Deathwish by Rob Thurman

I honestly don’t know what it was about Deathwish that made it so hard for me to get through. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it, because it was enjoyable enough. I liked the addition of new characters and “critters.” I think it’s the baddies in this one that drag it down. The Auphe are attacking at random, as they do. Oshossi is doing the same for largely vague reasons. Just bleh. The stakes are there, they’re just random and mostly boring.

The difference in narration between Cal and Niko is very distinct. Niko is introspective in ways Cal is not. He’s very, very insular. He expects everyone but Cal, it seems, to live up to his ideals of trust. I very much agree that Cherish, at least, was a huge thing for Promise to have left out, but I also understand her reasons for not saying anything about her… sort of. Tell your partners about your kids, full stop.

The cat distribution system works from beyond the grave, apparently.

“Females could be Alphas, unlike in genuine wolf packs.” -Niko - So… we talking wolves don’t actually have Alphas or being stupid about gender in the Alpha BS way? Cuz… dumb, either way. The “Alpha” pair lead the pack, not just one or the other in genuine wolf packs. I will harp on this until the end of time. That “Alpha, Beta” BS is BS.

Seamus has got a case of the friendzone apparently. Well, he’s also Promise’s Ex, so there’s some of that mixed in there. Fun times all around. In comes Cherish, to shake things up between Niko and Promise more. It doesn’t quite track to me that Promise wouldn’t have told Niko about Cherish, but… ehhhhh. Promise has been a bit too perfect up until now.

I like the addition of the Vigil. It’s always nice to have some kind of in-the-know human organization doing something to keep the supernatural community secret from the masses in these kinds of worlds.

Honestly, Deathwish is very introspective. Shit happens that makes the Leandros boys examine their lives and their relationships with the people they’ve let in. Both Niko and Cal relive memories from what passed as their childhood. It’s mostly whatever, though. We’ve always known things weren’t great, but now we have details.

I think I’m overall satisfied with how Deathwish ended, however… it took a while ending. Deathwish really feels like it wants to be the last book in the series with how long it took to properly end and how much it tied up. Definitely not my favorite book of the series, not by a long shot.

Favorite Lines

"But there's no such thing as the best. There's good enough, though. Sometimes." - Cal Leandros

"Death by Auphe or MSG; both are too hideous to contemplate." - Robin Goodfellow