A young girl, that has been harboring a secret for all of her life, suddenly finds herself in the middle of a feud between to warring sides of hemomancers, the scourge of humanity.
The secret being that she is a hemomancer herself. Hemomancers being humans with the power to use their blood as a weapon. Lander being someone who has probably read "Tokyo Ghoul" just a few days before starting to write this book.
Or not, but while reading "A Rose to the Torch", "Tokyo Ghoul" was the reference that kept popping into my mind. Because the fights in that manga were, in my mind, quite similar to the blood fights Lander was describing in this book.
However, back to the review... This book is not a horrible one, far from it. However, it is horribly convoluted, and its world is not well developed, leaving many of the events just Deux Ex machina moments. We never really get into the mind of Coral, let alone Leblanc or Lena. Many of Coral's reactions come out of the blue, before we have really connected with her, and some of the uses of the blood, the power the hemomancers have over it and all the messy stuff there, is difficult to follow. It feels Lander was envisioning every scene in his mind as if he was watching a show or a manga, but on paper, they don't work so well. And many of the side quests feel unnecessary, just to have some eye candy moments. Lena's character, in particular, feels like an ill conceived decision.
The ending is actually quite acceptable, even though rushed, with a couple of little but nice surprises, and leaves the reader with a nice 'bloody' aftertaste.
Nothing, though, to make it stand out of the pack.
The best: the ending is nice enough (even if messy); some intents to be original
The worst: nothing to make it stand out; the hemomancers' powers are a mess and don't mix well with guns; their motivations and actions are also head-scratching
Alternatives: "Tokyo Ghoul", "The Dresden Files"
4.5/10
(Original English)
*Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the copy*
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