TL;DR Review: Addictive and enthralling, but not for the faint of heart. Deeper, darker, and twistier—an excellent second installment in this gothic historical fantasy trilogy.
Synopsis:
In this highly anticipated second book in the Talents Trilogy, the world of the dead is closer than you think.
Agrigento, Sicily, 1883. With the orsine destroyed, Cairndale lies in ruins, and Marlowe has vanished. His only hope of rescue lies in a fabled second orsine—long-hidden, thought lost—which might not even exist.
But when a body is discovered in the shadow of Cairndale, a body wreathed in the corrupted dust of the drughr, Charlie and the Talents realize there is even more at stake than they’d feared. For a new drughr has arisen, ferocious, horned, seemingly able to move in their world at will—and it is not alone. A malevolent figure, known only as the Abbess, desires the dust for her own ends. And deep in the world of the dead, a terrible evil stirs—an evil that the corrupted dust just might hold the secret to reviving or destroying forever.
So the dark journey begun in Ordinary Monsters surges forward, from the sinister underworld of the London exiles, to the mysteries of a sunlit villa in nineteenth-century Sicily, to the deep catacombs hidden under Paris. Against bone witches, mud glyphics, and a house of twilight that exists in a netherworld all its own, the Talents must work together—if they are to have any hope of staving off the world of the dead, and saving their long-lost friend.
Full Review:
JM Miro is back and in fine form in the second book of The Talents Trilogy!
Bringer of Dust picks up shortly after the traumatic and bloody ending of Ordinary Monsters. The children we fell in love with in the first book are continuing to explore the dark gothic world painted for us in these pages, this time heading through new and exotic locales—Spain, Italy, France, and more.
We’re shown where each of the characters from the last book are—hunting new talented children, searching for answers into the magical abilities that compel dark entities to hunt them, and trapped in a realm of horrors and undead spirits.
Then we’re introduced to new characters: a young Roma girl who can control bones, both living and dead; sadistic children raised to be killers to serve the mysterious Abbess; and an alchemist who is working to protect magic-twisted former students of the Cairndale Institute.
Once the pieces are all in place, we’re set off on a wild journey filled with horror, violence, bloodshed, and dark magic. Because there are always those who will do whatever it takes to gain power, no matter who they have to use, abuse, or torture to get it. And we’re shown all of that in vivid detail from the perspective of many different characters, each of which have suffered in their own way.
We’re also given more insight into the magic—the “talents”—introduced in the first book, offered a greater understanding of how it works, what is limitations are, what the consequences and side effects may be, and the real danger that threatens all magic-users. We also get a great deal more lore and mythology of this fascinating magical world—as well as the twisted alternate realm of death—that keeps ratcheting up the stakes and creating a more epic adventure.
If Ordinary Monsters set the tone, Bringer of Dust keeps dialing it up to 11. This story goes darker, bloodier, creepier, and more emotionally devastating. The stakes are greater than ever, the struggle more impossible, and the inevitable losses so much harder to bear.
It’s a spellbinding read that will keep you turning the pages and unable to look away no matter how much you want to. Not for the faint of heart, for sure, but a story that will burn itself firmly in your mind and heart.
Leave a Reply