Grace Divine, the daughter of the local pastor, always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared -- the night she found her brother Jude collapsed on the porch, covered in his own blood -- but she has no idea what a truly monstrous secret that night held. The memories her family has tried to bury resurface when Daniel returns, three years later, and enrolls in Grace's and Jude's high school. Despite promising Jude she'll stay away, Grace cannot deny her attraction to Daniel's shocking artistic abilities, his way of getting her to look at the world from new angles, and the strange, hungry glint in his eyes. The closer Grace gets to Daniel, the more she jeopardizes her life, as her actions stir resentment in Jude and drive him to embrace the ancient evil Daniel unleashed that horrific night. Grace must discover the truth behind the boy's dark secret. . . and the cure that can save the one she loves. But she may have to lay down the ultimate sacrifice t do it -- her soul.
Before we get too much further, let me just say that this review is infested with spoilers, like ticks on a werewolf. FYI, yo.
I have complicated feelings about TDD. This is one of the many monster-themed teen novels that arrived in the wake of Twilight's success. And maybe that's part of my problem with TDD: I do not hate Twilight, but nor do I love it. I read it, and it was a non-entity in terms of books. There's a fair number of books which just do not register with me at all. Kind of like the first Harry Potter movie. I must have seen that at least four times now, and I still do not remember watching it even once. Which is probably for the best, I don't really have a yen to remember fantasy movies with poor child acting, and the book was so memorable I have no problem picturing events. It's one of the reasons I wanted to start writing these reviews - so that I could actually keep track of everything I've read, for once. Naturally, that's been almost a complete failure, mostly because if a book doesn't leave an impression, I don't want to talk about it. It does work sometimes though - The Amaranth Enchantment is one that wouldn't otherwise be taking up space in my memory banks. And to wind-up this boringly in-depth look at the way my mind works, let me finally make my point: TDD is a lot like Twilight, and like Twilight, didn't move me very much at all.
That's not to say there were no enjoyable parts or flat out ridiculousness. This is a teen fantasy novel, y'all! So: dark, mysterious, sexy young man arrives in town, unknown enough to be attracted to, familiar enough to be safe to act on that attraction. Awesome! Naturally, odd things begin happening, young romances are forbidden, promises are made and broken, and a young man kidnaps his own baby brother to um, well, not for any reason really. I guess, because he was there?
TDD is kind of a slow starter - anyone with half a brain, or enough drive to read a review of the book knows it's about werewolves, but the protagonist, Grace, does not. Even though she sometimes, sort of, does. For example, when her afore-mentioned little brother goes missing, and everyone crowds out to look at the window, she thinks:
There was a spattering of blood there, like someone had shaken a wounded hand. Or paw.
I'm sorry, the italics are my own, I couldn't resist. Considering how little Grace is aware (at this point in the story) of werewolves and such monsters, she's pretty spot-on about that whole hand/paw thing. I will admit, usually when I see a crime scene, I do not think, "Hey, this could have been done by a person. . . or a giant wolf." Sometimes the characters make random intuits of logic that jarred me out of the story. Such as when Grace is reading about this guy Gabriel, who sounds like he's in the Crusades, talking about moons and wolves:
[T]he Urbat have much greater difficulty controlling the wolf possession during the night of the full moon. As if the moon itself has power over them. Because of this, I think there may be a way to manage these beasts. Perhaps if an Urbat were ti keep a small piece of the moon close to his body, it would act as a counteragent to the effects of the larger moon, helping him keep the wolf at bay while still retaining its mythical strength. Much like how the ancient Greeks treated disease with the idea that like cures like.
I have heard tales of rocks that fall in fiery glory from the heavens. What if some of these rocks have fallen from the moon itself? If I were able to fashion a necklace from one of these moonstones - if finding one was possible - perhaps I could help the Death Dogs reclaim their blessings.
However, such a necklace would be no cure. It would only offer control.
So within the space of two and a half short paragraphs, Gabriel posits 1) The moon controls the beasts, 2) A small piece of moon would control the beasts, 3) In a good, counter-effective kind of way, 4) Rocks that fall from the sky might come from the moon, 5) If we make a necklace from fallen rocks then the beasts will be helped, and 5) The necklace will not cure the beasts, it will only preserve their strength but dampen the hunger.
That is so many leaps of logic right there. It's irritating because we the readers know all of this works, since Daniel is wearing a necklace of moon rock, which patently works. But for Gabriel to be all, the moon affects the wolves, so what we really need is a necklace made of moon rocks, and furthermore, this necklace, which I have just dreamed up, will only help them in very specific ways, but not cure them, is outrageous. Utter coincidence would be more palatable to me than this forced and twisted "reasoning".
TDD is actually kind of obnoxious about information and background. It drops hints by the truckload, but our beautiful protagonist can't put them all together until Daniel, her long-lost swain fills her in on the rest. So we, the readers, are stuck reading about Grace's younger sister watching a television program about wolves, while clueless Grace just mopes about omega wolves getting enough to eat, with no insight on her own situation, despite her earlier out-of-left-field *paw* Eureka moment. It's all very frustrating. It's like, sometimes Grace knows too much, sometimes she doesn't know anything at all. Make up your mind, Grace!
So it starts slowly, and really only gets going about 85% of the way in. Which is not a problem, the climax should be towards the end like that, but there's very little payoff happening before then, which is more of an issue for me. Despain created an interesting mythology about werewolves, but there's almost no time to explore it, since Grace receives only a few pieces at a time, so the whole picture doesn't come into focus for awhile.
The first half of the book sets up a lot of questions, some of which it just doesn't answer, such as, why do Grace's parents appear to hate each other? It's never really addressed, and I kept expecting something to be going on with her mother, but she's not really part of the resolution at all. I guess the mother was just angry that the father was helping Daniel out? And decided to be passive-aggressive about over Thanksgiving? I kept waiting for the pay-off, but her anger just sort of went away. I will say, it seems odd that Grace would hear her parents argue for the first time ever and then not follow-up, looking for signs that they're back to normal. It's a little confusing.
The romance between Grace and Daniel was one of the better done parts of the book. Grace, while obtuse in some respects, doesn't do too shabby a job at wanting Daniel while trying not to entangle herself with him. I didn't want to shake her too much for being stupid, which is high praise for teenage heroines. Although, jesus, can we declare a moratorium on violet eyes? I can't tell you how much this bugs me, it's a sloppy shortcut to making your heroine (the ladies always get purple eyes, the men always get dark flashing ones) a unique little snowflake without giving her any skills or real qualities. It's a joke, at this point, and Despain completely took me out of the story when that got mentioned. Just say she has brown eyes! Just because her nail polish is purple doesn't mean her eyes have to be too. My nails would look hideous if I matched them to my eyes. Like vomit.
So Grace is also the pastor's daughter, so there's a religious aspect involved here, too. That didn't bother me in the least, and I'm a godless atheist. It adds a convincing tension to Grace's interactions with other characters and her decisions about trying to do the right thing. Her religious background gives her terror of monsters more depth, and her attempts to be a good person more weight. She's not sanctimonious, and I actually liked the religious aspect to her character, it made her decisions more believable.
I also enjoyed the end of the book - the final denouement is a classic on-the-rooftop, battling between two creatures of darkness moment, and it works. I felt anxious on behalf of Grace, and very sorry for her when she was attacked. I will not, however, be purchasing the sequel, even if Jude's future is left hanging. TDD just had too many head-scratching moments, and characters seemed forced into odd or simply unexplained behavior to fit the storyline. And despite the entertaining finale, my patience was strained by the lead-in to it.
An inoffensive entry in the monster-of-the-week fantasy novels.
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