Now I Know (The Rising by Kelley Armstrong)

Review of

The Rising by Kelley Armstrong

Maya Delaney is a skin-walker - a supernatural who can "Shift" into the shape of a cougar. But her gift comes with a terrible cost. With every transformation, she risks losing  touch with her human nature - for ever. 

Maya and her friends are on the run from the people who experimented on them and transformed them into supernaturals in the first place. They know they must confront their enemies if they are to have any hope of a future. In order to succeed, Maya will need to use her dangerous, unpredictable powers - but the price of freedom could be too high a price to pay...

Oh, yet another review I've rewritten several times because I wasn't sure if it was good enough. Well, here goes. 

I was super excited at last to get my hands on this book. But I have to say, it wasn’t really what I’d expected.

The book is like a ping pong ball. Weirdly enough my favorite in the series is the previous book, which was so tightly packed and moved fast and was evenly paced. This one bounces around a little more, which sort of makes sense because it is about running from danger and getting thrown around. But it wasn’t always exactly a pleasant read. It did keep me reading, but at times I was feeling a little like things should stop and we should focus on a certain aspect for a little longer. You always want to have longer moments and more details, but this felt like it would have improved the pacing or made things impact more.

And because the Darkest Powers sort of meets up with this series in this book, it makes the two series click a little more but then again, that just makes the differences stand out a little more. The DP’s characters are more “themselves”, fully realized characters that you grab onto immediately. DR’s characters are more thin, but more self-standing. The reason why I’m saying that about the characters is that while DR’s characters are all a part of the story and their own characters, some of the kids are just thrown around when it feels like it, but after three books I don’t know anything about them. 

That could be because of Maya. Her narrative is the biggest difference between her and Chloe. They have a lot of similar qualities, like wanting to do the best thing for everyone. But then, Maya’s more independent, she’s used to being the best and being allowed to go her own way. She’s used to others following her but she’s not quite obnoxious about it, it’s just the way things are for her. She does admit at some points that she isn’t the best and some of her actions toward others weren’t exactly fair. She does what’s best for everyone, but she’s used to doing things her way and knowing the best way to do it. She also uses a lot of explaining in her narration: she goes over them for the reader instead of us witnessing them as she experiences them or thinks about them. It’s quite peculiar and a part of me likes and then again another part of me likes the in-control and taking-control Maya so much that I wish I’d seen more of her doing the things she tells about. 

Now, one of my biggest problems with this book is the relationship between Daniel and Maya. This could be spoilery. But pretty much, the book looks at them with this look of “will they won’t they” and a lot of characters echo that. I mean, the story has been inching towards that for the past two books, but it really picks up in this one. This is just a personal opinion but I so have a problem with “best friends turned lovers” -thing. You really, really have to sell it for me in order for it to work. But I have to admit, Armstrong really does sell it well. I think a re-read will settle this matter for me, but hey. 

The final solution? Feels like it's just a little too easy and goes a little too smoothly. Though, to be honest, both of the series have had a lot of running around and big show-downs like forest fires, helicopter crashes and roofs caving in. And then some general running around. So maybe anything after that just seems a little too smooth and easy. That’s probably my biggest “problem” with the ending: even with the way it is actually ambiguous, it is a happy ending and it comes a little too fast on us. 

And that brings me back to a previous point, about Maya’s narrative style, where she recaps things. The last few parts and epilogue are pretty much just her recapping and explaining things. That got a little heavy after a moment and also really pushed it home that the ending came a little too fast. I would have wanted to see so much more about the characters. Though, that’s always the case with books that we love, isn’t it? We can never have as much of the characters as we’d like. 

But I do have to admit I just adore how these two trilogies work together - they sort of reflect off of each other. In Darkest Powers, the dangers are so much different, because the kids are far less experienced and are completely out of their league. But in Darkness Rising, the kids have almost been trained for this, they actually manage to do stuff that DP's kids never could. And just seeing all of the characters on the same page is pretty wicked. 

The way there is this big, evil puzzle that the books form and how while the puzzle is done even with the other series, without the other series the puzzle is still somehow incomplete. Okay that just sounds complicated. But these trilogies are pretty much each other's opposites. And that's what I like about them. 

I’m afraid that the things I’ve said have made it sound like I didn’t like this book. But that’s not the case. But I liked the other books so much more, that comparing this to - for example - the previous one makes all those things just stand out. I really love the way Armstrong writes, with small details that are important and don’t make things heavy. So really, some parts did feel like something was missing, that something had been dropped out. But I still love this book and especially how the series tied these two series together. 

Final thoughts: No matter what it might sound like I liked this series. The Darkest Powers just might be more of a favorite of mine right now, but this series is definitely worth several re-reads. It didn’t tug on my heartstrings as badly as the other one did, but re-reads might change that. 

It's Between Us (the Calling by Kelley Armstrong)

Review of 

the Calling by Kelley Armstrong

Maya Delaney's paw-print birthmark is the sign of what she truly is - a skinwalker. Experiencing intense connections with the animals that roam the woods outside her home, Maya knows she will soon be able to Shift and become one of them. And she believes there may be others in her small town with surprising talents, including local bad boy Rafe, with whom she shares a powerful secret. 

Now Maya and her friends have been forced to flee their homes during a forest fire they suspect was set deliberately. Stranded in the wilderness of Vancouver Island, only their extraordinary abilities can help get back home. But can Maya really trust her friends? 

And can she learn how to control her dangerous gift, before it controls her? 

Second book in the trilogy, starts right up from where we left off. Are you ready? I’m not sure if you are. (Overview of Darkest Powers, a trilogy companion you might want to read before this is here and this trilogy’s first book the Gathering’s review is here.) 

Now, we start off immediately where we left in the Gathering. I love it when a series does that. 

But remember when I said that you know, the Gathering was a little slow, it was just basically introducing things and what not. Well, all that pays off in here. We were given the introduction to things last time so that now we know the basics already and Armstrong can just drive us off the deep end and it’ll be okay. And it doesn’t even feel like bad, because the “introductions” fit with the last book, with its sort of “theme” and style and here it doesn’t feel like you’re being told the same things twice. 

I didn’t really know what think about Maya when the last book ended. I mean, I liked her, but she seemed a little naive and a boring good girl. Well, in the Calling she’s in her element. This is really her time to shine: she’s smart, she knows what she’s doing and she won’t give up. It’s really clear that this girl is used to knowing what she’s doing, she will never give up as long as she can keep fighting and hell, she’ll go through stone if that means that she’ll achieve her goals. I just love this girl, how she kept a cool head even when she was close to panicking. 

And while I liked Daniel and her best friends-team in the last book, oh boy, it gets better in this one. So much better. It's sweet and sad, because now they become this super-awesome team that practically saves the day (if I'm exaggerating a little) but then it's sad because they both have this package they have to work around because there isn't time. And they have lovely heart-to-heart conversations where they lean on each other. I just love their friendship a lot. I feel like they grow a lot just in this one book. 

So basically Gathering was paving the way for this. I’m very disappointed with myself, that I didn’t grab this book right away when it came out. This is a faster book then the Awakening, the second book of Darkest Powers. Or so it feels. 

The Calling is a little about the mystery, but it’s a little more thriller-like and you know, it focuses a lot on the characters surviving.

The danger, action and mystery that I was sort of waiting for in the last book is all this book’s made of. It never really slows down, it just hits the ground running and keeps going. But it doesn’t feel heavy or like an info-dump. This is probably because of Armstrong’s writing. She handles it really well, the small info-dumps are just realizations that the characters have. It’s so very natural.

We may have thought we got to know the characters in the last book, but this one just throws that on its head and everything changes. WE even get more into Maya’s head, as her life is thrown inside out and it’s really fascinating to read how the kids deal with the sudden change. The characters either really grow in front of your eyes or then there are some scenes that could be summed up to them taking off a mask that has another mask under it and then again later taking that off only to yet another mask. It’s fun, because you never know who to trust and while I weren’t really trusting anyone in last book, now the characters are also catching up to that. And it’s pretty painful, because you can see how all they thought was right is crumbling down and that’s not cool. Suddenly, I really care about these characters, without noticing. I really weren’t sure what think when the Gathering ended but reading this book has made me love that one so much. 

Though I have to admit, that the group of characters that we mainly play with in this book, does feel a little like playing with dolls at points. I don’t really get as close to some of them, while the other characters care about and Maya takes up a lot of page space worrying them. It felt awkward when I just wanted to move on and drop the dead weight. That would have been problematic, until I remembered, while writing this, that that’s exactly the same feeling I had about two certain characters in the Awakening (Darkest Powers 2) that I in the end, care about the most. 

I just couldn’t put this book down. I had to keep going. There weren’t any slow parts and even the parts where Maya spends time just trying to make sense of things or trying to figure something out, I just wanted keep reading. Now I really have to have the last one, because it just can’t end here!

Final thoughts: In some trilogies the second book isn’t that good. Well, the Calling is an action-packed, mystery and will keep you reading it until the last page. You can’t put it down. If the first book was a little blah to you, well this will fix all the bad feelings you might have had. In this book I really, really fell in love with Maya and now the next book can’t be in my hands fast enough! 

Count to Ten (the Gathering by Kelley Armstrong)

Review of 

the Gathering by Kelley Armstrong

Maya Delaney has always felt a close bond with nature. The woods around her home are a much-loved sanctuary - and the pawprint birthmark on her hip feels like a sign that she belongs. 

But then strange things begin to happen in the tiny medical-research town of Salmon Creek. A young girl drowns mysteriously in the middle of a calm lake. Mountain lions appear around Maya's home and won't go away. Her best friends Daniel starts experiencing bad vibes about certain people and things. One of those is Rafe - the new bad boy in town. What is he hiding - and why is he suddenly so interested in Maya... ? 

The Gathering is the first book in a trilogy called Darkness Rising and it’s a companion of Darkest Powers -trilogy. It isn’t really necessary to read Darkest Powers first, but I would still suggest that. It’s such a better combination like that, because we are talking about trilogies that tell the same story with two different stories. If that made sense. 

I wrote an overview of the Darkest Powers here, but since I have so many things to say about these books separately, I’ll write separate reviews of these. Plus, you know, I read that trilogy such a long time ago it’s hard to separate my thoughts for one book. 

The book starts the story of Maya Delaney, who lives in a small medical-research town and that already gives you a completely different feel for the book unlike the other trilogy. Now with our book, strange things start happening, a new bad boy, a mysterious death, a curious reporter and something about Maya herself. 

Now, I immediately fell in love with Chloe: my love with Maya was more of a slow-burning candle compared to that. Maya’s lived her life in a small town, where she knows everyone and trust everyone. She’s never really had a hard life in things: she’s been one of the popular kids in school and in general she likes everyone and everyone likes her. The small things she has with some people really stand out since they’re so unnatural. 

Sounds boring? Don’t worry, Maya’s actually a very smart girl - in a town like this, the kids have been trained to their best abilities and Maya’s tough: she’s no pushover. As in that she’s athletic and her most stand-out feature is her love of nature, though that doesn’t quite describe it. Maya is a part of the nature, the woods surrounding the town are her territory and she’s good with animals. She may have not lived a tough life, but she does use her head. And the more obvious it becomes that there is a mystery to be solved, the more she starts thinking about the things around her.

One of my favorite things is Maya and Daniel's relationship. They've grown up together and are best friends, so they get along so well and there is the feeling that they know pretty much everything about each other. And I love how there isn't even a hint of any weird tension.  They just work so well together, behaving as a kickass team. I'm a sucker for best friend-teams and theirs is so special because there's some sadness left and while they seem perfect on the outside there are parts in which we see that they aren't. 

Like in Darkest Powers, there is a wide range of characters, none of them just good or evil. Everyone settles in the uncertain grey areas of who’s on what side. And we think we know people, but we only know what they want us to know - we learn more about their motives and it becomes more clear that no one should be dismissed. 

What’s curious is that I, personally, came from Darkest Powers and having learned from that to not trust anyone, the way Maya and her friends trusted people, felt weird. And it’s a curious feeling, when the main character thinks “Well, I know these people. They want what is best for me.” And you  think, “But how do you know that?” Basically, there’s a mystery here as well, but you know that when you start and the characters don’t. 

It isn’t something that bothered me, but it was a very interesting perspective to read the book from and see how things unraveled. That’s mainly why I think you should read Darkest Powers first. 

The Gathering starts more slowly than the first book in Darkest Powers does. There’s less of an urgency going on, but there is this feeling of quiet before the storm. The tension grows and grows and you’re kept on your toes, waiting for it blow up. 

The plot, I think, is rather simple. I didn’t guess it before it happened, but it isn’t that complicated. The Gathering doesn’t get to the good parts yet and it does feel at points. We spend a little more time just getting to know the characters and their lives before, instead of things just happening. Though, I can tell you that all the “waiting” does pay off in the next book. 

And even if it feels like nothing happens, there are a couple of big surprises that just blow up in your face when you least expect it. 

Final thoughts: A slow beginning to the companion trilogy of Darkest Powers is promising, but the hook is small compared to the must-know-now of the Summoning. But the Gathering is absolutely charming, with Armstrong’s writing captivating your taste buds and delivering mystery-goodness. Knowing about the mystery before your characters is in my opinion so much fun.