41960043
Susana Zemlyakova's review Jun 03, 2017 · edit
liked it
bookshelves: arcs

Scourge had an interesting premise that was almost lost in the incredibly slow execution. The story focuses on three brothers, undertakers, who prepare and send off the dead before they become vengeful spirits in addition to fighting the hordes of demons plaguing Ravenwood. From the get-go the plot reminded me a little of Supernatural and I kept drawing parallels between Rigan and Sam, Corran and Dean. Like Sam, Rigan is a quiet intellectual with powers inherited from his mother. He uncovers a community of gifted people like him after a horrible attack and joins them to learn how he can leverage his powers. As I alluded earlier, the beginning is very slow as Martin painstakingly builds the world of Ravenwood. The brothers grow on you, but my favorite by far is Kell. As the youngest, Kell does not have undertaker responsibilities but he still finds ways and courage to support his family. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the brothers, the antagonist, the malicious Lord Mayor is setting the hordes of demons on the town to enforce the centuries old Balance. Martin spends a few chapters describing his political machinations in addition to his cruelty to really make you loathe the man.

The story picks up about 60% of the way into the book as the hordes of demons cause turmoil and unrest in city. The death of one the characters hit me quiet hard and the battle after the fact had me captivated until the end. I was torn between 3 stars and 4 but unfortunately the writing just did not do it for me. As previous reviewers have pointed out, Martin frequently uses modern slang in her writing. This threw me off given the medieval, fantasy setting. I will probably still pick up the sequel but not high on my list.

I received an ARC curtesy of NetGalley and the publisher for an unbiased review. Big thank you to the publishers!

There were some elements I liked in this fantasy, but it failed to come together for me the way I hoped. I liked the three brothers, but couldn't quite believe in the world of the Ravenwood city-state. The lengthy political/economic sections were unnecessary and dull. In this political realm that the mayor was so wrapped up in there are dozens of names that had little to do with the plot. These sections were long interruptions that affected the pace of the novel. And there were too many different kinds of monsters. They just kept coming. Three to five kinds of monsters--OK, but enough already.