Becky's Reviews > Girl of Nightmares

Ugh. This will be a rant... Just warning you ahead of time.

Seriously, I'm pretty annoyed right now. I just finished Girl of Nightmares, and I'm really wondering why Kendare Blake went the New Moon direction with the story rather than the rather more interesting and meaningful and purposeful "Let's save my Dad" direction. Because she could have, easily, and it would have been a better story for it.

I mean, this duology had the potential to be amazing. Book one was almost there, but the stupid romance instant connection THAT I STILL DON'T GET AND WAS COMPLETELY POINTLESS (other than making me want to throatpunch the main character every 3 or 4 pages), and it sapped the awesome right out.

Book two started with that awesome-deficient romance-y, mopey, ghost-longing shell of a story, and then proceeded to stab it repeatedly with the plot line from New Moon. Which, I mean, is less a stab than a kind of wet and pathetic flopping, but you catch my drift, right?

At one point, I was calling the main character Casbella. Because that's pretty much how I thought of Cas in this book. He was no longer the witty, sarcastic teen from book one... now he's a mopey little bitch who can't explain why he loves or is drawn to Anna but he JUST IS! GAH! CAN'T YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?! *foot stomp*

Nevermind the fact that she's dead. Nevermind the fact that they spent less than 9 months "together". Nevermind that they have nothing in common except an unwillingness to change their clothes. They are in lurrrrrrve. So Cas needs to save her from the awful meaniepoopoohead that oh yeah... alsohappenedtokillCas'sfather... if we want to be specific. But he's PICKING on ANNA! *stomps foot*

I can't even begin to generate enough angst to impersonate Cas. Because there isn't enough in my body... or even my neighborhood. And there's a school two blocks away.

*deep breath*

OK. Before, I said that this could have been a better story if Blake had gone in a different direction with it. Lemme 'splain why I feel that way. First, some points:
1) the Obeahman murdered Cas's dad when Cas was 7, and since then, Cas has been researching and training to fight and kill the creature that killed his dad.
2) Anna, the dead luuuuuuuuurve of Cas's life, dragged the Obeahman out of the world at the end of book 1.
3) Anna then started to appear to Cas (shades of Edward in New Moon), because apparently cutting her with the athame one time linked her to it, and he decided to save her.
4) The "saving" involved Cas and Thomas and Carmel meeting the Order of the Black Dagger, who let Cas cross over to try to save her... where he does so, and ohyeahhisdadistheretoo.

Yes. His father, the murdered guy who helped bring Cas into being and who saved people from murderous spirits is relegated to a damn AFTERTHOUGHT!

WHY was saving his DAD not the plot, since we KNOW he is linked to the athame since it's been a bloodline weapon since page ONE. Why go in the "I have no meaning in my life without her" route? SHE IS DEAD ALREADY, and cursed or not, had killed dozens of people, and again, their "relationship" was only a period of months. There was no meaning there. Not like there is in a parent/child relationship. So shunting the "I do this to avenge my father" purpose to a fucking afterthought in favor of 200+ pages of whiny teen brooding is just... It's SO AGGRAVATING.

Just... whatever. I'm done here.

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