Cainsville Overview

Cainsville by Kelley Armstrong

 

This post will contain spoilers for the entire Cainsville series, including all but one short-story and the novellas. You have been warned.

Cainsville was one of the few series in my life I managed to pick up as it was initially coming out. I followed it, apparently, right up until the last book (Rituals). I'm not sure how I managed to miss it at the time, but I did. I am happy to say that I have now finished the entire series and am mostly satisfied with how it turned out.

I was initially drawn to Cainsville because I very much enjoyed Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld/Otherworld series and because the the Fae element. I haven't read many books or series with a strong Fae element thus far so I was excited to see where all this went. I was initially happy with the amount of Fae lore dropped in among the human mystery parts of the story, though that waned as the series went on. The Fae stuff was still there, it just wasn't as present or otherwise just disappointing. Honestly, the addition of the sluagh as the over-arching "Big Bad" of the series just tanked the ending for me. The sluagh turned out to be some connecting tissue that probably could have been more fleshed out, but just wasn't. While I was kind of wondering what exactly possessed Patrick to actually father Gabriel, I wasn't going to be fussed never finding out.

If you've read my reviews, you'll also know that I'm not a fan of the romance elements. Or rather, not a fan of the love triangle stuff. I liked Ricky and Olivia together, but I'm definitely not a fan of Gabriel and Olivia being end-game. I personally feel like a more polygamous bent to their relationship would have made more sense. That's not to say strong friendships shouldn't be valued or cultivated, as Olivia and Ricky's is, just that... I dunno, would have felt neater from a story perspective. Also, I really do feel like Gabriel feels more asexual than not. I'm an very aware that, like most things and especially sexuality, asexuality is a spectrum and Gabriel definitely fits with some of what I've experienced personally with my own asexuality... just... the way his relationship with Olivia progresses feels weird to me. I'm not sure exactly how to explain it, but it definitely feels like Gabriel should have been fine being the friend in this forced love-triangle thing. (I will talk more about that, I promise.) It didn't seem like he had any romantic feelings in Olivia's direction until the plot and the ghost of Gwynn demanded it. I'm just not a fan of how that all worked out.

So, speaking of Gwynn... I'm also not a fan of how this ridiculousness for coded into the Fae storyline. We've got the Tylwyth Teg vs the Cŵn Annwn. Gwynn vs Arawn over the affections of Matilda. That's the whole impetus for the entirety of Cainsville, ultimately. Welsh Fae nonsense, basically. (I say that affectionately, really.) So, basically, back in ye olden times, before humans were in any sort of power in Wales, this Fae Prince of the Tylwyth Teg (Gwynn) and the Lord of the Underworld, Leader of the Cŵn Annwn (Arawn) make a pact not to try and win the affections of their mutual friend who has blood from both their lineages (Matilda). Really, in the text, it's Arawn who decides this needs to be a pact and Gwynn just goes along with it for... reasons? They do not tell Matilda about this pact. Later on down the line, Matilda makes her affections for Gwynn clear to him and they plan to marry, but do not breathe a word of this to their "bestie" Arawn... for reasons? Arawn finds out at pretty much the last minute and confronts Gwynn about their "pact." Arawn decides to tell Gwynn that if Matilda comes to him on the night before their wedding, she's now Arawn's. A new "pact" is formed, apparently. They tell Matilda none of this. Gwynn does not try to stop her from going to Arawn. Weird magic happens and not only does Matilda lose Gwynn and the Tylwyth Teg, she dies. Neither man gets what he wanted... and they are now doomed to reincarnate over and over to replay this nonsense. Whoever the Matilda chooses, gets her magical power for that generation... or something. That part was a little unclear. Also unclear exactly why a two-way split couldn't just work, even though that's what ends up happening at the end of the series. What is very clear is that Arawn is an asshole.

So, Olivia is the Matilda, Ricky is the Arawn, and Gabriel is the Gwynn of this generation. Olivia is told by the Cainsville elders that she must choose which of these men she's going to be with because weird magic nonsense. This three-some is unhappy about this and basically end up dithering until a weird third-party magic "race" (the sluagh I mentioned earlier) enters the fray in Rituals. Oh, and neither the Tylwyth Teg nor the Cŵn Annwn want to give Olivia and information about themselves until she decides to let them start courting her. Again, this whole thing could have been solved by a "Persephone solution" as Olivia puts it... and is, at the very end.

But yeah, I'm not at all salty about any of this. And to be clear, none of this made me not enjoy the story. I did enjoy the ride... mostly. I think the whole situation is very silly and obviously spawned by an idiot teenager. This is in the text of the books, by the way, I'm not making that bit up. Arawn was an idiot teenager at the time the original "pacts" were made. It's just amazing they got turned into such a big thing, magically speaking.

Outside of the Welsh Fae stuff, there is a bit of outside Fae stuff. Greek Fae, to be precise. Lamiae and Dryads make an appearance. I very much liked the inclusion of something other than Welsh Fae. Wish there had been more. I'm pretty sure the Cainsville series wouldn't really have supported adding in more mythologies, given how insular Cainsville itself is, but... eh. That's me with my global mythology interest wanting what I can't have.

I liked the original spooky supernatural mystery vibe of Omens. That definitely drew me into the series. However, that vibe definitely decreased as the series went on. Olivia did very little omen-sensing after Omens. That ability was largely discarded in favor of visions, granted by some kind of generational Fae memory. The love-triangle thing took center stage, even with the "mystery of the book" happening outside of it.

I did this read-through chronologically, as I've been doing with series lately, and I feel like the short stories did add something to the overall series. However, the novellas were largely just a revisiting of the characters and their emotional states. With the short stories, we got looks at characters outside of the whole "Matilda" thing but still within the realm of the Fae/human interbreeding and what can happen with that. We got a glimpse of Patrick pre-Omens, Gabriel's childhood, and what TC was up to. I quite enjoyed these short stories. The novellas... I could honestly reread Cainsville quite happily leaving them out. As I've said before, they really just rehash Oliva and Gabriel's feelings on what they're going through and have been through. The last two, while slightly interesting in that they explore a bit of what happens after Rituals, don't really bring much to the table, in my opinion.

I realize a lot of what I've discussed here sounds quite negative. It probably is. However, Cainsville is quite well done overall and entertaining to boot. I really do enjoy it. I just have a heavy eye-rolling kind of feeling toward certain elements... obviously. I wouldn't have so much to say if Cainsville was boring, after all.

Very last note: The novellas include some art depicting certain scenes contained within them. They're... interesting. Mostly okay, but honestly, they make Olivia look a couple decades older than 24. I also don't think the illustrations really add anything to the stories.