Photo credits: Patty Jansen (pixabay) Edited by Vaishali Title: A Dance of Lies Series: Outlands Pentalogy Author: Rebecca Crunden Publisher: Self Published Year of Publication: 2018 ISBN-10: 1718876440 ISBN-13: 978-1718876446 Format: Paperback copy kindly provided by the author Genre/Themes: Dystopian Fantasy, Rebellion, Post-apocalypse, Trauma, Healing, LGBT relationships R E V I E W ...I've experienced neither a drop, a dip nor a collapse in enthusiasm for this series. The love pulls strong, its aim faithful and fires true blue within the tortured hearts of these disaster dwellers. I fondly flit and fluctuate from cordially brandishing the terms ‘disaster cast’ and ‘catastrophe crew’ with the Cuttaverse clan because, their existential tragedies aside, they really are a dysfunctional disaster family incarnate. As we took a two-book sabbatical from Kitty's POV, I have to stress how much of a homecoming it was for me to step back into the role of spectator and colonise her mind for the stretch of this book. If I love being a fly on the wall for anyone in this series, both Nate and Kitty would claim said victory without qualm or question. And with A Dance of Lies, the readability, the rawness and the clashing conviction keeps abreast with propulsive beckon. These characters could probably write endless bluesy hits that alchemise the coiling, pooling synthesis of their angst and pain. In the Outlands wilderness, we've got our eclectic camp of Kingdom fugitives and Radiant dwellers. I would say there's trouble in paradise but there's nothing quite paradisiacal about what menaces Radiant horizons. Lush flora, brisk sunrises, dappled canopies, peaceful haunts and it’s nature that's so nifty at misleading, and only nature that gets away with calling man a halfwit. Just like humans, Radiants have their fair share of the villainous that intimidate and terrorise, and the most diabolical of them is still disturbingly compelled by the Anteros brothers. Where the law was created and enforced by the Council in the Kingdom, it's in the hands of every Radiant in the Outlands territory. This includes the ousted Outcasts. A Dance of Lies moves forward and we're one year into the Outlands, beyond Kingdom law, beyond Crown jurisdiction and beyond the bane of an unfree life. But being free of law doesn't quite amount to being free from everything these characters have eluded. Even then, freedom isn’t fit for everyone. Even with expanses of land cleaving them from an enslaving empire and a wall specifically built for division, their minds and memories sill disturb, besieged by the fallout of their old lives. The Kingdom may be long out of sight, but it's still fiercely not out of mind. And If a looming enemy isn’t a big enough obstacle, camp conflict is bigger. The dividing argument between pro-remain and pro-leave starts to split the camp right down its quarrelsome middle. If I thought the initial trilogy was character-driven and tempestuous with temper, then A Dance of Lies is particularly more character-focused than its preliminary comrades with all its personality clashes, conviction wars and disputes of attitude. Group morale is charged with ascending strain in this follow up and shifting desires break up their ranks, splitting their little collective apart. After all it's taken to get here, all they've weathered to find each other, whether they've all changed for better or worse, damaged or destructive, blackened or blameworthy, the divisions grow steady, small and seismic between the Kingdom runaways. Everyone breaking apart with every choice challenging the next. If you can’t feel the drama, it’s bright, brilliant and I do not contest how free my glee might have ran with the argumentative infighting. Confession: very high. My ample gratitude to the disaster cast for bringing the bashful and brazen angsty dramatics. While the tension typically broke, cut, soared, simmered and mounted in the books preceding as it was always a race to each other and a mad dash to fend off danger, the dust rarely settles long enough before another monster furls from the dust: free-to-roam bottlenecking angst courtesy of below-the-surface wounds and oversensitised feelings quick to ignite. Things do buckle to a head in a way that confronts love, loyalty, trust and affiliation in this addition. While we only ever saw how sweepingly unequalled Nate’s oversized line of love would live to outlast, I was deeply curious to see what might, if anything, test his relationship with Kitty. As I’m a known lover of romance, I was one with every love bond, even as violence, omission and unreserved honesty laces the love. You’ll see a touch of what it takes to see Nate pushed to an indefensible brink just as you’ll see a side of Kitty that stays true to herself. As we’re familiar with Nate’s delicate sense of self worth, his need to bleed to stem the flow of his cosmic feelings, his leanings for self-destruction and his grand inability to quell not one thought from mind to mouth, you can expect his characteristic confrontations with those he really doesn’t like and his hysterical love towards those he really does. My love for my troublesome Firebird, however, remains unimpaired. Because even as he rips into those he doesn’t like, he loves harder for those he does. While I clued up on everything firsthand through privileged Kitty in book one, I felt the distance from her in the books following, wondering how she really dealt with her own captivity. Just as I suspected, her brave face, enduring adaptability and natural propensity towards spilling lies and evading the truth (all of which she still effects thoroughly well) belies how hard the Kingdom had taken it’s toll on her, how close she kept her suffering close to heart. And if we know anything about Kitty, it's how artful she is at masking the truth, but it’s about to work to her detriment here. Did I mention how much I rejoiced being back in her mind? I was so proud to watch Kitty come into herself and blossom like the wildflowers home to the Outlands, grow into someone wanting of strength, failing to see how brave she had become but still so frightened of leaving the limbo. Questioning her place in the Outlands, hating her fear, hurting over her misery, stonewalled by her nightmares and learning this new land was all a part of it. The change in her has gradually materialised and I’m keen to see how her whetted ire might play into oncoming affairs. At this point, I’m taking the hint and hoping to witness the shift in her temper. There are some subtle signs that comeuppance might be on the cards so I’m looking forward to bloodthirsty Kitty should she manifest. But what brought me to heel like a pup who twirls for a sweet treat was the budding friendship between Kitty Halfblood and camp warrior, Riddle. I bring this up because Kitty was once more mutant-averse, and here she is not only fraternising with their divided peoples, but befriending them. How the tables do turn and the walls do crumble. It was wonderful to behold. A Dance of Lies is less a plot-enhancing chapter in the Pentalogy and more an interlude as character intrigue runs the course. Despite an antagonist on the hunt for them and intermittent run-ins and skirmishes, I have to admit that I did feel the lull in activity and would have preferred more moments of actionable handiwork. I affectionately blame romance books for my partiality for the graceful, silent warrior archetype but I loved seeing different sides to the normally unflustered, inexpressive Riddle. He’s become a true favourite in this series for me. And while I’m billing up my love-struck labours that kneel to love, I pay a special mention to Thom and Kitty moments. I love that their friendship is remains taut with meaningful intimacy. That the love doesn’t dim between them even after their lovers-to-friends dynamic makes me smile sweetly. Of course, Nate and Kitty moments are a natural point of endearment too, hence a discretionary mention lest my rebel-hearted bellicose bird bathe in the bitter seas of jealousy. Interestingly enough, you might find yourself disagreeing with character choices in the same space of thought you’ll agree with follow-up decisions. I might shake my head with a sigh, can see a storm in the making, am taken aback at the unsweetened honesty, can feel the dread of a choice that’s bound to impart a lasting ache, can feel the weight of the unsaid as opposed to what has been or mildly cringe at a conversation gone wrong but it’s more a case of every character having a right to their pain. A reason for their choices. It’s not a conflict of side supporting per se but of tucking away the rationale (Irrational or otherwise) in a world littered with gray pickings, changeable courses and fluid morality. They’re wanting death, fearing death and wishing death upon their enemies. We know there’s a lot of bracing love between the characters; they’d sacrifice, they’d go above to protect, beyond to love and cause carnage to live even if they do hurl and hurt each other. And here’s where my nickname comes into play because some members of the disaster cast exclusively tolerate each other, but they’ll back each other in the same breath. Even if their encounters might be one word short of flying fists. An ode to their differences because the central and supporting characters are still full of fire, fear, pain and outrage. Hard reactions are exclusive to hard choices. In terms of speculating what might happen, suspicions and potential theories for the series aren’t particularly hard to imagine. You’ll probably find your guesswork to be true but there will come some surprising curveballs that circle their way into the fray. While the preceding books catered towards a spree to outrun the Kingdom and its abject cruelty, this one absolves to the idea that danger and discord can’t quite face avoidance by any physical mile. It also needles into the intimate, inward and immediate relationships within the group while the calling, haunting past might never be out of the picture so long as the Kingdom cuts a looming silhouette. The penultimate end to this series brings with it foreseeably effortless writing that opens up the potential for human/Radiant romance, adds on to Radiant world-building and probes relationships and interrelationships as a circus of thundering disagreement preludes a Halfblood’s complexion as a gatekeeper cached with half-truths. As always, Rebecca Crunden’s addictive writing frames her story with need-to-know urgency and the compulsion to read just ‘one more page’ becomes a pitiful alibi that endangered my waking hours and sharpened my attention span for this book and this book only. I’m now a thralled lackey to this disaster saga and now that I’ve breached the frontier and jumped the final wall that is this review, I’m prepared for a prophecy that hopefully predicts a laudable finale to this series! I gave this book 4 stars -D I S A B I L I T Y - R E P I want to use this space to talk about a really important particular. A potentially sensitive particular too. I admire how inclusive the author has been with this series. There's so much I love about it. We have diversity for sexual orientation, representation for heavy themes such as abortion, forced pregnancy, trauma, criminal pers ecution, rape, forced marriage and all manner of what you might expect from a darker-themed dystopian. Since subjects of chronic illness and disability are very close to my heart, I was glad to see disability rep in there too, but this is actually where I struggle with how I feel about the disability characterisation. I don't know that I agree with where Thom’s disability peregrination headed or with the imparted, underlying intimation. We see how traumatised Thom was after being tortured, having been left scarred, disfigured and disabled through the act of a malevolent enemy. His conflict is strong and visible and hits the mobility war issue with a rawness that demonstrates the difficulty of living with said newly-acquired disability (a rawness characteristic to the way the author considers every other tough subject). I understood the ranging emotions from frustration to self-loathing to dependency to inadequacy to preferring death to life without quite feeling ‘whole’ - and this is a word I also really struggled with throughout the book. Wholeness is a very elusive, illusionist and complex topic in the realm of disability. Why can/should Thom only feel ‘whole’ when he has an abled body? The characters know how Thom felt about his body, how much of a hardship it was for him to live life in the Outlands with a physical impairment and to be bereaved by what he’d lost. What bothered him most was his inability to perform (to live with a body that underperforms) to a level he was used to and his supporting friends and family really understood this. He can’t protect himself or his loved ones to a successful degree and they all do what they can to see that Thom is heard and seen. All reasonable and all very realistic. But where the disability rep might falter for me (and I'm still painfully in two minds over this) is the blending of a potential ‘cure’ into the mix to rid the survivor of every physical change so that he can feel 'whole’ again rather than to have him learn to live with his disability, and to ultimately find an acceptance for it. I was happy for Thom that he received his desired outcome, to have a body without disability or deformity but I was also disheartened by this outcome that remedies his body without disability or deformity. You could easily argue that Thom needed to see to his own end and to face his enemy in a way that felt comfortable to him, and the author successfully highlights this. I really do take this in too. And in Anais itself, we know that all sorts of remedies exist to heal scars, defacements and long-term sicknesses so you could also easily point out that if the means to heal these types of conditions have been established by the author as she builds her world, then it's absolutely fine for Thom to heal, albeit through alternative method. If I had swapped shoes with Thom, I would have probably grabbed at any chance to lose my own disabling illnesses if there was even the smallest mention of a full recovery but the disabled aren’t able to magic away their corporeal disabilities. For disability representation to work, a character must be depicted without minimalising who they have become by implying that to want to live fully and completely is to be without any disability. That’s really not quite disability positive or disability accepting. I really had to think about this a lot before I decided to talk about it. I’m still honestly not sure how I feel about it and I accept that many fantasy books out there follow in the same vein of whipping up systems and stratagem that assent to one-way recovery. I don’t actually think the author set out to include disability representation intentionally. I think one of her characters ended up following that suit and the story took him where it was supposed to, which I also completely understand. Creative direction is an author’s prerogative and I have every regard for the chosen road singular to every character. I have zero feelings of ill for the story, it remains one of my favourites and I’d gladly peddle this series to any dystopian-loving reader. As a personal take, however, I think it would have been wonderful for Thom to not have been rehabilitated/recovered completely with the swallow of a gene-altering serum. It would have been even more wonderful to see him as the deadly combatant he is, fighting his enemies and fronting this war, disability intact. This series as a whole is diversity positive but I think to have a happy ending without a need to restore abledness or nullify one's disability by taking it away should be available for any disabled character as well. I may add on, change or remedy this part FYI. *A big thank you to the author for sending over a copy of this book in exchange for a review!* C O N T E N T _W A R N I N G: Mentions torture, abuse and death. Displays of violence, panic attacks, trauma and intense feelings. Profanity throughout and adult themes. Mentions and alludes to rape and miscarriage. Makes reference to cannibalism with one scene vaguely displaying flesh consumption. --------------------------------------- M Y R A T I N G S Y S T E M: ★ - 1 star: I did not like the book ★★ - 2 stars: The book was okay ★★★ - 3 stars: It was a good, solid read ★★★★ - 4 stars: A great book ★★★★★ - 5: A phenomenal read --------------------------------------- __________________________________________________________ R E L A T E D P O S T S: ● Book Review: A Touch of Death by Rebecca Crunden ● Book Review: A History of Madness by Rebecca Crunden ● Book Review: A Promise of Return by Rebecca Crunden ● Book Review: A Time of Prophecy by Rebecca Crunden __________________________________________________________ E X T R A T H O U G H T S ( C O N T A I N S S P O I L E R S! ) 1) Charles and Thom’s relationship ended up playing out how I expected it to and I’m happy to announce we may have some Radiant/human romance to look forward to! 2) Can we talk about Thom being the camp heartthrob? That guy has everyone wanting a piece of him like a a sought-after hero in a romance novel. 3) Also, I’m really curious to know why Thom’s eyes haven’t adapted to the known Radiant shades. He’s said to have violet eyes instead (now a member of the Halfblood crew). 4) I didn’t particularly loathe Ciara as a character, but she wasn’t a spectacular recipient to my love either. She really wasn’t a favourite in any way for me and she doesn’t seem a great friend to Kitty. Even after she finds out in the previous book about Kitty’s rape, she doesn’t support her in any noticeable way. Granted, she has a lot going on too but the affection wasn’t there. They share very few scenes together and I can sum up how many meaningful conversations they have on one finger even though their friendship stretches back to childhood, but then the author does explain the distance as a sort of drifting apart. I think it was the author’s intent to have them separate and splinter but I don’t think Ciara’s character really brings much to the table. I was glad to see Kitty and Riddle’s friendship was a nice opposite to that however. 5) Some of the original side characters do spend a lot of time away from each other so I did miss the original group dynamic. Tove felt more removed in this instalment while Zoe and Kitty have one scene, I think, where they react to each other. Also, I would have loved to see more of/know more of Alik and Aison. 6) We know how bothered Thom was by his tormentor, how much fear had for Quen so when the final fight scene came into view, I have to admit to a level of underwhelm I felt at how quickly Quen's death was resolved. I would have backed a final fight scene that took its time. S O M E F A V O U R I T E Q U O T E S !! He held her gaze unflinchingly and she found she couldn't look away. There was a fire in the depths of his scarlet eyes that she hadn't seen since he was twenty years old. It was a fire she once hated. To her great surprise, she didn't hate it anymore. She found she liked the idea of rebellion. 'I spend more time with Ronny than he does. She wants to learn how to fight. She wants to be strong. She's seen death and she's not scared. We shouldn't teach her to be scared. We should teach her that monsters can be fought and monsters can die, and the only thing she should be scared of is not fighting back. How am I wrong to say that?' 'I did survive. I survived and lived and have spent the past year thinking about all the things that I haven't had a chance to do. You don't think about the future when you're running, but idleness brings dreams back.' Tove leaned back on her hands. 'I don't think I'll ever forget the last time I saw Evander. They took you away and Nate kept screaming. But Evander was so quiet. He was always so calm, my brother. He smiled at Zoe and she stopped struggling, and then he looked at me.' Tove's voice broke and she had to clear her throat before continuing. 'He told me that no matter what became of us, it was going to be all right. In this world he would have us, and in the next he would have Sylvia, Gretchen and our parents. "Don't be afraid." That's what he said. "love outlasts pain."' Freedom came with a thousand unknown dangers, it was true, yet the longer Kitty stayed in Joro, the more at home she felt. Without laws, without walls, without money or power, the world was a much simpler place. Were it not for the Outcasts, she would think it as close to perfect as life could be.' 'As good as I am, I pale in comparison to Riddle. And I find that immensely comforting.' Kitty's eyebrows shot up. 'Why?' For some reason she dreaded the answer. 'Because he could stop me.' Thom's whisper was strained and thick and it seemed to take something from him to admit even this much. 'I think he's the only one who could.' Promise me that there is nothing in the world - not famine, not rebellion, not sickness or fear - nothing at all that could incline you to go back to Cutta. She had once said nothing. She had meant it. But the fear she once harboured had been replaced by something else. By Riddle. By herself. The fear was gone. And anger burned brighter. 'Sorry,' she mumbled, wiping her eyes. 'Don't ever apologise for crying,' he whispered. 'Or for caring.' Some things experienced under duress could never be shared or explained. She would never know just what horrors Nate has gone through in Redwater, or what Thom had experienced in the Red Arena or at the hands of Quen. She didn't want to. If they wanted to share, she'd listen, but she didn't yearn to know more horror. Whether she was scared that talking about it made it too real, or she thought the idea too impossibly horrible to Impart, or whether it was shame and hatred, Kitty could not find the words to relay what had happened in Timberview Palace. Quen and the cannibalism frightened her far less than the memories of Gabriel, which kept her forever feeling as if there was not enough space between their camp and Franklin's Wall. Death did not seem a secure enough holding cell for his soul. It was so beautiful and calm, but she knew that in many places the world was far from kind. Ugly and painful and cruel. And in that instant, she found that she wasn't angry at the others for wanting to leave. She was terrified that one day she might have to do the same thing. The thought of leaving Joro made her eyes and throat burn. Somewhere along the way, the lands that had scared her as a child had become her home.' She wished Evander was still with them. He had felt like a long-lost brother and had seemed so wise and sensible. He had been calculating and shrewd like Thom, but he had Nate's fire and rage. She found she wanted a brother more than she wanted most other things. Someone to protect her without wanting anything from her. Who knew her inside and out and did not judge her for being weak or cruel or sad or bitter. She envied siblings their closeness. She envied Nate and Thom most of all. Not very long ago at all, the thought of killing and bloodshed would have horrified her. She had been appalled at Nate's constant fighting, at his random turns to violence. Killing had seemed so beneath them, something for the authorities to deal with out of sight of innocent eyes. Now she felt a growing hunger to tear and destroy. The problem was she didn't know if she could. She'd always wanted help. But she was tired of asking for help. Tired of hesitating. And still much, much too scared to do anything about either. The tears fell without her having to blink. 'I want to be a better person now,' she rasped. 'I want us both to be better than we were.' 'I know,' he said softly. And then, barely louder than a whisper, 'There is no amount of atonement to make up for what I've done.' 'You’re not atoning alone.' 'Evil men are not just soldiers,' the continued, much more heavily now, as if rebellion now ate his spirit where once it had filled him with fire. 'Evil men are all over. If it wasn't enough to endure torture myself, I now know that my brother has. Kitty has. We have all been scarred and disfigured by Cutta. That's why I won't join you. We are not obligated to save everyone. We're obligated only to ourselves. I gave my soul to Cutta once. I was raped and tortured and sterilised for it. Never again.' They never spoke about what haunted them, but then, they'd never needed to fill the space between them with words. They fell apart in silence, but they fell apart together. 'No, I was ignorant of many things,' he said. 'We cannot keep comparing one side to the other if we are ever to have peace. We must think of ourselves as the same. We are all children of the Earth and we all belong here.' 'Nature didn't make her feel unclean the way so many things within the Kingdom did. Thom gazed at the water for a few minutes before replying. 'I think Nate means it when he says that you are the only person for him in the world,' he allowed. 'He feels everything so strongly, so completely. He could never move on from you. I, on the other hand, am not my brother. I have to be able to choose when to keep someone and when to let them go. There is only one person in my life who does not fit into that mould, and he is the precise reason it is necessary. I will never put myself in a position where I have to pick someone over Nate.' Yet later that night, as Kitty watched Nate throw pumpkin seeds into Thom's hair with glee, she realised why Charles felt such fear over their bond. There was no limit to their love. Good or ill.' Riddle nodded. 'My father told him. He wasn't kind about it and I think it served to drive Quen to extremes. Perhaps out of anger. Perhaps not. Blood doesn't make a man, but sometimes darkness that seems predestined is easier to embrace.' 'If darkness were predestined, Nate, Thom and I are in for a delightful surprise.' I love interacting with fellow readers, reviewers, bloggers and writers. Hearing about reader opinion is the fuel to my reader appetite, so get in touch and comment below! SHARE ON FACEBOOK Leave a comment and let's talk about |
VaishaliBorn in the UK Archives
February 2024
Categories
All
2019 Reading Challenge
Vaishali • [Vicarious Living] has
read 15 books toward
her goal of
30 books.
hide
2020 Reading Challenge
Vaishali • [Vicarious Living] has
read 1 book toward
her goal of
20 books.
hide
2021 Reading Challenge
Vaishali • [V.L. Book Reviews] has
read 1 book toward
her goal of
10 books.
hide
2022 Reading Challenge
Vaishali • [V.L. Book Reviews] has
read 0 books toward
her goal of
5 books.
hide
2023 Reading Challenge
Vaishali • [V.L. Book Reviews] has
read 0 books toward
her goal of
5 books.
hide
DisclaimerAll images of book covers on this site belong to the authors and publishers of the books.
|