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Book Review of Daughter of the Blood (Black Jewels, Bk 1)

Daughter of the Blood (Black Jewels, Bk 1)
tapcat16 avatar reviewed on + 150 more book reviews


In this fantasy matriarchal land, people are ranked by their power based on what color jewels they are mystically assigned to wear when they come of age. The darker the jewel, the better. The women all have some sort of witchcraft power, but none have had the power of The Witch in hundreds of years. Corrupt women have messed with the structure of society turning it from harmony to darkly using the men and women to their own advantage. Men in particular are used by controlling them via a ring of obedience (placed around their penis). Into this messed-up society the much waited for Witch is born, but most do not recognize her. Lucky for her, the demon dead Saetan and his two living sons, Daemon and Lucivar, do.

I flat-out admit I don't generally like high fantasy, but when a friend gifted this trilogy to me for my birthday, I agreed to be open-minded. I can see why she thought I might like it. It is graphically violent, sexual, and flips patriarchy on its head by presenting a matriarchy. It just rubbed me the wrong way though.

First, all of the fantasy stuff from the jewels to the organization of society to the ring of obedience makes zero sense to me. I feel like Bishop could have explained it wayyy better. More on the ring of obedience: why women would have a gorgeous sex slave then put something on his dick that makes it impossible for him to have intercourse with her (just do other things to her) makes zero sense to me. What woman would want that? Let alone all of the women. Then there's Daemon's completely inappropriate feelings for and sexual interactions with Jaenelle that bothered me far more than the occurrences at the insane asylum, because Daemon is presented as one of her protectors. What's up with that? I honestly don't know what Bishop was thinking. I can only hope that these issues get cleared up in the next book, because at this point it just seems like one majorly fucked-up nightmare.

Check out my full review. (Link will be live on August 17, 2011).