REVIEWER: rebecca_batteur
CLIENT: alpaljames
Cover:
The cover is physically very beautiful to see, it immediately attracts, it is well done and you can read the title correctly on it, although I find that the arrangement of the elements on the page is quite haphazard. I think there isn't enough space left for the title and author's name, as well as the red eyes glowing against the black background, which makes them lose a bit of their menacing side.
Apart from that, the two characters on the cover are very recognizable and form a nice opposition, announcing the predominant theme in this book: the relationship of the two sisters. However, I can't help but say that I prefer the illustrations of the characters present directly in the book, at the start of each chapter. These are very beautiful, there is no doubt about it, but I find the old ones, the ones used in the book, more striking and more faithful to reality. They clearly show that the eyes of the two sisters are gray, unlike this version where Ace has blue eyes and Perrin has green eyes. Plus, I find a certain beauty in the old illustrations, a particularly unique side that looks more real and special than the current cover. These illustrations have personality, their own style that fits perfectly with that used in the story, directly immersing me and allowing me to bond with the characters. The two Slate sisters looked much more realistic, much more alive and you could guess a lot of their personalities through these drawings. But here, if it keeps their main characteristics, I have the impression that we still lose this spontaneity for a more polished, more refined and clean version. Their clothes give me the impression that they have just come out of a fashion store, their faces are very clean and above all devoid of what gave them depth. Ace for example has the face of a little angel. I think this fits, in principle, quite well. But the old illustration also shows her as a wide-eyed girl, almost consumed by the knowledge inside her and the prospect of what she wants to become. Here, I feel much less of all that.
These are just details, of course, and I dwell on them simply because I have grown attached to these characters and am trying to convey what I think would best do them and the character justice. The unique aspect of this story needs this style of drawing to highlight it well.
Title:
I must admit that I understand this title without really understanding it. I would say I could take the words separately and analyze them and understand their meaning, but put together I can't quite grasp what it means. I don't mean at all that it's a bad title, quite the contrary. I would say more that I am incapable of grasping what is behind it and of being able to highlight the thoughts at work.
First, Slate, the last name of the two sisters. I asked myself, why Slate in particular? Is there a reason or was it just that the name sounds good? I tried to go straight back to the meaning of the word to make sure I understood what we were talking about. Slate is often used to describe a piece of construction formed to make a roof or a thin material made from the compression of other stones to create thin layers. It would make sense to associate slate with gray, since slate is often gray in color.
But, in this case, why use this particular formulation? Was it to play with the idea that slate is a resistant material? I think I don't understand all the subtleties here. Perhaps it's a play on words with the material and the gray morality of the two sisters. I could also interpret this title as a reference to a tomb, although that would perhaps be extrapolating a bit too much. Or even a reference to the fact that the names of the two sisters were inscribed in stone before their birth. I wouldn't really know how to choose, I can only guess, however, I have no doubt that there is an explanation behind the choice of this title.
Blurb:
The summary is very well written, without fault at all. It explains the basic elements about the characters as well as their initial situation. Although, I could criticize it for revealing a little too much about the story, such as the fact that the series of crimes chosen by Ace links them with a bet, or that the demon behind this case is possibly responsible for the death of their brother. I think it would be better to keep these elements secret or just suggest them, place clues, suggesting that there is more behind this series of crimes, and do as at the beginning of the story with the demon, by evoking him only as "him", or "he", a hovering and familiar threat for the Slates, but still unknown to the readers and which must remain that way to begin with, at the risk of eliminating all the suspense. It's the same thing with the secret society. We only learn of their existence many chapters into the story, when the story is already well underway, and their first appearance doesn't even suggest that they too are demon hunters, which is a surprise for later. This is why I think that too much is said in this summary and that it prevents us from retaining all the sense of surprise in the story. As such, I'm glad I didn't read it in detail before starting to read the text.
However, I must say that the last paragraph is very good. It gives a sense of the characters, Reed Slate, Terry, without revealing too much about them but enough that we want to know them. I particularly liked the questions, which for me are essential in a summary when we are trying to add an incentive function, especially in a situation like this where the reader cannot provide an answer from the start just by reading the question. Not like in a romance story where the final question would be: Will she succumb to her feelings? Here, I think these are good questions, which continue to be asked throughout the story.
Plot:
I've read the first part in full and I have to say that, so far, I haven't noticed any inconsistencies, although I have a few points that I'm not sure I fully understand, but which are probably to blame on myself rather than on the text.
I notice that the exposition in this book is always done in a discreet and effective way, through Ace for example, when her family pushes her to recite her lessons to check that she has learned everything. I can also add that the concept is quite "simple", in the sense that it has already been explored, demons in this way are relatively common so understanding is easy for readers. Overall, everything happens naturally and certain aspects already familiar to the reader, such as the fact that salt would banish demons, are explored here in a very interesting way, since it is said that it is thanks to to its entirely pure nature and originating from our world, repelling demons that do not come from the same place.
The same goes for the various types of demons, the Low-Levels, who are exposed very clearly as being tortured souls, still stuck in this plane of existence. Furthermore, the exceptions represented by the demons encountered in this book allow us to highlight what is usually the rule.
That is to say the fact that these demons cannot speak normally, or are not conscious, unlike what Linda Serrano or Marlone seem capable of, or Marlone's ability to manipulate a machine.
The brilliant thing about the writing here is that it plays with the line between the normal and the supernatural, switching places very often. For example, very often Perrin or Ace present various elements as ordinary to them. As a birthday present, on her fifteenth birthday, Ace asked to find the victims of a serial killer and Perrin treats it like the whim of an overly intelligent girl, as if it were something ordinary to ask. Everything strange is integrated into their lives, such as constantly training to be able to fight against demons. Thus, the text very often makes remarks about the training of the two sisters, about the fact that they are trained in the use of firearms or hand-to-hand combat, these are remarks that come up often because this dimension is part of their daily life. It's okay for Perrin to ask Ace to suddenly do burpees in their room to show off her progress and for Ace to be barely tired at the end or for the sisters to chat while Ace does squats. We have constant references to lifting weights. It is the same with weapons. Perrin and Ace have a better knowledge of firearms than me, which is relatively normal since I've never handled one in my life, unlike them.
Additionally, there is this idea of pride associated with wielding weapons, proving one's strength through slaying demons. Ace, when she prepares to go face Serrano alone, doesn't quite see it as murder or is strictly speaking terrified of finally carrying a gun, since it's not for the first time. We see it in her gestures, in her way of reloading the rifle with the appropriate bullets and she sees this action not as a delusional act, a fifteen year old girl who shows up in a supermarket with a weapon, but rather as something that she knows she is capable of doing it alone, although she knows it is not allowed. To be clearer, this passage is written as if Ace decided to prepare a complex meal alone, or to iron the laundry, a modest action that others know how to do easily but, as it is the first time, that she is young, that she is alone, she is not supposed to do it alone, although one can understand why she would act that way.
This is what I find important in the exposition of the text, it is less striking since it is presented as an integral part of the life of the two sisters, like the fact of constantly moving, which they believe to be characteristic of demon hunters but is actually just a strategy of their parents.
There is a whole context that makes the whole thing normal, natural, like the fact that Perrin and Reed regularly break the law while trying not to make it too regular. It's a kind of game between the explainable offense and the offense that crosses the line and it's also a whole other system of morality that Reed must play with to educate his daughters.
But there's also a lot of normalcy in their lives in a quite paradoxical way, which helps bring the story to life. Thus, the places where the family resides come to life and are described in a very precise way, to anchor everything in reality. The Slates exist, this is where they live. Everything is orchestrated so that they have a certain credibility in their existence. The places they stay in feel real, they feel inhabited, their home feels very true, with details that seem like they could only stem from real life.
Thus, we are told that Reed has a job teaching demonology in a nearby school, we quickly understand that the girls are home schooled, since they are constantly moving, and it is suggested in a way delicate and entirely coherent, with Perrin asking Ace if the latter is behind on her work, adding that their father can give her an extension if necessary. It's very clear and it makes sense since everything in their existence is compartmentalized in a certain way.
Normality comes into play when it is shown that the girls share a room and that they do it often. A normality which is also very present in the whole supermarket scene when the family goes shopping in an ordinary way at first, they need to have something to eat, what could be more natural? However, it is also an opportunity to see if the demon they are looking for has not lingered in the place where she used to work. Two in one, normality and supernatural. We also take the opportunity to discover more about their family life and the dynamics that exist between the characters, highlighting Perrin's need to take fiber for example, a simple detail but something that illustrates my point well I think. A mix between everyday life, what the sisters are used to taking, and what they need to take in order to maintain their unorthodox lifestyle, exercising and getting stronger (that's my interpretation of it, of course).
Once again, everything starts from what seems to be ordinary, since we do not yet know the context, and it is precisely thanks to this sort of illusion of the normal that the story manages to reveal these characters to us in all their complexity. Because if their world is this perpetual in between where the father and Perrin ask Ace to reheat the pizza while they go to rob a house, they themselves are an integral part of it in their way of acting and doing.
Reed Slate takes them to the supermarket, an opportunity for us to meet these characters for the first time in a setting that is ordinary and familiar to everyone but which also hides much more, like everything else in this story. The story likes to focus on familiar places and to seek and find the supernatural there. It's not like fantasy where the incredible is born from what we don't know, here, the very essence of the supernatural is woven into the world itself. As I said before, the Slates are at the supermarket because they need to do their shopping but also to check if Serrano, one of the demons they are looking for, is not here, his former workplace. Both in one, hand in hand, as I've underlined before.
And we still find the same thing in all the action sequences. A motocross park for Malone where they get chased by a demon on a Ghost Rider-style motorcycle, a car dealership where cars become projectiles until the last place they meet, The Last Supper diner. Where they are supposed to share a meal together before finally being able to put an end to this story, a place which quickly becomes the instrument of their undoing, just like everything present in the room. Everything is familiar, it's a voluntary construction. From the well-known description of the American diner found in almost every city, to the isolated and reclusive atmosphere of the place, everything is ordinary, normal, like the ordered dishes that everyone knows. But, slowly, we move into something more surprising, with the gradual arrival of more and more people in the diner, which, normally, should be reassuring, the more people there are, the less alienated we feel from humanity but here, on the contrary, that there are more people present becomes the abnormality in the life of seclusion of the Slates. It's the same thing with the meal, at first ordinary, even delicious, it becomes much more sinister when we learn who prepared it, or when Perrin has her hand pierced on the table and her blood comes out, mixing with Ace's French Toast. It is only a detail but it becomes important to mark the supernatural in the normal. Same thing with the actions that Naberius forces humans to do, such as licking the cake off the floor or spilling the hot teapot on their heads. It's a game with what surrounds us that we would ordinarily consider harmless, the same thing with the song that begins to sound to shatter our idea that we are safe in the diner. It's the same as the day Michael died.
In the same way, the addition of the smell of rotten eggs to mark the presence of a demon plays very well with the effect presented just before, since it is a story of finding the supernatural in the ordinary, to sense what is wrong in what seems to be quiet.
In addition, you use interesting references, like the Ars Goetia to talk about the different types of known demons, which, I think, gives depth to your world since it gives it consistency, reality but also an almost interactive feeling since anyone can access the list of demons presented in this book and this allows the reader to be more projected into the story than if you were to entirely invent something new. So fans of demonology can have fun researching more about named demons, like the main antagonist.
If I found this immersion game very informative and well constructed, there are however a few elements that bothered me and made me ask questions like: why did they stop at Last Supper before leaving the city for good?
I know that they wanted to eat together before possibly separating from Terry (I note, however, that Terry had not specified whether he wanted to go home once the affair was over and he even suggested in the dinner that he would have liked to accompany them for the rest) and that the dinner was just outside of town. However, I don't understand why they chose to take this risk when they knew it was probably a trap set by Naberius to get to them before they were out of his reach again. Wouldn't it have been smarter to leave the city straight away and stop much further away as a precaution? This would not have completely removed the threat from Naberius but it would have been safer than staying near the city where he awaited them. It was even so obvious that they were going to stop before leaving, taking an unnecessary risk, that Naberius already knew they were going to the Last Supper and was waiting for them there, disguised as a chef with a dozen humans to follow his orders. I imagine they must have thought that once they were outside the city, they would be out of the demon's reach. So I can't entirely blame them for their decision, since it was also necessary for Naberius to find them so that the rest of the story could take place. I guess I'm also nitpicking since I was probably deceived to see them fall into a trap, but it does make sense for them to think that, outside of the triangle, there are no risks.
Another question I have that isn't really an inconsistency but more of a question: what makes someone a demon hunter? It would seem, at first, that it is something hereditary, since the Slates are a family of hunters, but there are also entire societies of hunters and Terry, who has no connection with the environment, is able to help them without problem. So I wonder if any human is capable of detecting the presence of a demon, for example a Low-Level, since they are present almost everywhere, and if so, how come more humans do not know of their existence? Are there any rules about who can and cannot see demons and who can cast them out? The Slate have no supernatural skills to hunt demons, they are simply well trained and have the necessary weapons and information, other than that, nothing distinguishes them from ordinary humans. How does a family become a demon hunting family? Is it due to training? We know that Reed is a professor of demonology and that he is an expert in the field but we also know that Veronica, the girls' mother, was knowledgeable about sigils and other things. There are, however, special skills in their family, such as Morgan, their maternal uncle, who is able to see fragments of the future. What are these skills due to? Will all this be explained? Is having visions a natural ability or something that can be learned? Is it because he is blind? There also seem to be stories of charm, with the necklace Michael gives to Perrin, although this one suggests that it has no real power other than trying to reassure her.
Once again, these are not faults, just elements that I would like to see addressed later and I cannot yet say anything definitive on this given that I was only able to read the first part and it makes sense that everything is not already explained, given that it could have taken a long time and would not necessarily have had a place in the story being told. We should rather see this as future questions that will eventually need to be answered.
For the rest, I would say that the plot is not as important as the characters, the way they react and how they are developed, although I liked certain elements like the fact that you have to shoot three times on the demons to kill them, since they formed a triangle. I think I will therefore move straight on to analyzing the characters, an interesting analysis given that there are not many characters but a lot to say about each of them.
Characters:
What I really like about your way of writing each of the characters is that they all have their own voice, something even more visible when we change the narrator, a way of telling the story that I find deeply interesting since it gives us allows you to move forward more quickly in the plot by leading two stories in parallel but also to compare the visions of the two sisters, which is the most important thing in the story here. The whole book revolves around Perrin and Ace and the rest is almost just a setting for their relationship and how they will evolve in the future. This is why we need two narrators, Perrin and Ace, it is fundamental and essential that we can listen to each of the sisters tell their own version of the story, their worries, their vision of the world and this gives a whole new dimension when we compare the feelings internalized by each of them. They have arcs that are almost opposite and this makes their journey all the more interesting to explore. This is why I really like the questions in the summary because they express very well the entire conflict that each of them encounters. Perrin wants to preserve her family, Ace wants to grow out of her family's shadow and prove her worth.
With the same order as Naberius, I will start with the eldest, Perrin.
Perrin immediately gives the impression that she is the main character, more than her sister, in a quite surprising way I would say. It all starts with her being the first person we hear tell the story, it all begins with her and it also ends with her. We almost feel the author's particular attachment to her.
Perrin represents the more traditional hero I would say, physically strong, she is solid, capable of fighting, of acting, she has typically heroic values such as the desire to protect her family at all costs, unreasonable valor and a sense of humor. Perrin is central, we notice her. Perrin has a particular style which emerges everywhere and which we feel deeply, her humor is invasive, we cannot help but love her. She is beautiful, she has a rebellious side, short hair, a somewhat boyish style, unique mannerisms, everything about her stands out. She may not be friendly or "cute" like Ace might be but she is the kind of person you might want to become or be friends with. She has a very magnetic side, in the sense that she attracts many people around her, she has countless romantic relationships with both men and women, although she does not manage to create real bonds, she is the one between the two sisters that Terry notices first.
But all this is also very paradoxical since this is not what Perrin shows us first. Perrin seems, in the eyes of others, a hero, someone to admire. She might appear to us as she does to Ace at the beginning, as a figure of worship. But we meet Perrin in a very different way the first time, we meet her alone, locked in a toilet listening to music to relax. Because Perrin is also much more than the archetype of the hero that we must support. Perrin is the only person to show us the vulnerable side of herself and starting the story with her, when she is vulnerable, when she is fragile, allows us to understand Perrin in a way that almost no other does, being able to see before shows the heart of the character before we even know the character, giving a central piece of the puzzle even though we have barely looked at it. And, once everything else is completed, this piece finally falls in the middle so that we understand its full scale and importance. This first scene is crucial since it reveals a lot about Perrin, things that she herself hides most of the time. Perrin is full of insecurities, she doesn't trust herself. Before reading the next chapter from Ace's point of view, we don't see her as beautiful, since Perrin doesn't see herself as beautiful.
Perrin hides, which is what she does throughout the story, covered in masks and, for a few moments, at the very beginning, we are shown what is underneath before hiding it again. We have an inside view of something very interesting. Perrin opens up about her need to hide behind masks by telling us how she was first introduced to masks by her sister, an anecdote that seems ordinary but reveals a lot about her relationship with her sister.
Perrin is not really a leader, she follows her sister. This does not mean that she does not give orders, that she does not direct her sister, it above all means that her sister is the center of her universe, what she pursues on every occasion, her great goal. It is not to let herself be left behind by her sister and to get lost, as she says herself, like Alice, in a world foreign to her own.
Immediately, she sets up a dichotomy between herself and Ace, between what Ace does, how she is, and herself. Ace is brilliant, she succeeds in everything, she succeeds in making the mask. Ace is pretty, that's why the mask is so beautiful. Perrin, for her part, makes a weird, malformed mask, like herself, like everything she does. Her mask is misshapen, imperfect. This pretty much sums up Perrin's view of herself and her sister.
I find that the chapter that best understands Perrin as a character is, paradoxically, a chapter from Ace's point of view, where she finally tells us the whole truth about her sister. Ace is the character who understands Perrin the best, perhaps even better than herself. At the beginning, Ace sees her sister as the reader might see her, placed on her pedestal, above herself. Perrin is a model for her, something admirable that she wants to achieve, that she wants to impress and, little by little, this transforms into something that she wants to surpass. But no one understands better than her what Perrin is really trying to do, what Perrin desires. Perrin is uncertain, Perrin is terrified, she hides behind all the brutality of her being, all the aggressiveness of her humor, her tone, her style. She's the kind of girl who would rather fight with Terry that she just met than discuss what's bothering her. She's the girl who jumps in but above all she's the girl who wants to protect her, Ace, at all costs. Perrin lives for her family, she lives in a way in debt for having let her brother die before her eyes without being able to do anything, because of her, more or less, she lives in debt for not being able to do anything in the face of her mother's illness, of having lost someone else. She thinks of her family as an endangered species and experiences the slow disappearance of her family as a tragedy.
At the thought of her father's death, the idea comes to mind that their family is now reduced to two people. Because Perrin cares much more than it seems for her family and in particular for Ace since Ace represents what her brother charged her with protecting in his last breath. Ace represents a part of herself that she wants to preserve, a part of innocence, a part more perfect than herself, more intelligent, kinder, who resembles her mother. She is the only one of her siblings to look like her father. It's a mixture of guilt and a somewhat childish trait that pushes her to be so protective of Ace. She doesn't want any harm to come to her family, she wants her family to be okay, she always wants to stay with them. There are many moments where she almost takes on the role of second parent to her father for Ace.
The two sisters are inseparable, as much because of one as the other. Ace often ended up in her sister's bed by accident and then, after her mother died, Perrin was the one who went to sleep with her.
There's quite a dynamic in their overall relationships with their family and their relationships with each other. Perrin has long been very closed in on herself, sometimes violent or angry with Ace, the latter saying that she never knew what she was going to get with her. But Perrin changed, she took the place of eldest and as if abandoned her own burden or at least hid it, because that's how she works, she permanently hides everything she doesn't want to confront. It is a whole technique of relieving pain through violence, by hardening her exterior surface.
Perrin is strong in every way, she knows how to wield many weapons, it is described many times that she is very skilled in combat and is able to beat opponents larger or stronger than her. Yet she is also very impacted by her internal conflicts, she is strong because she is weak to face the challenges of her mind and her past.
It seems to me that, overall, the narrative arc that Perin must go through, the way she must develop, is by opening up more to others, by learning to be more than a demon hunter, to accept the one she is. Perrin is a protector and everything she faces pushes her to make difficult decisions, always with the aim of protecting someone, always Ace. Ultimately, her actions are not combative but defensive actions. Perrin's great moments are not when she charges to attack, when she fights, but when she agrees to withdraw in order to preserve what she holds dear. When she stands back while her brother is killed, when she can do nothing to save him except watch and stop her sister from watching. When she has to flee the diner with Ace by agreeing to leave her father behind in order to save her sister's life. Perrin becomes a hero beyond the strict definition of the term, the person who saves everyone, who manages to solve all the problems, because Perrin cannot solve all the problems, instead, she saves what is worth protecting, what she needs to defend, what has always mattered to her: Ace.
I think the story seeks to get her to connect more with others, to open her circle of acquaintances, with Terry for example. It's a big moment for her when she manages to connect with him, to take him alongside her into her strange world, when they kill the demon together.
Perrin reminds me of the Sun, destined to shine in broad daylight, because she is in a way the sister of light. The sister who protects her family, who thinks of others first, who carries the weight of her family on her shoulders. More than a quest for glory, it is a quest for peace.
Ace, on the contrary, becomes the Moon in my eyes, since she reminds me of the sister of the shadow.
Throughout the story, Ace appears as a character very constrained by the expectations she imagines her family has for her. Ace always seeks to become equal to her people. She also has the weight of her brother's death, although she no longer remembers it, but I can't help but interpret the choice of Perrin, who saved her rather than Michael, as a a sort of internal obligation for Ace, that of being worth of her brother's sacrifice, of being up to the task.
Ace isn't quite the same kind of protagonist as Perrin in the sense that she doesn't seem to directly embody the hero archetype. Ace is nice, sure, but that's not really the point. She is not strong like her sister, fast like her sister, she does not have the same talent as her. It is always emphasized that Ace is smaller, more fragile, she is younger, it is true but she is not Perrin, as their father says so well. Although Perrin defends her sister, there is always a kind of doubt within her, not necessarily about her sister's abilities but about her choice to become a demon hunter. There is always this opposition between Perrin and her, Perrin has found her vocation, she will be a demon hunter, she has been doing it for three years, she is good at it. Ace, it's not the same thing. Several times, it is highlighted that Ace could choose to do something else entirely, that she does not necessarily have to limit herself to this profession, in particular since it does not seem entirely right for her.
Throughout the story, Ace constantly seeks to prove her worth as a demon hunter and as a person to her sister, to her father, who embody the more typical aspect of the hero, more solid, more robust, they who really look like demon hunters. She is more slender, she knows how to shoot very well but she does not know how to fight in close combat, she does not have the ordinary skills that one would expect from a fighter. Ace presents herself as the anomaly, in a way.
All her actions go in the direction of feeling equal to her own people, which is why she asked to chase away Stanfill's victims for her birthday, because she had just turned fifteen, like Perrin when she started chasing demons, a trivial detail but one that she highlights because she wants to be like Perrin at the same age.
That's why she goes to the store alone after Terry calls her, why she tries to make herself look more adult, why she steals her sister's jacket, she wants to look like her, like the reader, she wants to be Perrin. She seeks her approval. This is also why a joke as harmless as whether the moment she shot Serrano was filmed may have more importance, because it was her moment, the first time she killed a demon, where she showed that she too was capable of it, despite what her family might think.
Ace hates being left behind, being reduced to researching, she wants to prove her worth, like I said multiple times.
It seems to me that a good part of the story seeks to show that, although Ace is intelligent, she is probably not cut out for the job of demon hunter. She can do nothing against Hughes and it is her father who saves her at the last minute. On the other hand, when it comes to foiling the trap set up by the company of demon hunters, Ace is extremely efficient, she locks the girl in the toilet and punctures their tires in no time.
However, I have the impression that, unlike Perrin, Ace's arc aims to lead her to become an accomplished demon hunter, the girl consumed by shadows that she herself perceives when she sees in the mirror, the person capable of tricks, of deceiving those around her to achieve what she needs. Because, if Perrin protects, Ace does not hesitate to take risks, pretending to be ready to make a deal with Naberius, manipulating her sister to make her believe that she is angry with her, more or less breaking her heart.
Perrin seems more conventional as a hero but Ace seems more formidable because she is still at the beginning of her development and already shows terrible intelligence.
Above all, at the end of the first part comes an absolutely crucial moment: the abandonment of their father by Perrin which finally makes Ace realize that she must stop placing her sister on a pedestal, which makes her question the status of superiority from her sister for the first time in her life. Perrin is ready to do anything to protect her family and shows her that her love, which Ace thought was a minor thing about her, is actually much stronger and even takes first place in her life. Ace, rather than worrying about what exactly she does, is more interested in her talent for what she does. She wants success rather than pursuing ideals, even if I'm generalizing a little, it's not to that extent but that's how I sense it about her.
There is a shift in power between the two. Perrin, for the first time, appears as weak to her as she showed herself at the very beginning with us, with all her masks and her secrets. Ace finally feels the power to stand up to her. She no longer sees her sister as a god to be idealized but as an equal and perhaps even less so. For the first time, she judges her in her actions, she does not approve of what she does.
It was crucial in my eyes. Because it is this moment which shows that the sisters are moving in different directions now, not necessarily opposite but different. Perrin is tortured by her choice while Ace is angry with her and reconsiders what she is capable of doing, what she will be able to do in the future, she who managed to almost defeat Naberius while her sister was incapable of doing so, she who bargained with the demon hunting society. If Perrin seems destined to open up more to the world, Ace seems to be more in the direction of seclusion. She's going to become a demon hunter, Perrin, maybe not, if you know what I mean. Ace has the energy to strike while Perrin is more in a protective role.
Perrin, with all her guilt and her obligations, her duty to protect, is no longer the unstoppable force she imagined, no longer the person she absolutely must become.
I could be wrong in my interpretation but I have the impression that Perrin is moving towards humanity while Ace is moving towards what transcends it. One must become more human, the other must compete with demons.
Generally speaking, their characters cannot be studied without adding their relationship to each other.
Their relationship has incredible depth, and no matter what the future holds, they will always be connected in one way or another, together or apart.
Their relationship is true, all the details are there so that everything is built to perfection, their interactions, their exchanges, the fact that Ace steals Perrin's jacket and that the latter notices it immediately but authorizes it while renaming it her jacket in her head. They know each other, they know everything about each other and their relationship as sisters takes precedence over almost everything else, from the relationship with their father to that with Terry. They make you want to have such a relationship with your brothers and sisters. The link that unites them is for me the element that shines the most during this text, another piece of everyday life in the middle of the supernatural which anchors the story in something that we know, to which we can cling and which makes it plausible how the Slates manage to overcome the challenges they encounter. They are together, as silly as it may seem, they represent something terribly human in the midst of the threat of demons, of that of Naberius who hovers above her with his inhumanity and his merciless character.
Reed Slate is also a very interesting character, although more in the background. I really liked having a chapter from his point of view, because he has a unique perspective on his daughters, as well as his own way of experiencing the events. He is a man who has lost a lot, his eldest son who taught him what it was to love his children, his darling wife, his best friend as he calls her several times and, today, he must struggle with his two surviving daughters. We understand very well why he sought to save his wife by sacrificing his life. I really liked the way Veronica counters him by presenting this attempt as a suicide on his part, an abandonment, and it makes sense for Reed to have been ready to try it, desperate by everything he had experienced.
Reed is a complex character since he must manage the weight of his son's death at the hands of Naberius but also the threat that the latter weighs on his family, by protecting them with lies, making them constantly move. He must face a dilemma, whether to involve his daughters in demon hunting or not. With Perrin, it becomes obvious, with the aim of relieving her, of giving her an outlet to cry out her pain and, little by little, without even having wanted it, that Perrin is a demon hunter is a fact, she can no longer stop, no more than he, when it has defined their lives, has always had a connection with their existences.
Reed has already had his evolution before the beginning of the story, he has become a more closed man, less confident, he no longer accepts abandoned animals as he did before with his wife, that's why he rejects Terry, because he can no longer risk hurting those around him.
He plays a very complex role, that of the father left alone to raise his two daughters. I really like the reflection that it looks a lot like a cliché but that it is not important since a cliché is what represents what many humans have experienced, it is what unites them. He has to manage Ace's desire to prove to them that she has value, her quest for truth, Perrin's need for independence and I find that, despite the difficulties, he is a good father.
I really liked this character, everything he tries to do for his family, how he understands his daughters, the way he cares for them, the way he fights for them. He didn't collapse, despite everything life threw at him. He interacts uniquely with his two daughters and manages to be as close to one as the other in different ways. What unites him and Perrin is their activity as demon hunters, Perrin's very committed character which means that Reed can easily trust her, she is the responsible sister, the one who is already capable of fending for herself. Ace is perhaps a little more fragile in his eyes, he may still doubt her a little, but they are very close when it comes to reading, their passion for the theoretical part of demons, their history. They're both bookworms and I think the decision to put them together to fight Hughes was a really good choice, since it helped show how similar they are.
Finally, what I really appreciate are all the details that were added to make him a real father. I had the feeling, at the beginning, that you were perhaps having a little difficulty really finding his voice, before finally fully understanding the character before the end of his chapter, when he himself partly realizes why he is there, when he sees his daughters almost collapse at the news of their mother's imminent disappearance and when he understands that he must be there for them, that he must not abandon them. The story of the suffering of each of the two sisters is particularly striking because of the very personal nature that each of their reactions has. Ace thinks that time is too short, she panics, looks for other solutions, evokes possible means, tries to rationally find something to erase the distress, refusing to admit what is hovering above her. Perrin escapes to shout above the ocean, expressing all her dismay in the face of the elements while her father chases her.
Reed is a good father, because he tries, he constantly tries, both to protect his daughters but also to give them the semblance of a normal life. He insists on making them eat green vegetables, he tries to convince them not to break the law too much, he tries not to encourage them to drink or smoke, he takes pictures of them when they sleep and he discovers them stuck together.
I really liked what was done to his character, as well as the decision to give him a concussion at the end of the story as the only way to slow him down and decrease the Slates' chances of winning. I find it "fun" just to make him less strong to directly give him a concussion. I'm not saying it doesn't make sense, it makes sense to have him be more in the background in this scene and I think using a concussion for that is very clever.
But it is especially at the end of the story that he experiences his apotheosis and his presumed death, although not absolutely certain, even if his chances of survival are very slim, given that he remained alone with Naberius and that the restaurant they were both at exploded shortly after. It is at this moment that he sacrifices himself for his daughters, to allow them to escape, and that he gives Perrin authorization to abandon him. I found this message particularly powerful. Perrin knows that she must leave him if she wants to survive with Ace, however, she does not feel capable of doing it, not alone, and he allows her to reduce the weight of guilt by assuring her that this is what she should do, what he wants her to do. It is a moment when she is particularly helpless, but he brings her the last thing a father can give, the ultimate token of his love for her: his approval and his salvation, his encouragement for the future. Without Reed, without what he is as a father, Perrin would never have had the courage to make this gesture, she would never have been able to do what she did, because it was Reed who raised her like this, that is to say ready to do anything for her family. If this is truly the end of this character, I find it a death worthy of what he was. He didn't give up, he didn't leave his family, until the end, he gave them everything he could give them.
I have less to say about Terry, mainly because he's less important at the moment, although Reed's disappearance may give him a more important role among the Slate sisters, if they still keep him around. We got to see a little bit of who he was but it was largely obscured by the Slates and their incredible mutual dynamic, as well as their much more striking personalities. Additionally, the fact that he was the only character without a chapter dedicated to him also helped with this aspect of backstory.
However, I can already say about Terry that he is someone with a great sense of analysis. He understands things and people easily and seems capable of more perspective than the two sisters, or at least than Perrin. It is also he who provokes her first when they are alone and who leads her to let off steam, to say what is on her heart, to reveal a little of what makes her so furious. He sees people quite clearly and what he says about Perrin is not completely false, although it is in a fit of anger and Perrin's reaction confirms his words, while being perfectly in character. For the moment, Terry seems more of a catalyst character for the others, who serves to bring new reactions and sensations to the Slates, to Ace, the budding love but also the feeling of still being in the shadow of her sister even for others, in Perrin, an aspect of normality, something that grounded her, for Reed, the reflection of what he used to be, someone full of hope. We know very little about him, it is mainly for the reader to see this new world in the same way as him. However, I hope to learn more about him in the following chapters.
Naberius is also a particularly interesting villain in his reactions and his ways of doing things which I found very well written. He is logical in all his way of being, his games and his detours. He is very methodical in his actions, he is trying to win a very old bet and he is so methodical that he has kept the list carefully, crossing out each name religiously. He comes to see the Slates, his latest victims, as soon as the eldest is old enough to be able to make an agreement with him and each time acts in a roundabout and subtle way. He begins by taking the appearance of something that the Slates know, their uncle Morgan, he tries to await the desires of young Perrin and counterbalances the risks she runs in not obeying him, threats that he immediately puts into effect. He promised to take her brother's heart or her sister's eyes and, immediately, he rips out Michael's heart.
Naberius is not necessarily bad in the direct sense of the term but rather detached. Nothing really matters to him and this illustrates the character of demons well. Why care about human suffering when you're an immortal demon? But he is not excessively bloodthirsty either. He loves blood, he does not shy away from it but he seeks to avoid massacres which are not necessary. Not out of the goodness of his heart but rather out of boredom. He doesn't want to take all this trouble. This is why he first tries to approach the Slates by trickery, he presents them with something that they might want, he does not want to torture them right away and offers to make a contract so that they could also get something from this exchange that would be beneficial to them. If he is sometimes petty in what he does, like when Ace manages to get Terry to leave and Naberius has him attacked because she forgot to specify that she wanted him safe and sound, he seems to want sincerely giving Ace what she wants: her brother's life, and is somewhat honest about the details of their contract, such as the fact that he will collect their souls within two years.
Naberius shows himself to be terribly precise. He managed to lure the Slates right into his trap and also managed to intercept them before they left town, he was pulling the strings all along, so that when the Slates arrived at the diner, he hid among the people he employed, giving them a false illusion of security. Naberius seems particularly demonic in this way of acting, making them believe that they have escaped, they are outside the city, and then hitting them more violently. He first puts to rest their distrust with a very good meal that he surprisingly took the trouble to make himself, then he plays the music that Michael had put on the day of his death, to remind his victims of his previous visit.
He is ruthless and ready to do anything in his quest, to reduce himself to any extremity to convince them of the need to listen to him.
Pace:
The pace was perfectly managed, the characters know how to interest the reader and keep them intrigued throughout. When the story gains intensity, reducing the length of the chapters is also a very good choice, moreover, the alternation between the different points of view adds diversity and brings a change from one chapter to another with parallel stories. I particularly liked this rhythm game in the restaurant where the point of view of each of the sisters is devastating and where each of their chapters ends with terrible suspense.
Writing Style:
The writing style is polished, with extraordinary mastery, I see that you know how to use your pen and that you are a seasoned author. The story is carried out to perfection and I have this pleasant feeling that the author knew perfectly where to guide me, what to show me, what to describe to me, what sensations and deductions I should draw from a particular passage. The writing is very professional. It shines in its treatment of the characters, their emotions and their personalities above all. Like I said before, I was happy to see that each character, between Ace and Perrin, has their own voice and does not sound like the same person. We can clearly see the difference between the two. Above all, you have a talent in the exchanges between the characters, the lines flow, everything is true, everything is clear, there's life. Humor above all is omnipresent in this text and the style plays a lot between supernatural and comic, sometimes making horrible what should be horrible but also providing the touch of lightness that the text needs. Perrin is particularly representative of this phenomenon, this way of being aware of all the horror of the situation but of managing to draw something offbeat and funny from it, like when she has to face ten people alone with her father. and that she presents the whole thing like a boxing match, giving each character ridiculous names, even though the situation is critical. It's not forced, it's Perrin's character, that's how she works, she's the kind of person who deals with things better when she interprets them with humor. This style above all brings to life the universe of your text, your characters, the settings, the situations. I felt the impressions linked to each moment and I also had the feeling of learning a lot about how to better manage human interactions in a text. I can say that you know your characters, and, better yet, that you understand them, that's what makes the writing so fluid, because it really feels like you're putting yourself in the person's skin through which one you're talking about, it's splendid.
For me, it's a way of writing that borders on the absurd in the good sense of the word, something that completely captures the violence but also the humor of a moment and that speaks to me. In my head I connected it with books like Percy Jackson, without being able to quite explain why. I also felt like I was partly seeing Vi and Jinx from the Arcane series, although Ace and Perrin aren't really the same, it's to show how the text managed to touch me.
Personal Enjoyment:
If the long drifts I got into weren't enough to show, I really enjoyed this book, to the point where I felt like I was reading a published story. I think that everything I wrote is sufficient testimony. I really wanted to give as much as I could for this text, because I was certain that it deserved it. I will undoubtedly continue to follow the adventures of Ace and Perrin if I can in the future. I don't know if this review is appropriate, I didn't really have anything to criticize, rather aspects to compliment. Instead, I launched into an analysis and made too many repetitions. Perhaps a more competent reviewer than me will be able to spot things to correct but, at my level of reader, I have said what I had to say and I stand by my words.
Very good continuation for the future, I wish you the best possible success.