Rosemary Edghill

Two things really stood out to me in this second book in the "Shadow Grail" series--Spirit is an overwhelmingly negative person and the combined pop culture knowledge of Lackey and Edghill is staggering. The opening few chapters alone have half a dozen different Star Wars references never mind the movie, comic book and even some anime references spread throughout the rest of the book.

To center on Spirit's negativity for a moment; I fully understand and agree with a character who later on validates Spirit's grief and inability to move past that grief. Its been more or less implied by almost every character of importance to Spirit that she can't find closure for her grief so she is instead projecting her need to fill that hole in her life by being useful. The fact that she is right every single time is a bit more irritating.

We're not given a real understanding as to why her friends keep rocking back and forth on whether Spirit is crazy delusional or scarily accurate in her fears, its implied that the Oakhurst rings they have to wear have something to do with it, but that's about it. So its frustrating as a reader to hear Spirit try to discuss reasonable fears, with justified reasoning and proof to back it up in some cases, and to have her friends say 'Oh Spirit get over yourself and try not to make everything about you.'. Every. Single. Time. It becomes a predictable pattern as Spirit voices a concern, in increasing measures of urgency, her friends pooh-pooh it at first telling her to calm down, Spirit wonders if she's going insane, something occurs and ta-da! Her friends all come streaming back to apologize. This happens at least three times.

So maybe Spirit overall negative attitude is understandable, just doesn't make it easier to read. She expends more energy worried that her friends aren't more worried then she does proactively fighting what has her so afraid. When she finally realizes this its almost too late to actually do very much but contain the situation enough so no one else gets hurts.

Meanwhile the book itself jumps around a bit in terms of pacing. Without knowing the particulars of the plotting process I'm left to wonder if they meant for this book to be two separate editions or just didn't realize how much they were trying to pack into the page length. We find out more about the ones who may have been behind the Wild Hunt in the first book, Legacies, as well as the mirror side to that fight. A character, Elizabeth, is introduced mostly as a plot device to explain to Spirit (and her friends) that entire backstory.

Between Spirit worrying about her friend's non-worry, her grief, her schoolwork, several mandatory school functions and a budding romance we're introduced to a couple of plot details that I wish had more play time. The fact about the group's rings, the alumni and possibility that things conspired to bring the kids to Oakhurst and the arrival of Mark Rider and his troop of diabolical merry minions.

Character development wise a guess I had about two character's feelings in the first book are confirmed, though to the credit of Lackey and Edghill the reveal about the one is handle in a 'And so this is who this person is, doesn't change anything does it?' at least until the Sadie Hawkin's Dance. Spirit also bluntly points out to Muirin, Addie and Burke that they were sheep until her and Loch showed up, in regards to what was going on at the school.

While this one didn't bowl me over, it did keep my interest going as to the true nature of Oakhurst and answers to the mysteries therein. With the ending to this book being as explosive as the ending to the first, I certainly hope this means Book 3 will give us a showdown to remember.… (mer)

Legacies is (yet another) teenage boarding school paranormal where seemingly average girl goes off to mysterious and slightly too good to be true boarding school, finding herself smack dab in the middle of an evil plot. I couldn't tell you how many books I've read this year alone with this idea, but I will tell you I was excited to see Rosemary Edghill and Mercedes Lackey together on this. Been a long time fan of both and though they've worked together before (Bedlam's Bard series) I was interested to see how they would work out as a young adult duo.

In many respects I wasn't let down by the book. I went into it expecting Spirit to find out something supernatural about herself, to have doubts about the school/orphanage she would be living at, to make friends of various points of archetypal interest. So I wasn't let down by any of that. I did have an underlying feeling of 'tell me more' however throughout the entire book. There is quite a bit of time spent on Spirit's survivor's guilt, some time spent on the 'how' each of her friends ended up at Oakhurst, more time spent on researching what was going on and then very little spent on development.

Spirit is resilient and not quite the same as everyone else. Lachlan felt nothing following his father's death and is rather peculiar in terms of emotional detachment. Burke likes to help out and make people feel comfortable. Muirin has a perpetual chip on her shoulder and likes to 'flaunt' authority. Adelaide is a studious student and has a dry sense of humor. This is the sum total of what we learn about their personalities.

A lot of suspicious activity abounds in this book--not just from the Academy itself (which seems two steps removed from reckless child endangerment on good days), but from Spirit's so-called friends. The only one who seems at all who and what he seems is Burke, but that makes him a flatter character overall. Everyone is just a little bit too much of whatever their part is supposed to be. Muirin is too angry, Adelaide is too prim, Lachlan is too detached and Burke is too safe.

As for the mystery itself, I freely admit to both confusion on how the kids eventually came to the conclusion they did and how they 'defeated' it. The book would spend half a chapter or so describing their discovery than its off to see Spirit fail at magics or Muirin get upset over the lack of forward momentum or Burke trying to teach Spirit self-defense. Not only that, but the idea that the school is setting the students up to all feel competitive towards each other and not make friendships is handled awkwardly. Extremely so. To the point where I wondered if Spirit wasn't also a paranoid person because the plot went almost nowhere.

As a first book this leaves a lot to be desired. As a new insert to the ever growing boarding school supernatural books this leaves a whole lot more to be desired. And I'm disappointed in two of my favorite authors. I will read the next book, to see if things improve, but at the moment I'm wary.… (mer)