Review: Riders

Riders by Veronica Rossi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I remember being so disappointed with Rossi's previous work, the Under the Never Sky trilogy, because it felt like there just wasn't enough in that series (particularly its sequels, although I remember I liked the first book) to set it apart from the dystopian pack. So when I first heard of this book, I was scared to even attempt to read it...but hey, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? I hadn't seen a decent YA take on this particular mythology before, and it looked different enough from Never Sky, so I figured, why not give this a try?

Being Something Completely Different for Rossi helps this book so very much. Also helping - the story taking cues from Percy Jackson and Sigma Force with its international mythological adventure (including, yes, a trip to the Vatican to please any and all James Rollins fans.) It's not the most unique take on the Four Horsemen I've seen (not when Supernatural presented them with their horses modernized as classic cars, including, naturally, at least one Mustang, and when Sleepy Hollow updated the Headless Horseman as Death as only a cuckoo-bananas history-bending horror-thriller can), but when Rossi's Horsemen are the sort of guys I'd totally want to hang out and fight Kindred with (or just hang out, if I can cross the bay to Half Moon Bay often enough), that more than makes up for it. There's always a case to be made for YA books with excellently written male protagonists, deftly balancing the action, humor, romance, and fantasy elements.

I'm happy to report that after not at all wanting to read another Veronica Rossi book after Into The Still Blue, Riders has duly impressed me, and I absolutely want more.

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