Animosity Vol. 2 by Marguerite Bennett
My rating: 3/5 cats
mo sentience, mo problems…
this one is not as much fun as Animosity, Vol. 1.
back off, doggie – you know it’s true!
the first volume had its weaknesses – it was confusing, it skipped over big chunks of time during which important things seemed to have happened, but i trusted that at some point the story would backtrack and we’d have our blanks filled in. and we do, so there – high five!
but here in volume two we are moving at a much slower pace, with more time for animal-ruminating. and ruminate they will! once animals can speak and reason, once they become capable of abstract thought and omphaloskepsis, well, they get a little tedious. for some readers, this development will be just their cuppa – animals dealing with this sudden burden of a soul, the concepts of morality, the human world’s variety of religions, and what it means to choose “right” or “wrong.”
for some, this new ability to express themselves makes them dress and sulk and rant like sullen teens
although he has a point.
again – for some people, this will knock their socks off, but some of us just wanna see raccoons use weapons
it’s not all campfire philosophy; there’s plenty of action, plenty of creepy new things in the world, and plenty of new baddies to fight. especially birds, obviously.
but a lot of it is smaller – just the animals dealing with their new roles and new frustrations. with great knowledge comes great responsibility, and sandor’s taking on the responsibility for jesse’s care and safety causes him difficulties – he is now just smart enough to understand all that he doesn’t know and how much she needs that he can’t give her
and all he’s not prepared to take on
plus, knowledge of mortality is pretty heavy.
so, i still like the series hard, i just don’t know if i love it. gimmie volume three and i’ll have a better sense of my heart.
