Phengaris – Anna Orridge

2 stars

Phengaris and I didn’t get along as much as I wanted us to, and it’s a shame because eco horror can be so damn cool when it’s done right.

I really struggled to understand exactly what the plot of this story was supposed to be. I got about halfway through and realized that I had absolutely no idea what the point of the book was. What is the hero struggling toward? What is the villain’s big evil plan? I didn’t feel like there was anything going on in this book except a lot of fluff.

Aurora is supposed to be the big bad, but she barely makes any appearances in the story. She just kind of exists as the villain because the book told me so. Then suddenly, when it was time for everything to reach its head, here she is! I still have a lot of questions surrounding Aurora, mostly what she is and what exactly she was trying to accomplish.

Mark was very bland as a main character. All I really knew about him was that he’s a surly teenager with a lot of typical “society hates me” teenage angst. He was too cardboard for me to get a good read on him and really care about what he was trying to do. In the end, it didn’t matter much to me who won or lost because I just didn’t care enough about either side to have an opinion.

And the LGBTQ relationships. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge supporter of the community and love to see it represented, but it felt like an afterthought in this story. The relationships seemed to come out of nowhere with no subtext other than so that it could be said that this book has LGBTQ representation. If you’re going to give me LGBTQ relationships, commit to them! Give me all the love and support; don’t make it a plot device just to be cool or to say it’s representative.

Now, the author did have a few really good scenes (like finding the Museum of Sonic Death), but those scenes got bogged down in the fluff surrounding them.  I think if this story was longer and gave the plot and characters more time to develop, then this review would’ve gone an entirely different direction.