Crow Memory + The Blood Keeper by Tessa Gratton

I found the first book in the Blood Journals Duology (that's what you call it when it's two books, right?) an incredibly addictive and delicious surprise. Blood Magic was an original, clever, well-written and passionate debut, and I was incredibly excited when the follow up novel, The Blood Keeper by Tessa Gratton, was released. I thought it would be an easy favourite.

Unfortunately, I didn't account for one important factor: The Blood Keeper isn't a traditional sequel. It features two entirely different narrators than Blood Magic, and although it is set in the same universe and there is a connection, this is a totally different story. While it's still a good story, I was honestly nowhere near as fond of the narrators in this novel as I was in the first, which meant The Blood Keeper was a surprising letdown to me. I spent most of the book longing for Silla and Nick from Blood Magic, and although the male narrator this time round, Will, was pretty good, I honestly found myself quite bored during many of the female narrator, Mab's, sections. It was really just too bad because I wanted to love this book the way I loved book one, and although I still firmly believe in Gratton's writing, her books are definitely less of an "insta-read" for me after this experience.

The story itself was interesting in The Blood Keeper, but with disappointing narration as well as a lot of description  about preparing to do different things and planning and less of the actual doing, it had a difficult time keeping my interest as well as the previous book. I actually still read it very quickly over 2 days, but the feeling I had while reading it and even afterwards is a lot more indifferent than excited, which makes it difficult to recommend and I'd prefer just to stick to Blood Magic which I really did love.

If you are interested in a little more of the characters from Blood Magic-- and I definitely am-- Gratton has published an online short story called Crow Memory from the perspective of a character in that novel, whose identity I won't share because, spoilers (although it's obvious if you've read Blood Magic). You can read it here on her website. It's short and I don't have an awful lot to say about it, but it is nice to pick up and a get a little more insight into that character, although I just want more and more of them. Pretty much I want more Blood Magic, and a little short story and a sequel that's not a sequel aren't going to satisfy that craving. Perhaps only rereading Blood Magic will.

Release Date: August 12th 2012 Pages: 432  Format: Hardcover
Source: Publisher  Publisher: Random House Buy It: Book Depository