Review: Scar Night

This book counts towards the What's in a Name challenge


The city of Deepgate hangs suspended over an abyss, held up by a network of chains.  And all is not well in the dark city.  A psychotic angel, thousands of years old, stalks the night, killing innocents.  Rachel, an assassin of the church, hunts the crazy Carnival through the city's chains in the dark.  And Dill, the last of the Temple archons, waits for his destiny in the crumbling towers of Deepgate, afraid even to fly.  They couldn't be more different, and yet fate will throw them together in a fight against something darker than they ever expected...

Entertainment: ★★★

This story has everything I usually look for - a new idea, a unique world, an interesting cast of characters - and yet for some reason it was really hard to start.  It took me several days of only reading about ten pages a day to actually get into the story.  Once I got into it, it was pretty good.  But for whatever reason, it didn't draw me in at. all., and that made it a little hard to enjoy.

Plot: ★★★★

Honestly, I would've given the plot five stars: it was action packed, entertaining, and pretty unique.  However, I didn't like the beginning - which was very slow and confusing - and I didn't like the end.  It ended at an odd place; I guess there was closure but... I'm not entirely sure.  But the middle of the plot?  The middle was fabulous.

Characters: ★★★★★

Carnival was pretty cool.  It's hard to write a murderous psycho so that she's actually semi-sympathetic, as well as honestly interesting, but she was.   And Dill was sweet; I think if he were a real person I've have liked him a lot.  And Rachel, Rachel had guts.  The antagonist, Devon, was an excellent mix of maniacal, homicidal, egotistical, and a dash of oozing pus.

My only quibble was that the "dark god" was a little pathetic... I mean, he read as obese and stupid.  But since he's out of the picture for most of the story, that wasn't too much of a problem.

Writing: ★★

I wasn't a huge fan of the description, and had a hard time picturing some of the setting.  However, the dialogue was well done.

End Result: three stars.  A decent book, but not amazingly excellent.