Synopsis
Follow the law and you’ll stay safe. But what if the law is wrong?
Tashué’s faith in the law is beginning to crack.
Three years ago, he stood by when the Authority condemned Jason to the brutality of the Rift for non-compliance. When Tashué’s son refused to register as tainted, the laws had to be upheld. He’d never doubted his job as a Regulation Officer before, but three years of watching your son wither away can break down even the strongest convictions.
Then a dead girl washed up on the bank of the Brightwash, tattooed and mutilated. Where had she come from? Who would tattoo a child? Was it the same person who killed her?
Why was he the only one who cared?
Will Tashué be able to stand against everything he thought he believed in to get the answers he’s looking for?
Review
Wow. Legacy of the Brightwash takes you on a journey, the characters you meet at the start of the book go through huge emotional and moral changes throughout the course of the novel. It is such an amazing thing to read. Krystle Matar has managed to craft and develop so much in the course of just one book.
This book features a lot of drinking, fighting, pining for someone and rule breaking. But it never gets old, our characters are constantly in some form of action, and it just makes their odd bit of down time all that more precious. Matar then uses these slower moments to really develop our characters relationships to one another.
The plot centres around Tashué and his life. He is a Regulation Officer for the Authority. Essentially he keeps tabs on ‘tainted’ people, or people with some kind of special power. These tainted as seen as lesser people, and they can get put in the Rift for even having a relationship with another tainted person. Basically they are hated by the Authority and treated incredibly badly. At first Tashué is totally on board with what the Authority stands for, but as the book goes on he starts to question things, and his new found friendships open his eyes to what is actually going on. It’s super dark.
Mixed in with the above plot is the romance of the book. Matar doesn’t shy away from complicated and very human relationships. We see old lovers, there are LGBTQ+ couples, and we get to see Tashué fall rather hard for someone. Yes, occasionally I wanted to shake him and tell him to get a move on, but ultimately it works perfectly in time with his moral change throughout the book.
There’s a wonderful cast of characters supporting this book. I loved them all despite their failings, and Matar makes them unquestionably human. Each one is connected to Tashué in some way, and many are incredibly loyal to him. It was a refreshing look into the dynamics of the characters and to have such a close found family bond between them all was a real joy to read.
This is a complex, sweeping, epic book. Come for the plot and stay for the characters. It has some really dark undertones, which I’m sure will become more prominent as the series proceeds. Basically, I loved it.
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