Maybe the monster they truly need to slay has never been the Beast...
The Deck of Omens
by Christine Lynn Herman
Publisher: Titan Books
Publication Date: 24 April 2020
Genre: YA Fantasy
Pages: 416 pages
Rating: 5/5 stars
Titan Books kindly sent me a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.
I'll try and make it as spoiler-free as possible but just know that there will be references to The Devouring Gray throughout the review.
Where do I even begin! We left The Devouring Gray on a jaw-dropping moment, throwing our paperbacks to the nearest wall - and then picked it up and apologized because how could anyone hurt such a precious thing?
To be honest with you, the only thing in my mind the entire time was that bloody Isaac Sullivan and his wounds and my desperate need to know more of his story. And boy if the author delivered!
I'm not gonna lie here and say that the fact that I had to read in in digital format kinda ruined the experience for me, I love my books in my hands where I can crack the spine (I know, shocking!) and highlight vital passages or write in the margins. None of that happened so it's hard to stop my train of thoughts. If you can, pick up a physical copy so that you can rip the pages whenever you want (don't do it, please) But aside from that, boy if that was a wild ride!
Let's talk about the characters first. If you didn't know, the story is more focused on the characters, their personal development and their friendships and whatnot. I do love me a good character. If you have read The Raven Cycle - and absolutely loved it! - then you will adore this one, especially for the friendship factor. These teens are fantastic. Each of them brings something new to the table and they grew up so much from the first book - except Justin, he's a mama boy through and through. We don't stan.
It's interesting how everyone is a badass in their own way - except for Justin, he's useless and could have done more. Harper, after knowing the truth about her powers, tries to control them, to be stronger and enjoy what the Hawthorns denied her for a long time. May has a second chance to shine in this book. I don't like her character, her pink outfits and poor life choices made me not care about her - maybe it's a family thing? Not that I absolutely love Augusta either. Same for Justin.
But my absolute favourites are, obviously, Violet and Isaac.
Violet is learning to live with her grief, accepting the fact that her sister is gone and even though it hurts, she knows that it's allowed to move on without feeling guilty if you're happy. Same thing for Isaac. He is such a strong character, I knew it from book one. But here we finally get to see him, truly, for who he is, what he's been through. We finally uncover some of his secret past and his ritual, as well as everyone else's.
I'm so happy the author decided to explore a little bit more the characters' sexuality, obviously, I did expect more, they barely knowledge it, and there are not enough scenes where they can talk freely about it. But I also loved the fact that it wasn't centred around the character's sexuality, especially because it's such a normal thing to just let it be and not constantly talk about it. It was actually clever and I did appreciate it very much.
Now, there's no characters without Four Paths and The Gray. We learn so much about the city, about the founders, about all the secrets that have been kept for years for fear of the truth. But the story is so character-driven that the author kinda gives them the spotlight and left the city that surrounds them in the dark. I would have love to know more about the city, the forest. It was great, sure, but I would have loved something more.
There are still things that I don't understand - if you have already read the book, please come chat with me on Twitter - and things I wanted to explore more, like the whole founders' thing and diving deep into the families instead of knowing only about Isaac (which I did really love and went crazy for!)
Speaking about Isaac, I've been patiently waiting for something to happen between him and Violet since TDG and every time they were together, the romantic tension was unbelievable! I'm a sucker for those things but I got my happy ending after all my eye rolls and punches on the wall.
The Deck of Omens was a spectacular end to a duology that I've been waiting for! It has the right amount of mystery and friendships and secrets and laugh out loud moments mixed with some punch in the feels and a few tears here and there to make it even more juicy and beautiful.
Now, where's my stone army and my dead talking cat?
Have you read both books? What did you think?
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