The Sin Eater's Daughter » Review

"Who will save me?"

The real question is what could've saved this book?

Having a stronger heroine, or at least a stronger character arc.

Many reviewers have noted how Twylla is a weak character. It's true — she is highly reactive. Throughout the entire book, Twylla instigates nothing of importance. All of her actions are in response to other characters and forces; she's pushed around. It makes for a boring protagonist and a boring read. Twylla's passivity would have been okay as a starting point for a larger character arc, but such development never materialized. Having such a lame lead character was a deathblow to the novel.

Developing the hook of the story further.

The hook for this story is that, as a goddess embodied, Twylla's touch causes death. That's pretty awesome. Many people were predicting The Sin Eater's Daughter would hold similarities to Graceling because of this. I wish! However, Twylla's is too frightened of her ability to do anything but execute selected people selected by higher-ups. She is so afraid of herself, she spends the rest of her time practically rocking in a corner. I longed for her to either embrace her gifts or to endeavor to find out more about them so she could understand them and, you know, weild them. This never happens.

Presenting a less cartoonish villain.

Our antagonist is an evil queen. Salisbury does a fantastic job at making her quite diabolical. However, she's never fleshed out and made three-dimensional. There was a gross and shocking reveal at the end of the book that fell flat for me because the queen's motivations were never revealed or even hinted at. Boo.

Getting rid of that ridiculous love triangle.

Maybe this is a matter of personal preference, but I, in almost all cases, believe love triangles weaken a story. I'm not opposed to forces getting in the way of a relationship, but love triangles come with a whole host of problems. They can make characters seem pathetic by appearing weak-willed and not self-aware or decisive. They can also hijack and plot and turn things into dumb soap operas. In The Sin Eater's Daughter, both the characters and plot are diminished because of the cheap drama.

Forming a more coherent plot.

Nothing streamlined occurs in The Sin Eater's Daughter. Horribly, Twylla is given nothing to do. I longed for there to be a mystery for her to solve or a journey to go on. Any kind of action. But nothing happens.

Bottom line is, the book wasn't a total disaster but it was still irredeemably flawed. Two stars.

The Madman's Daughter » Review

This book made me want to tear my hair out! I usually don't mind when what I read is bad or silly, but The Madman's Daughter had such promise! It made the novel's eventual failure so disappointing.

The story is of the gothic style, nodding the kind of romantic horror embodied by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I loved this homage, especially in the beginning, with Juliet Moreau, our protagonist, creeping about a medical academy after hours, cleaning up after surgeries. There's an early scene where she euthanizes a rabbit that some medical students were using for vivisection. She puts the animal out of its misery by chopping it's head of with a surgical axe. It's great stuff.

I also loved the early middle of the book, when Juliet tracks down her family's former servant and her childhood friend, Montgomery. He's been in hiding with her father, who fled England, almost a decade earlier, due to grotesque allegations. Juliet learns from Montgomery that her father is living and working on an sparsely-populated island off the coast of Australia. Juliet insists that Montgomery take her to her father. Montgomery, Juliet, and Balthazar, a peculiar assistant to Dr. Moreau, getting on a seedy ship and sail to Australia. On the voyage, the ship picks up a half-mad castaway, a gentlemanly man called Edward. Juliet takes a liking to him, and decides to take him under her wing.

However, once the party arrives at the island, the story unravels. What had been a tight plot unfurls into madness — not the compelling kind. The characters have the same confrontations over and over again. Juliet worries over the same issues a gazillion times. And then there was the love triangle. What can I tell you about that love triangle? It was exceedingly tiresome and immature, and made me lose all respect for every character involved and for the author. It wasn't just bad writing. It was pathetic writing.

I sound harsh. I realize this. But, the early part of the book was so very good. I'm just aghast at the turn the novel took for the worse.

I will read the sequel and the final book after that. I think it would be a pity not to. I am also holding onto the hope that Shepherd will turn this series around and live up to the kind of writing I know she's capable of.