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Loading... A Mirror Among Shattered Glass (The Supernatural London Underground) (Volume 1)by Romarin Demetri
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Ok, this book took a lot of chewing for me – there were several things I didn’t like and failed to carry me, mainly the story. Or the jumbled mess that tried to be a story, anyway. Let’s have a look at the actual book blurb: Unable to contain the deadly nature of her family secret and powers, nine-teen year old Romarin Demetri hails from California, U.S.A, to unearth her heritage as a descendant of serial-killer, Countess Bathory, the woman that lent Dracula his legend, and cursed Romarin with an appetite for blood. Unenthusiastic about relocating to her birth city of London, a charming paranormal investigator with claim to the throne could change her mind, as he leads her to the only living and distant relative she has: a raven-haired recluse named Talia, who has taken refuge in an old castle in the heart of the city, and doesn’t seem to have a heart of her own. After a rough introduction to the lethal, inappropriate, and enchantingly sarcastic people she calls her housemates, perhaps the other misfits will be her first true friends; However, as much as these people are like her, they still have hidden vendettas, a taste for revenge, and will struggle between what is just, and what will settle their psychological upheaval. There is only one way for Romarin to become part of the Supernatural London Underground: Can she be the one who challenges them to put down their ghosts and demons and make their world together? That book? That book sounds interesting. That book I’ve be curious to read. That book description pulled me in. That book is, however, not all that relevant to the book I actually read. Take that hidden vendettas and taste for revenge and Romarin being the one to make them all get over it? Not there. I mean, in theory we here that many of the characters were once experimented on by some kind of laboratory. But that’s pretty much all we see of it. No-one appears to be plotting elaborate revenge, at least not that we were shown. Oh they’re not happy with the past, but they’re hardly clinging to any of the ghosts or plotting endless vengeance. Kit seems to be more concerned with her own possession. Travis seems to be more concerned with… actually I have no idea what Travis is concerned with. Audin seems, again, to be pretty unfocused and not having any real goals except we learn her has a past which is catching up with him, but that’s nothing to do with the lab or his history. And Talia heartless? Literally the only thing I know about Talia is her endless grieving and sadness for a man who was in the lab with her. Oh and developing a deep connection with Romarin, enough to let her move in, because of their shared Barthory bloodline. That’s not a heartless person, that’s someone whose literally every decision has been made for emotional reasons. And Romarin, our protagonist has no real place in any of their stories, let alone helping them let go of their demons. She serves as audience to each of their issues… but doesn’t really do anything about any of them. Similarly no-one actually does anything about each other’s either. We all learn about Kitt’s possession issues… but nothing happens about it. Audin has this changeling thing going on but we don’t do anything with it. Talia is sad… and she’s sad. Travis is running around doing random odd things – but none of this actually goes anywhere. We have all these little story bits but none of them actually turning into anything resembling a story. Then there’s Romarin herself – and sometimes I think I’ve missed huge chunks of her story. For a time she bemoans her terrible fate and she hopes Talia can find a cure… but where is this terribleness? I mean she had the Atrocity on the Beach incident which she talks about regularly but that atrocity was her pushing a man trying to sexually assault her and he hit his head on a rock. This doesn’t seem to have anything to do with her actual Barthory-ness. She gets odd images and impressions from the blood she drinks but, again, this doesn’t seem to be a huge disadvantage or even something she complains about an awful lot except the time it gives her amnesia. But that only happened because she drank lots of blood from a suicide that dropped right in front of her… which I can’t imagine is that common an occurrence (and gave her a lot of useful knowledge besides). I’m not saying her bathoryness couldn’t be a curse, but like all the little plotlets, it needs some development beyond Romarin declaring it to be terribad awful. Show, don’t just tell. On top of that we have the bemusing instance where she decides she can throw herself out of a window if she has blood in her because she has superhuman abilities when she does. Apparently. This is the first we hear about it – and apparently half way through her amnesia incident. Read More no reviews | add a review
Sometimes the only way to find yourself is to crash and burn, and luckily for nineteen-year old Romarin Demetri, she's got that down. Romarin thought her blood-thirsty, out of control powers passed down from Countess Bathory were her biggest problem... until she becomes captivated by the misfits living in Whitham castle, who have their own secrets, powers, and uncontested layers. Having never felt at home in California, Romarin longs to both be herself and fit in with the first people she doesn't have to hide her dark past from, but the aftermath of a horrible experiment still casts a shadow over the London castle she has blood ties to. Can Romarin summon all of the reckless brilliance she possesses to find herself and unite her new friends? Or will their need for vengeance put an end to them all? No library descriptions found. |
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Mirror has a large cast of characters and they each have parts of the story that they tell - all seem to be supernatural but for many of them it is still a mystery as to what types of strange that they are. Romarin is the main character and most of the chapters follow her story. She is trying to learn who she is and why she has this strange life. There were a lot of questions that I have about her bacground that I think could have been addressed but weren't so maybe they are coming in later books. For example, she has been living in the US with an adoptive family and they knew she needed to drink blood to survive ... but how? so confused about this.
Anywho, I liked Romarin and the other characters as well. Each was unique and interesting to follow. There wasn't a character that I wanted to skip past when their chapter came up - and that is awesome, normally there is one in this type of set up that I am just not feeling and I skim more.
As for the plot, this was really the 2nd book I have read recently that has had a lot of build up but no real plot. At least with this book I could see the plot forming but there was not really too much action or climax to it. We met a lot of characters, learned about all the ways they have issues, and that problems are coming for each of them. That being said, I think that the characters were strong enough to stand without an action-packed sequence in this book. I look forward to reading more from this author. ( )