I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
A Darkness Strange and Lovely by Susan Dennard Series: Something Strange and Deadly #2
Published by HarperTeen on 7/23/13
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Historical, Paranormal, Young Adult
Pages: 416
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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With her brother dead and her mother insane, Eleanor Fitt is alone. Even the Spirit-Hunters—Joseph, Jie, and the handsome Daniel—have fled to Paris. So when Eleanor hears the vicious barking of hounds and sees haunting yellow eyes, she fears that the Dead, and the necromancer Marcus, are after her.
To escape, Eleanor boards a steamer bound for France. There she meets Oliver, a young man who claims to have known her brother. But Oliver harbors a dangerous secret involving necromancy and black magic that entices Eleanor beyond words. If she can resist him, she'll be fine. But when she arrives in Paris, she finds that the Dead have taken over, and there's a whole new evil lurking. And she is forced to make a deadly decision that will go against everything the Spirit-Hunters stand for.
In Paris, there's a price for this darkness strange and lovely, and it may have Eleanor paying with her life.
Short and Sweet Review
After her brother’s death and having to put her mother in a mental facility, Eleanor has nothing left for her in Philadelphia so she decides to leave for Paris and find the Spirit-hunters. On her way to Paris, Eleanor meets Oliver who claims to have known Elijah and he’ll begin teaching Eleanor necromancy and things that go against what the spirit hunters stand for.
This is my second time reading this book and I never made it to the third and final book, and after reading this book for the second time I know why. I found Eleanor to be insufferable. She meets Oliver which was Elijah’s demon and he soon becomes Eleanors because she needed help escaping hell hounds. Eleanor promises Oliver to practice her magic and necromancy so that she can free him but Eleanor is basically using him and it seems cruel because she can command him to do things that he doesn’t want to. Obviously Eleanor knows that the Spirit hunters would have a problem working with a demon so she tries to keep that hidden which doesn’t work out so well, eventually she feels alone because everyone feels betrayed by her. I didn’t feel bad for Eleanor she brought everything that happened in this book upon herself. Joseph tries to help Eleanor control her magic but she ignores him because she thinks she knows everything and she throws a lot of tantrums. I feel like Eleanors character development decreased in this book, she made it hard to read and hard to root for her. In Paris the spirit hunters are looking for someone who is able to control the dead and also they have Marcus in the back of their minds because he’s still around somewhere. I thought this book was just okay. The arguments Eleanor had with everyone made me roll my eyes and her whole attitude and approach in this book was trash for a lack of better words. I do plan on finishing this series but I will say this book was a let down compared to the first.
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