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Series Review: The Kingston Cycle by C.L. Polk

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. This episode discusses The Kingston Cycle by C. L. Polk.  Full Audio Here    In an original world reminiscent of Edwardian England in the shadow of a World War, cabals of noble families use their unique magical gifts to control the fates of nations, while one young man seeks only to live a life of his own. Magic marked Miles Singer for suffering the day he was born, doomed either to be enslaved to his family's interest or to be committed to a witches' asylum. He went to war to escape his destiny and came home a different man, but he couldn’t leave his past behind. The war between Aeland and Laneer leaves men changed, strangers to their friends and family, but even after...
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Necromancing the Stone by Lish McBride (Necromancer, #2)

With the defeat of the evil Douglas behind him, Sam LaCroix is getting used to his new life. Okay, so he hadn't exactly planned on being a powerful necromancer with a seat on the local magical council and a capricious werewolf sort-of-girlfriend, but things are going fine, right?

Well . . . not really. He's pretty tired of getting beat up by everyone and their mother, for one thing, and he can't help but feel that his new house hates him. His best friend is a werebear, someone is threatening his sister, and while Sam realizes that he himself has a lot of power at his fingertips, he's not exactly sure how to use it. Which, he has to admit, is a bit disconcerting.

But when everything starts falling apart, he decides it's time to step up and take control. His attempts to do so just bring up more questions, though, the most important of which is more than a little alarming: Is Douglas really dead?

TITLE: Necromancing the Stone
AUTHOR: Lish McBride
PUBLISHER: Square Fish
YEAR: 2012
LENGTH: 344 pages
AGE: Young Adult
GENRE: Fantasy, Horror
RECOMMENDED: N/A

Partial Queer Rep Summary: No canon queer rep.

DNF 218 pages in (63%).

Getting the point of view for both the protagonist and antagonist was cool at first, but now it feels like I’m waiting for the protagonist to figure out a mystery where the antagonist handed me the answer a hundred pages ago. It’s a particular kind of tension which I just don’t like, and which makes me too anxious to keep reading. I think what happened is that while both HOLD ME CLOSER, NECROMANCER and NECROMANCING THE STONE are horror, the first felt enough like a creature-feature for me to like it, while this one is designed to convey the slow creeping dread of a great horror movie where the audience put it together already and they watch, helplessly, as the protagonist(s) fumble because they just don’t know what’s causing everything. It does it well, it’s doing very well a thing I can’t stand, so I’m stopping.

CW for ableist language (brief), blood, vomit, violence, torture (backstory), child abuse (backstory), animal death (not depicted), murder, major character death, death.

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A grey wolf's head, mouth open and ears back as if howling, surrounded by a blue, cream, and black frame.



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