Review: Written in Red

Written in Red by Anne Bishop
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I had to pick up this book after seeing some of its sequels on the shelves at work (though the store only carries the two most recent books) and finding it peculiarly interesting. Reading it, I've found that it's not quite what I expected. I think I expected a contemporary fantasy, but this book blends that with urban fantasy, alternate history, and paranormal romance. Think True Blood meets The Dresden Files meets Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore.

In practice, the book's genre mashup left a little to be desired, and some of the characters fell rather flat for me. I also found it more than a bit unsettling that the various terra indigene shapeshifters are coded rather like the indigenous peoples of non-European continents - though at least they proved more dominant over the Euro-coded humans than the indigenous people of our world's history - and that in the present day, they live in a tense approximation of harmony with humans, though with not-insignificant bad blood between them.

That said, though, Simon Wolfhard was the saving grace of this book for me. He was a bit of a dick sometimes, but then again, so are a lot of my faves, especially in urban fantasy. I almost wish Bishop could've made him the star of the show - at least then I'd feel a bit more of a Lost Girl vibe that would've pushed this book into four-star territory for me.

Well, even though I wasn't as impressed with this one as I could've been, I'll still keep on going till I catch up and can recommend the rest of the series to bookstore customers.

View all my reviews