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A review by jenny_librarian
Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop
5.0
Trigger warning: violence, death, abuse, rape, assault, childhood trauma
5 ⭐️
This book wrecked me. I didn't fully realized how deep it went the first time around, since I was following the action more than the characters. But this time, I really felt it. The last 1/3 had me clenching my teeth, raging, wanting to cry... So much happening to those two characters, both of whom I wanted to hug and protect so they wouldn't have to face the end of the book.
There is a fine line between social commentary and outrageousness. Anne Bishop walks it well. She's created a world where females would have the power to govern, but males could protect and guide them. Were it well balanced, this world could be close to utopia (although not including everyone outside the gender-binary, which saddens me since I think she could have mastered this kind of writing as well). But it's not well balanced, or at least, not in this book. In the beginning of the trilogy, a few powerful and cunning women have taken it all, alienated the men who could have helped them and forced them into submission.
Daemon and Lucivar are among those men. The same, but different. One is an Eyrien Prince with wings of night who could throw into oblivion this Rhysand from Sarah J Maas' abysmal ACOTAR series thirsty women seem to be fawning over these days. The other is a redefinition of bad boy. Everything you think you know about a bad boy is him, and then some. He is Damon from TVD, Spike from Buffy, Eric Northman from True Blood. He's all those vampires and demon men you thought were sexy, along with a good dose of Kaz Brekker from Six of Crows, hardened into a constant cold rage by Dorothea and her courts. Daemon is the epitome of the alpha-male, with a secretly hidden heart of gold. And that heart is first revealed for only one person. A teeny tiny gold haired girl who happens to be With. Dreams Made Flesh. Kindred, but not Kind. Jaenelle is both a Queen and other, something beautiful and frightening. She's not "human", rather the sum of the Kindred's dreams - which her real appearances, revealed at the end of book 1, is a testimony of.
Unlike her more recent Courtyard series, Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy doesn't have a map. At first, I admit I wanted one. I needed to know where they were and how they got from one realm/territory to another. Then, I realized it would have been impossible to draw a map. The series contains 3 Realms: Terreille, Kaeleer (the shadow realm) and Hell. Each of these realms contains different territories, although Ebon Askavi exists in all 3, and Askavi and Dhelman exist in both Terreille and Kaeleer. Bishop would have needed 3 separate pages to show all realms and then she would have had to find a way to represent each territory on a single page (Terreille has 8, Kaeleer 16 and Hell has at least 2). In the end, it is much easier to simply follow Bishop's flow and try to pinpoint the territories as she introduces them. I found it easier to do the second time around, when I really concentrated on the words rather than superficially read the action.
I could probably go on and on for a long while about how much I love this series, but the main points are:
1. this first book is sensual and heart-wrenching and will make you want more (if you are ok with all the trigger warnings)
2. if you don't hurt for Daemon by the end of this book, you have no heart
3. this is possibly the most epic high fantasy I have ever read
Comments regarding other reviews I have seen:
-this series is not rooted in misandry. It simply depicts an abusive matriarchal society, not unlike some patriarchal ones we've seen in reality. While it is pushed to the maximum for effect, it still ressembles a few things we can see everyday: violent rape destroying a woman, human trafficking, sexual violence...
-Daemon and Jaenelle's relationship is not pedophilia. While there are some pedophile characters in the books, Daemon it not one of them. He tries very hard not to guide young Jaenelle down that road and the sexual pull he has is toward Witch, not the young girl body she inhabits. This, of course, wouldn't pass in our society, but is completely possible in a fantasy. It is also specifically tackled when they are in the Dark Altar at the end of the book.
5 ⭐️
This book wrecked me. I didn't fully realized how deep it went the first time around, since I was following the action more than the characters. But this time, I really felt it. The last 1/3 had me clenching my teeth, raging, wanting to cry... So much happening to those two characters, both of whom I wanted to hug and protect so they wouldn't have to face the end of the book.
There is a fine line between social commentary and outrageousness. Anne Bishop walks it well. She's created a world where females would have the power to govern, but males could protect and guide them. Were it well balanced, this world could be close to utopia (although not including everyone outside the gender-binary, which saddens me since I think she could have mastered this kind of writing as well). But it's not well balanced, or at least, not in this book. In the beginning of the trilogy, a few powerful and cunning women have taken it all, alienated the men who could have helped them and forced them into submission.
Daemon and Lucivar are among those men. The same, but different. One is an Eyrien Prince with wings of night who could throw into oblivion this Rhysand from Sarah J Maas' abysmal ACOTAR series thirsty women seem to be fawning over these days. The other is a redefinition of bad boy. Everything you think you know about a bad boy is him, and then some. He is Damon from TVD, Spike from Buffy, Eric Northman from True Blood. He's all those vampires and demon men you thought were sexy, along with a good dose of Kaz Brekker from Six of Crows, hardened into a constant cold rage by Dorothea and her courts. Daemon is the epitome of the alpha-male, with a secretly hidden heart of gold. And that heart is first revealed for only one person. A teeny tiny gold haired girl who happens to be With. Dreams Made Flesh. Kindred, but not Kind. Jaenelle is both a Queen and other, something beautiful and frightening. She's not "human", rather the sum of the Kindred's dreams - which her real appearances, revealed at the end of book 1, is a testimony of.
Unlike her more recent Courtyard series, Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy doesn't have a map. At first, I admit I wanted one. I needed to know where they were and how they got from one realm/territory to another. Then, I realized it would have been impossible to draw a map. The series contains 3 Realms: Terreille, Kaeleer (the shadow realm) and Hell. Each of these realms contains different territories, although Ebon Askavi exists in all 3, and Askavi and Dhelman exist in both Terreille and Kaeleer. Bishop would have needed 3 separate pages to show all realms and then she would have had to find a way to represent each territory on a single page (Terreille has 8, Kaeleer 16 and Hell has at least 2). In the end, it is much easier to simply follow Bishop's flow and try to pinpoint the territories as she introduces them. I found it easier to do the second time around, when I really concentrated on the words rather than superficially read the action.
I could probably go on and on for a long while about how much I love this series, but the main points are:
1. this first book is sensual and heart-wrenching and will make you want more (if you are ok with all the trigger warnings)
2. if you don't hurt for Daemon by the end of this book, you have no heart
3. this is possibly the most epic high fantasy I have ever read
Comments regarding other reviews I have seen:
-this series is not rooted in misandry. It simply depicts an abusive matriarchal society, not unlike some patriarchal ones we've seen in reality. While it is pushed to the maximum for effect, it still ressembles a few things we can see everyday: violent rape destroying a woman, human trafficking, sexual violence...
-Daemon and Jaenelle's relationship is not pedophilia. While there are some pedophile characters in the books, Daemon it not one of them. He tries very hard not to guide young Jaenelle down that road and the sexual pull he has is toward Witch, not the young girl body she inhabits. This, of course, wouldn't pass in our society, but is completely possible in a fantasy. It is also specifically tackled when they are in the Dark Altar at the end of the book.