Reviews and Comments

I wanted to like this book, because it was given to me via NetGalley.

To this book's credit:
1) It warns the reader that there is non-consensual sexual activity, right up front. I'm glad I had that warning, though I probably should have gone with my first instinct and put the book back down immediately--again, though, it was an ARC, and I felt like I owed it to the publisher to read it with an open mind. So I did.
2) It jumps right in to an action sequence, which is fun.
3) It draws the reader in fairly quickly, using the reader's curiosity very well.

That said, here's what has me so upset:
1) Women are literally disposable -- only one woman can be this organization's "Gaia" (main source of magic power) at a time, although there are multiple women out there who could do the job. They kidnap the most powerful of the potential Gaias and have her do dangerous things--they lose Gaias at an astounding rate, but the men in the organization all seem to last a very long time. If a potential Gaia doesn't want the job, she's killed. If a more powerful potential Gaia shows up on their radar, the current Gaia is killed, and they kidnap the new one. If the other potential Gaias aren't strong enough to be worth kidnapping (which the organization knows because they stalk every potential Gaia), they kill them. In reading, it seems like this isn't supposed to upset us--at least, it doesn't upset the narrator--perhaps because she's the strongest Gaia ever.
2) One of the "good guys" sexually assaults the main female character, twice. And she dates him anyway. His attempted rape is written off as not important because the bad guy convinced him to do it.
3) The person who runs this frightening organization is set up as a sympathetic character. As is the attempted-rapist, for the most part. Both of them tend to doubt the word of the heroine, to downplay the behavior of the bad guy--in general, to build a very strong rape culture within the organization. (One example: although the organization "no longer brands our Gaias," the two main male characters know that the bad guy has broken the rules and cut/branded the past few Gaias, but they aren't really concerned about it.)
4) The reader thinks the attempted rape by the boyfriend is the non-consensual sex the beginning of the book warned about. It is not. The "actual bad guy" does far worse. I have read a fair bit of urban fantasy and have overlooked more than a little powerless-female/powerful-male writing, but this is well beyond the pale. It hurts my stomach to think about it. And it is really, really unnecessary. The reader already has the guy pegged as a psychopath, well before that long, drawn-out, horrible episode. Is it supposed to titillate? I don't know why else it would be included in such detail.
5) It's a little upsetting to me, in a way that I have trouble fully clarifying, that there is this woman with these supposedly amazing powers, and not one but two of the male characters have the power to just shut her powers down, one by blocking them and one by absorbing them. It feels gross.
6) Maybe this one's a little petty, because the book is clearly not ready to publish yet, but, at least at the beginning, the writing is terrible. (It may stay terrible throughout, and I just got used to it. I guess I should pick it up, a week after reading it, and see.) The author tries to fit too many descriptors into a sentence. Too many adverbs. It needs a good editor/rewriter, even if its other issues can be sorted out.

I acknowledge the chance that this one star review is unreasonable. This series could absolutely redeem itself, and I fully believe it will be worth reading if it ends up making a broad point about the evils of blind adherence to tradition, the corruptibility of powerful organizations, and the dangers inherent in patriarchal rule. If the "good guys" in this book end up really being bad guys, or if they see the flaws in their organization and change how they run it (or the heroine changes it for them), then great. If not, the publisher should reconsider putting this horrible thing into the world--seriously, if "The Seven" are supposed to be read as morally right, then this series is even more regressive than Twilight.