Bullet Review:

Hot damn is this going to be a toughie to review. I'm really struggling on the star rating - because the first half was boring as f@#$. It gets moderately better once Daemon and Jaenelle start spending some time together, but there are certain things that creep me out.

Comparing to Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series...hmmmmm...2 stars.

Full Review:

Tersa predicts that one day, the supreme ruler, Witch, will return. She then goes nuts.

Fast forward some years later. Several male POVs meet this strange 7-8 year old girl, Jaenelle. Lucivar Yaslana tells her to stop traveling all over the place (she has a weird ability to travel to whereever she hears a tortured soul) and he would help her out when she reached the age of 18 or so. Saetan SaDiablo meets her (when she goes to hell) and immediately realizes she is powerful and needs guidance. He becomes her father figure and trains her to use her potential. Lastly is Daemon Sadi who meets her through a connection Saetan makes with him while saving Jaenelle's life.

Basically all these men (and the two token women, Cassandra and Surreal) have to keep Jaenelle alive despite the awfulness of her family who keeps sending her to a horrible place called Briarwood, and Dorothea and Hekatah, two evil witches who don't want Jaenelle to rid them of their power.

That's the basic essence of the plot I could suss out from this story; in between that thread-bare plot is a lot of, well, gobbledegook about webs and gems and Witch a bunch of unlikeable, horrible people and threadbare concepts that were either barely fleshed out (not surprising as this WAS Bishop's debut novel) or so overly complicated I gave up trying to understand. As I read, I kept thinking of another very sexual read: Jaqueline Carey's "Kushiel's Dart". But while "Kushiel's Dart" was always moving along with a strong, lead female POV, "Daughter of the Blood" is a whole different kettle of fish.

First off, the book is supposed to be about Jaenelle. She's the Chosen One, and yet not once does she get a POV. Instead, we look at Jaenelle through the eyes of nearly all the men surrounding her (including third-tier characters!). I cannot tell you how utterly frustrating it is to have a story about a woman end up being really about a man. This happens so frequently in fiction - I'm reminded of stories like "Divergent" or the more recent "Solstice", which supposedly were about female characters, but once you peeled away the outer covering, you saw really the central figure was just another guy. Women like me want to see us at the forefront of stories - female Jack Reachers, Dirk Pitts, James Bonds and more.

Instead the book is Daemon's story. Daemon "The Sadist" Sadi, who torments women in sex, who constantly acts callous and cruel to nearly every single woman he meets, using sex to make them want and hate him. If I didn't already hate his guts, Daemon develops romantic feelings for Jaenelle, a 12-year-old girl - and no, we're not talking about "Wow, you are powerful, I want some of that", it's the "I totally want to bed you" type of creepiness.

Spoiler

In fact, one scene is about him seducing her - she is still 12, but she's in an adult body, so that makes it totes ok *eyeroll*

But really, can I be so harsh on Daemon when nearly the ENTIRE CAST is full of pedophiles, rapists, murderers, torturers, and sadists? If you compare him to someone like Dorothea or Cartane, dude looks like a Knight in Shining White Armor. And I suppose this is where many people will draw the line with this book and series: This is very brutal, very dark, very grim. This is more Game of Thrones than Chronicles of Narnia, if you catch my drift. If you don't like rape, torture, sexual assault or murder, then you will want to quickly put this book back on the shelf and walk away.

While yes, the extreme depravity of the characters bugged me, at the end of the day, it wasn't that that makes me rate this 2-stars - it's just the mediocrity and boredom I had while listening to it on audiobook. I've read my share of sexual or dark books - I read "Kushiel's Dart" and Game of Thrones, both of which have very mature, grim scenes. But both of those books were interesting, with likeable characters, well-built world-building (where in the dark and grim features make sense amongst the world) and an intricate plot. "Daughter of the Blood" feels very dry, a "rough draft" of a potentially good story. While I enjoyed the sections with Jaenelle and Saeten and liked the all-too-minor character, Surreal, the story just barely made my pulse accelerate. I didn't listen eagerly to understand the intricacies in blood jewels or the web travel system. I didn't find myself drawn to better understand the complicated relationships between the major characters. Mostly, I just felt myself zoning out - until the end, which came with a bit of a shock (this is definitely a cliffhanger ending!).

Will I continue the trilogy? At this time, I'm going to say no. I've got a modest interest how Jaenelle comes back and gains her throne, but this was a long slog of a listen. And unlike Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn (of which I thought the second book extremely dull and frustrating), this just doesn't have the worldbuilding or magic system to make me engaged.