Supernaturally

Evie finally has the normal life she’s always longed for. But she’s shocked to discover that being ordinary can be . . . kind of boring. Just when Evie starts to long for her days at the International Paranormal Containment Agency, she’s given a chance to work for them again. Desperate for a break from all the normalcy, she agrees. 

But as one disastrous mission leads to another, Evie starts to wonder if she made the right choice. And when Evie’s faerie ex-boyfriend Reth appears with devastating revelations about her past, she discovers that there’s a battle brewing between the faerie courts that could throw the whole supernatural world into chaos. The prize in question? Evie herself. 

So much for normal.

Hmm. I have very mixed feelings about this book.  There were some things I really liked, and some things I really didn't.  I'm going to get the things I really didn't like out of the way.

Lend.  He, in this book, was a huge disappointment to me.  He's nice . . . he's sweet . . . he's beautiful . . . and he's utterly boring.  He doesn't even have the charming wit he carried about in Paranormalcy.  He was just this constant worrywart, and I actually found myself dreading the scenes he'd appear in.  The fact is, in real life? Sweet guys are the shit.  They're awesome.  They're great to be around. But in a book? Sweet and perfect and flawless doesn't cut it.  People don't pick up books so they can read about sweet and perfect and flawless.  They pick up books so they can find real people inside the pages, and I never found that with Lend.  This kind of worries me because I highly suspect that the two will end up together in the end.  I hope not, but I suppose I'll just have to see.

Arianna.  I just never felt her as a genuine character. It seemed, to me, like she was a very intentional filler.  Something for Evie to fret over when Arianna was in one of her moods, more ammunition to make Evie hate the faeries, a way to raise deep moral dilemmas.  It just felt so manufactured and intentional, especially when Arianna came and told Evie her story.  I never connected. I didn't find any real emotional depth with her and her struggles.

And finally, Evie. Believe me, it gives me a sad to put her on my list of dislikes.  And it wasn't that I disliked everything about her; she still had her awesome and adorable and kickass moments, and they were great.  But that Evie from the first book . . . I never really found her.  It was like all the excitement and wonder had been stamped out of her and all that was left was a constantly self-doubting girl who could do nothing but either fret over Lend, fret over whether or not she was a monster, or suspect/hate the faeries.  While the last two certainly merit fretting, I felt like I was caught in this constant loop of angst, reading the same dilemmas over and over again.  And while I still like the whole idea behind Evie using "bleep," because it's cute and there's an explanation, if I have to read "Oh, bleep" one more time I am going to go listen to a Lil Wayne song.

But! To the good!

Something I really liked was that I think Kiersten did a much better job in this one of carrying across a sense of seriousness and urgency and darkness when the plot demanded it.  This book was able to make me feel like there were real stakes (no pun intended) and real problems and a bunch of really fucked-up things that could happen in this world they live in.  I was really happy about that, especially with scenes like the spotting of the Dark Queen and Evie's discovery of who she is and the whole fiasco with Jack.  I did like, to a certain extent, that Paranormalcy was a lot cuter and lighter than most stuff on the market today, but I can't deny that I was glad to see Supernaturally up the ante, so to speak.

Besides that, the thing that I really loved was the moral gray area.  There were a lot of moral dilemmas in this story, and I loved that.  We have Reth, the amoral faerie, who has done tons of horrible things.  Yet, the truth of it is, he cares about Evie, and as he said to her, he has her best interests in mind.  Yes, the way he cares about her isn't how a human would care for another human, and yes, his idea of her best interests is rather different than hers.  But he is fighting his very nature to try and help her, and I love it.  I think he is one of the, if not the, most interesting characters in this series. I hope there'll be lots of him in Endlessly.

Then, we have the faeries in general.  The whole problem they pose.  They do terrible things, right?  They're a danger to the human race, aren't they?  Wouldn't it be safer for the world as a whole to send them into hell?  But then . . . is it entirely they're fault?  Aren't they just acting as they were made, doing as their situation dictates?  No, they are not good creatures and they're not doing good things, but can you really blame them?

It was really intriguing to read, and it genuinely made me think about the problem this poses.  Would it be better to send them in to hell and save the rest of the world from their antics, or is it worse to doom an entire race just because they do as they were made to do?

And finally, Jack.  I liked him, the little douchebag.  Not in the way I like love interests; I liked him because he was interesting, and because I felt for him.  Because he does a lot of awful things, but just like with Vivian, he was this broken, manic kid, fueled by revenge, nothing left to him but the idea of hurting the creatures that had tormented him his whole life.  I'm excited to see what Kiersten does with him.

So, yeah.  Some things in this were done excellently, some not so excellently.  However, this is a middle book, and I have faith in Kiersten.  Here's hoping Endlessly's interior will be as fabulous as its cover.

3 stars.