Member Reviews
This is another wonderfully done story by Caytlyn Brooke. I enjoyed her concept and female empowerment. I can’t wait to read the rest of this series. You should follow the authors social medias.
Based on the other reviews I've seen, I'm not ready to read this. While I do appreciate stories that are realistic in a fantasy setting, I'm really trying to get away from reading about rape. It's almost difficult to escape. It can be implied if it's important to character development, but I'm really never going to need to experience it from the perspective of the person it's happening to. Especially this much.
Thank you for the arc of this book!
It was an interesting read but it won't go down as a treasured mythological retelling. I thought some scenes were a bit strong, aimed at sensationalism. Disturbing the reader is a fine blade to walk on... I find writers brave to tackle such triggering issues.
Good luck with the book.
I noticed that most of the review talks about the graphic rape. I read a lot of grimdark and read the Marquis De Sade so I didn't find it shocking but it would have been better if it was a bit less graphic and detailed.
I liked the style of writing but the story didn't work for me as I felt like a lot of details of the world building were missing
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
It was a decent book. Not one I would highly recommend to my friends. It warned of triggers. But seems like the whole book was triggers. I love the Greek mythology in it. But wish there would have been a bit more of the bad going good or something. Honestly I’m not really interested in continuing this story. But like I said. It’s still a good book. Just not one I would read again.
Found the writing a little pedantic considering the material. Very graphic rape and not all that realistic. Or perhaps too realistic. The scenes were written as if they were about arrogant frat boys than gods. Overall, writing was meh.
Trigger warnings for graphic scenes of rape and sexual assault featured throughout.
Kait, Jez, and Bia are Furies, attempting to control their elemental magic to fulfil their future roles. They are also sisters, with typical sibling rivalries between them, and teenage girls, with the typical past-times and desires of others their age. All that alters when the gods descend and decide to take what it not theirs, regardless of whose magic they drain or whose life they cut short in the process.
I am interested in anything that reworks an original tale into a new setting and this is especially so of Greek mythology. This was what drew me to this novel and I did appreciate the abundance of renowned names and figures that made their way into these pages. My adoration with the story ended there, unfortunately.
This was a very sorrowful read. Scenes of rape and sexual abuse appeared frequently and it was both jarring and traumatising to read of such continual horrors inflicted, or intended to be inflicted, upon the female characters. I luckily had read other reviews that warned me of the contents before beginning the book, but feel this should definitely come with trigger warnings to aid other readers who might find this too distressing a story to consume. I wish the synopsis had provided information on the contents.
This endless cycle of horrors made up the entire story-line. I felt little progression featured for much of the book, other than the gods attempting to harm the Furies and them attempting to escape from them. I get that this was the central focus, and other characters did appear to divert some of the attention, but it mostly felt like too repetitious to keep me engaged.
DNF.
As an avid reader of mythological retellings, I'm pretty well prepared for rape to be mentioned. But my god, this was so unnecessarily over the top. If you're going to have such graphic, disturbing scenes in a book there needs to be some trigger warnings.
Or maybe just... don't use graphic rape scenes as a plot device?
The book might get better. The characters may become more intelligent and likeable. But I'm not interested to find out.
Thank you to NetGalley for my eARC for an honest review. I started out very intrigued by the synopsis/plot of Among the Hunted. The drama started very quickly to set up the later story and you could feel that very strongly in the writing. I do need to preface a VERY STRONG TRIGGER WARNING for multiple rapes in this book. There does not seem to be one at the beginning of the book and I’ve seen several DNF reviews because of it.
That being said, this story is about the Nymphs of Ancient Greece and Olympus who have mentioned of being used and abused by the gods in countless stories. I find that concept being used as part of the plot for this story makes sense, but I understand if some readers can’t handle reading that.
I found Kait to be a good main female character for this book and I felt her desperation and anger throughout based on the author’s writing style. Blake’s introduction to the story came a little out of no where but I understood his innocence and nativity to the world around him to be a good addition to the story. The romance aspect for them felt a little forced to me, however. The villain fit the storyline as well and one that isn’t normally used for his terrible reputation, but often as the hero, so I appreciate the twist with that.
Overall the book had a good plot and flow with entertaining characters. I’m not sure if I would read the next book but it did end on a very interesting cliffhanger!
TW: sexual assault
I do not like giving an author's book, which is the result of their hardwork and dedication for who knows how long, a 1 star review. For me, 2 stars and up means it's an okay read and I liked some aspects of it (in other words 99% of all books I've read) so it is no easy thing for me to give a book, and one I've been giving the chance to read at that, that low rating.
Unfortunately, I had no choice because I couldn't get past chapter 6. There was no warning or any mention in the blurb or in the beginning of the book that there was a sexual assault in the book. And not just a glimpse or throwback to it, but described in detail as it happened. I felt sick to my stomach after that and couldn't bring myself to continue reading. Especially since it seemed so important to the main plot, which did not sit well with me.
If there had been a trigger warning I probably wouldn't have requested the book in the first place, or at least not before I would have read other's reviews to see their reactions, since there is no easy thing to read about. A TW would at least have prepared me and maybe I could have given the book a fair chance then.
What more can I say, I was fascinated by the blurb and since I have always loved reading new stories about mythology I thought to myself "why not" and requested it. But I really wish they had put a TW (trigger warning) in the description as well as in the beginning of the book. No one should get into a story without a headsup if there is any sensitive topics handled in it.
I'll echo what another reviewe said; if sexual assault is a significant plot point, there should be some mention of it, either as a content warning or in the description of the book. That aside, the writing made me want to know more about this universe. How did it come to be? How does the magic work? Unnecessary exposition can be dull, but in this case, I believe it would have really helped. I hate leaving critical reviews because writing a book, any book, is a huge endeavour and accomplishment. However, a bit more background and character development would have made for a more enjoyable read.
TRIGGER WARNING
cw: mentions of sexual assault
See the trigger warning above? That's something Among the Hunted did not have. If it did I wouldn't have read it or even requested the ARC.
The first 6 chapters are set in the 1920's and center around a nymph named Kait. The whole concept is that if a nymph has sex with an immortal, the immortal consumes their magic and gets a euphoric high. But this doesn't mean they can't have sex with any other being (humans, centaurs, or satyrs which were all specifically mentioned).
I was content to suffer through the writing and overly corny dialog to see if there was any gripping plot. There was none to be found in those first chapters. There were several mentions of rape already at this point.
But chapters 5 and 6 were entirely about the two immortals raping Kait and her friend. They were not successful for Kait but they did assault and kill her friend.
I DNF'ed the book after those chapters. They were horrible to read and there was no warning! I've read books in the past that have mentions of assault but never had any go so far as to show you the whole thing.
I have no clue obviously how the rest of the book goes, made the plot develops and maybe the writing even improved but I can't get passed the fact that those chapters were included and there were no content warnings (there should be warnings even if those chapters aren't there because there are many other mentions of assault).
I hate for the first review posted for this book to be my one star review but people need some kind of warning before hand about what they're going to read.