Review: Silver Shadows

Because I should probably try to review new books around their actual release date instead of how they fit into my backlog, I suppose.

Also, I'll probably be even more spoilery than usual in this review because oh my God.

Silver Shadows starts three months after the insane climax of The Fiery Heart. Sydney's still in solitary at the re-education center, while Adrian has fallen into total and utter drunkenness as a coping mechanism for not being able to locate her. Their disconnect isn't his fault, though - the Alchemists drug their detainees whenever they want them to sleep, because it keeps the prisoners disoriented and at their mercy. Sydney realizes she needs to get out of solitary in order to find a way to circumvent the drug, so she finally "admits" that she's sinned and wants to atone.

Life outside of solitary isn't a whole lot better, though. While she's at least getting consistent food, drink, and human contact, the other inmates avoid Sydney like the plague for the first few days because of her "sin," and she's still getting drugged every night. She tries to ask her new ally Duncan how to turn the pipes that pump the drugs in off, but he refuses to help her. It's Sydney's roommate, Emma, who tells her how to circumvent the system. Emma seemed coldhearted at first, but she's just as desperate to get out as everyone else, and Sydney promised she'd be able to get a message out that night if they could just turn the gas off.

Except Adrian doesn't pull her into a spirit dream like Sydney was expecting. She gets ostracized by the others for a week until Adrian finally appears, freshly sober and able to use his powers after a ridiculous bender. With help from Marcus and his contacts, they figure out that Sydney's in a center in Death Valley and make plans to break her and the other inmates free. The plan seems to be going off without a hitch-

-until Sydney doesn't appear with the last group of evacuees. She's being held in a super secure part of the facility that locks down in emergencies, and the Alchemists are prepared to let the people down there die rather than free them. So Adrian and the others take matters into their own hands and get Sydney themselves before driving off to their safe house.

Sydney finagles the arrangements so she and Adrian are driving by themselves, though, and convinces him to break away from the group so they can hide on their own - it's easier to hide two than twenty, after all. But then the Alchemists track them down in Vegas, prompting the couple to take some drastic measures to ensure Sydney will have protection from the Alchemist leaders.

Adrian and Sydney manage to make it back to Court, but they're only given a moment of respite before they're given word that another catastrophe has occurred. What are they going to do about it? We'll find out in book six.

I inhaled this novel, you guys. I got it at like six thirty last night and was finished with it by ten this morning. It was just so compulsively readable, and the stakes never really seemed to lessen at any point. The consequences changed, sure, but there were only brief moments where the characters could truly relax.

I'm still a big fan of Sydney and Adrian and their relationship, too. They're a really well-written example of people who are better together but not totally useless when they're apart, in my opinion. (I mean, maybe minus the times Adrian's blackout drunk, but he does manage to pull himself together again every time.) Sydney and Adrian would move heaven and earth to ensure the other was safe, and they're good at figuring out ways to use their respective strengths to do so. I want to see more of this in everything, please.

Also something I want more of? The scathing hatred of rapists in this book. There are multiple instances where the characters explicitly say that rape is not okay, and they're all written very well. Even Adrian references it in one scene, and he doesn't try to sympathize with the rapist or get overly defensive about how not all guys are like that. After the ridiculousness that was #NotAllMen, I was really happy to see this in one of my favorite series.

My hopes for book six: things finally become okay oh my God I cannot handle this kind of stress again.

Overall, Silver Shadows was interesting and engrossing and awesome and other complimentary words. It definitely wasn't a let down. Five stars.

Review: The Fiery Heart

Yeah, yeah, I'm incredibly late to the party with this series, I know. Better late than never, right?

*crickets chirp* *paint dries* *grass grows*

So anyways, for those of you who haven't read the Bloodlines series yet, it's actually a spin-off of one of Richelle Mead's other series, Vampire Academy. Same universe, a few of the same characters, different narrator, different setting. (Personally, I think I like Bloodlines more, but they're both really well done. I'd recommend starting with VA, but it probably wouldn't affect you too much to start with Bloodlines and then go back.)

Quick recap: Sydney's an Alchemist, a human who knows about the existence of vampires and has sworn to protect the world from their evil. The Alchemists have an uneasy alliance with the Moroi vampires, who are seen as less of a threat because they don't kill when they feed and aren't soulless death machines like the Strigoi vampires. Adrian, Sydney's boyfriend, is Moroi royalty and can wield spirit, though it affects his mental stability. No one can know that Sydney and Adrian are together, because it would get Sydney in deep trouble with the Alchemists - like "brainwashing you until you believe all our principles again" trouble.

Oh, and Sydney's also discovered she can do magic. Which would also get her in deep trouble with the Alchemists. They don't really like things that are different, the Alchemists.

So, in this installment, Sydney and Adrian switch off chapters as they narrate, which is different from the just-Sydney style of the last three books. They've been working with a group of rebel Alchemists to "break" the Moroi-blood-infused tattoos the Alchemists receive once they're assigned to their first job, because those tattoos are enchanted to compel the Alchemists into obedience. Sydney got her tattoo broken already, but she decided not to get the second, blue tattoo that would prevent her from ever being "resealed" with another golden Alchemist tattoo. She'd rather work from the inside to exterminate the corrupted Alchemist ideals, though she runs the risk of being discovered.

Thankfully for her, she learns that wielding magic affects her system enough that she should be immune from any more Alchemist tattoos. Inez, the elderly witch who tells her this, also lends Sydney a few spellbooks that might help her learn how to create the immunity enchantment that's in the ink of the blue rebel tattoos, which would be incredibly helpful for them. (Currently they're forced to go to Mexico to get the ink, which is fun but not super convenient.)

Sydney manages to whip up a batch of the enchanted ink in between classes, dates with Adrian, and her other problems, which include helping the Moroi use spirit-infused blood to "vaccinate" others against becoming Strigoi and keeping her little sister in the dark about just how much she actually likes these vampires. If Zoe learned that Sydney wasn't as good of an Alchemist as she pretends to be, she'd be sent off for "re-education" in the blink of an eye.

Problems arise, however, when Sydney and Adrian decide to meet up with Marcus, the leader of the rebel Alchemists, and that's as much as I'll say about the ending of this novel.

Now, for my personal feelings on this novel: *loud, prolonged shrieking*

That's not enough for you?

First and foremost, I've got to say that Sydney Sage is one of my favorite protagonists ever. Her sense of humor and general outlook on life is a lot like mine, which makes it easy for me to race through these novels. Her relationship with Adrian is also refreshing, because it feels healthy. They look out for each other, they tease each other, and they both seem to understand the other better than anyone else could. Sydney and Adrian are definitely in my Top 5 Favorite Fictional Couples List.

I'm also in love with basically all of the side characters in this series, especially Sydney's teachers. Malachi Wolfe, the speed-skating-javelin-throwing expert, and Jaclyn Terwilliger, history teacher by day and witch by night, are truly hilarious. I kind of want a novel only about Wolfe's life, if the anecdotes he tells are true. It would be an adventure and a half. The only character I want to punt into a flaming volcano is Sydney's dad, but hey, maybe he'll redeem himself someday.

(I doubt he'll ever redeem himself someday. In fact, it would feel pretty cheap if he did.)

I could also go on for days about how Not Okay I am with the ending of this novel, but it would mostly be incoherent screeching and lots of tears, so I'll save you the spectacle. Silver Shadows cannot possibly get here fast enough!

Overall, The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead is engaging, funny, and heartbreaking - a great continuation of a fantastic series. 5/5 stars, infinity tears.