Ummm, what to say. If you like dark and twisty, lots of amazingly florid prose, complicated storyline, and gore - you'll love it. I like some of those things, but not all of them at once. Cargill sets up fantastic atmosphere and incredibly vivid word pictures. It is stuffed with mythology cleverly brought in, and very writerly. But there's only one likeable character amongst many awful ones, and the scenes are right out of morphine nightmares. I only kept going because I wanted to know what would happen between Colby and Ewan. However...this is the first of a series, and I'm not willing to go farther.
Jennifer M. (Kaydence) reviewed Dreams and Shadows (Dreams & Shadows, Bk 1) on + 380 more book reviews
Summary:
This is a hard book to quickly summarize. It focuses mainly on Ewan, a kid that was kidnapped as a baby and raised by faeries to be a sacrifice for the Limestone Court and Colby, a child that meets a Djinn and ends up seeing/knowing way more than any person should ever know. Colby and Ewan become quick friends when Colby convinces the Djinn to allow him to see the faery world. Colby finds out what Ewan is going to be used for, so he sets out to rescue him. Skip ahead several years. Ewan has pretty much forgotten about his magical life, Colby drinks too much because he is still haunted by his past, and a new girl is following them around. As Ewan begins to remember things, there may be danger afoot. Really, the first half deals with adventures as children and the second half of the book deals with adventures as adults.
My thoughts:
This is an intriguing story. Cargill does an excellent job building the world that we are in. Austin, Texas is similar and different to the current world we know. I love how we mix between reality and fantasy. The faery kingdom is also described wonderfully. We really don't ever feel off balance and unsure about what is going on. Each character blossoms into being. Even those that we would consider the bad guys have endearing qualities that make you feel for them. Knocks, for example, is pitiful. I am ambiguous about him. There are so many times that I want to just to pat his head and feel sorry for the life he has been given, but at the same time, he's a horrible person. Colby is my favorite character. Part of this is because a wish of knowing or seeing everything is something I could picture wanting, but Colby definitely pays a price for this gift. He becomes a very dark character while he is all knowing, but at the same time he truly cares for Ewan and that makes him a bit less jaded. Altogether, Cargill gives us a world to dive into. He develops very rich off shoots of the main story line and brings in a lot of mythology that grounds the book into aspects of fantasy that is already know.
This is a hard book to quickly summarize. It focuses mainly on Ewan, a kid that was kidnapped as a baby and raised by faeries to be a sacrifice for the Limestone Court and Colby, a child that meets a Djinn and ends up seeing/knowing way more than any person should ever know. Colby and Ewan become quick friends when Colby convinces the Djinn to allow him to see the faery world. Colby finds out what Ewan is going to be used for, so he sets out to rescue him. Skip ahead several years. Ewan has pretty much forgotten about his magical life, Colby drinks too much because he is still haunted by his past, and a new girl is following them around. As Ewan begins to remember things, there may be danger afoot. Really, the first half deals with adventures as children and the second half of the book deals with adventures as adults.
My thoughts:
This is an intriguing story. Cargill does an excellent job building the world that we are in. Austin, Texas is similar and different to the current world we know. I love how we mix between reality and fantasy. The faery kingdom is also described wonderfully. We really don't ever feel off balance and unsure about what is going on. Each character blossoms into being. Even those that we would consider the bad guys have endearing qualities that make you feel for them. Knocks, for example, is pitiful. I am ambiguous about him. There are so many times that I want to just to pat his head and feel sorry for the life he has been given, but at the same time, he's a horrible person. Colby is my favorite character. Part of this is because a wish of knowing or seeing everything is something I could picture wanting, but Colby definitely pays a price for this gift. He becomes a very dark character while he is all knowing, but at the same time he truly cares for Ewan and that makes him a bit less jaded. Altogether, Cargill gives us a world to dive into. He develops very rich off shoots of the main story line and brings in a lot of mythology that grounds the book into aspects of fantasy that is already know.
