s an ending that makes absolute logical sense in the circumstances, and I really, really appreciated the authors’ willingness to go down the path of realism. So much respect for that ending, honestly.

My only criticism is a sort of vague one. Oh, aside from the fact that the romance springs out of nowhere and I didn’t like it. But that aside… I just think this book could have been so much more if it was written in less of a YA style. I’d have loved more detail, more character development, more explanation of the romance… just more. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with A Throne of Swans, far from it. I think it’s just that I loved the world and the story so much, that I think it could have been even better if it were more adult.

I honestly cannot wait for the next book, A Crown of Talons, although I don’t think there’s even a tenuous release date on it yet. I’ll definitely be pre-ordering it so I can read it immediatley. I do hope the authors don’t somehow backtrack from the ending that I loved – it’s perfect and it will be interesting to see how the characters make the best of what happened.… (mais)