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Series Review - Teeth: The Complete Meal by Chele Cooke

Greetings and welcome to Reviews That Burn: Series Reviews, part of Books That Burn. Series Reviews discuss at least three books in a series and cover the overarching themes and development of the story across several books. I'd like to thank longtime Patron Case Aiken, who receives a monthly shoutout, as well as returning patron Chris Alvarado. Full Audio Here   Teeth: The Complete Meal by Chele Cooke TEETH: The First Bite Being dead just got complicated.   Spencer’s life began after his death. Being a vampire is better than any teen flick made it out to be. After all, what’s not to like? He’s stronger, faster, and deadlier than any predator. He has a job, a home, and he’ll be young and pretty forever. When Thomas wakes up in the throes of transitioning, Spencer is assigned to train the newly sired vampire. He thinks it’ll be fun, but it could turn the afterlife upside down for everyone, even the people Spencer didn’t know existed. Spencer is about to learn that the rules he ...

The Legend of the Golden Raven by K. Ancrum (The Wicker King, #1.5)

K. Ancrum's The Legend of the Golden Raven novella, part fairy tale and part gritty reality, follows a boy as he descends into madness.

August and Jack weren’t meant to be friends. One is a misfit with a pyro streak and the other a golden boy on the rugby team. But as their relationship intensifies, Jack slowly begins to lose his mind—taking readers on an intimate journey into the fantasy kingdom creeping into the edges of his world.

As the novella moves back and forth between a medieval legend and our own, contemporary world, nothing is as it seems. The boys alienate everyone around them as they struggle with their sanity and as Jack’s quest to fulfill a dark prophecy begins to consume them both . . .

Devour this companion novella to The Wicker King.

TITLE: The Legend of the Golden Raven
AUTHOR: K. Ancrum
PUBLISHER: Imprint
YEAR: 2017
LENGTH: 40 pages
AGE: Young Adult
GENRE: Thriller
RECOMMENDED: Highly

Queer Rep Summary: Gay/Achillean Main Character(s), Bi/Pan Main Character(s).

THE LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN RAVEN is queer longing and an epic legend, riding on feelings until the end, bound for beauty or for bitterness, who can say? This is a companion story to THE WICKER KING and should be read after the main novel by those who want Jack’s perspective. Due to the, uh, entire main plot of THE WICKER KING, read this second or you’ll get random spoilers. This is a sequel/midquel novella so I’ll do my usual sequel check. Since it takes place during the events of the first book it doesn't really wrap anything up, but it does give emotional closure for things from the first book. Jack's perspective on the exact same events is so different from August's that it feels like a completely different story in a lot of ways, in addition to literally telling another story within the story, so I think it does have storyline which starts here and wasn't really shown previously, but that's up for debate. It can't stand on its own, it is explicitly part of a larger saga. The MC is different in this one and it's a very different narrative voice from the MC in THE WICKER KING. Finally, this wouldn't make a lot of sense without THE WICKER KING, but it's also not trying to be on its own so that's not a problem. If you’ve read THE WICKER KING, you should read this because it’s wonderful to get Jack’s perspective. If you haven’t read THE WICKER KING, go do that for achillean slow burn longing with best friends trying to help each other even though reality is uncertain and stories are all that’s keeping them going most days... then come back and read this.

CW for mental illness, violence, blood, animal death, death.

A shirtless teenage white boy with short hair sits with his right wrist draped on the edge of his chair. Golden symbols form a large circle behind his head, and his eyes are crossed out and lined through with what looks like marker.


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