*****SPOILERS*****
In a major departure from the
Beautiful Caster Chronicles, the Dangerous Caster Chronicles are written in
third person, not first person. The Prologue is written in first person,
though, which makes the shift to third person in the rest of this series a bit
jarring. However, third person is my preferred perspective, meaning Dangerous
Creatures read much more smoothly for me.
Good
Writing
This book did well to demonstrate
the writing abilities of the authors.
One of the
first things Ridley says is that she doesn’t whine because she’s not her cousin
Lena. Sure, Lena did whine a lot, but she was going through several existential
crises, each one with the potential to kill people she loves. I think Lena’s
entitled to whine a little bit! But Ridley’s small comment gives an instant
insight into Ridley’s whole perspective. That’s good writing.
From
Ridley’s perspective, she says Ethan and Link ‘bump fists’. That’s much better
than Ethan saying they ‘tapped fists’.
The
grammar was on the whole pretty great. There were far fewer mistakes than in
other books. Only one mistake stood out. In one paragraph, we get Rid
exposition, Rid speech, Nox exposition, then Nox speech. These should be two
separate paragraphs.
Rid tells
Link that she senses a power of persuasion and he doesn’t believe her. If it
was written from Link’s perspective, there would be no doubt that Rid was
lying. So this argument is painful because it’s written from Rid’s perspective
and the audience knows she’s being truthful. You feel sympathy for a bad
character.
Funny
Moment
For the most part, all the funny
lines are near the start but all the plot is near the end. Whilst a mix would
have been nice, at least this separation had a gentle transition.
‘You can’t
even dress a salad’ is the best line Ridley has ever said.
Rid tells
Mrs Lincoln that she ‘can’t wait to inherit your good china!’ Perfection.
One of
Rid’s customers complains she’s being too hard. So Rid tells her that ‘”Beauty
is pain.”’ The customer replies by saying, ‘”You’re a pain.”’ Rid finishes it
off by declaring, ‘”You’re no beauty.”’ This exchange gave me a proper chuckle.
Link
answers Rid’s question with a question of his own. ‘”Don’t avoid the question,”
Ridley said, avoiding the question.’ Brilliant.
When two
characters don’t get along, usually one says to the other, ‘For the record, I
don’t hate you.’ So When Necro tells Ridley, ‘”For the record,”’ you don’t
expect her to finish with ‘”I do hate you.”’ Hilarious.
Ridley’s
Problem with Making Sense
Ridley doesn’t think straight. Her
reasoning skills are so chaotic and simply don’t make sense. Logically. But
they make perfect sense for Ridley.
On one of
the occasions where Link points out he’s a quarter incubus, Ridley says, ‘Once
a mortal, always a mortal.’ Um, you were mortal for the latter half of book two
and the former half of book three. That means you are always a mortal too. But
you’d never admit to that.
Ridley
wonders why anyone would do what someone else wanted. Um, hello, you’re a siren.
That’s your job description.
Link tells
Rid to not use magic on him. Rid thinks this means she needs a mortal job. No.
Link wants you to be a regular couple, not you a regular person. He wants to
earn his fame, not have it given by magic. But by no means does that mean he
doesn’t want you to do magic at all.
Rid
winders how long she knew Nox was siren-born. But she already knew. That’s the
only reason she spent the day with Nox: to confirm it. For thirty-six pages.
Rid wished
she knew how to tell Link how she feels even though she just thought of a
really clear and coherent explanation in her head. Just say what you thought
and you’d be fine!
Faulty
Plot Points
None of these faulty plot points are
devastating. They don’t knock the story off its feet and they can all be
corrected easily.
At the
start, Ethan, John, Lena, Link, Liv and Ridley sit around the campfire. Before
they go on their separate ways, they do a binding: Ethan holds John’s hand, who
holds Liv’s, who holds Link’s, who holds Rid’s, who holds Lena’s, who holds
Ethan’s. Yet Ethan manages to elbow and punch Link without moving. How does he
reach? We know Ethan’s tall but for his elbow to reach (which would have to
travel above the fire), Ethan would have to move.
Ethan and
Lena have decided to go to universities in the same state so they can be near
each other. Yet when travelling through the Tunnels, time doesn’t matter, so
distance doesn’t matter. Ethan and Lena can go to the best universities for
their future whilst being able to see each other easily. I don’t understand how
their guardians caved in when there was an obvious solution literally right under their feet.
Sam says
he doesn’t get involved in caster business. Yet he’d just been discussing this
business and bandaging Necro’s neck. So I don’t buy it that Sam doesn’t get
involved. The only get-out clause I can think of is Sam just saying that so
that he didn’t have to answer a question he didn’t want to ask.
Nox’s
mother was a siren (caster) and his dad was a seer (mortal). The Beautiful
series spent a lot of time saying casters and mortals can’t breed. So is this a
lack of consistency or is this something else? When Ethan comes back from the
dead, he is able to touch Lena consequence-free. Seers are connected to the
dead so maybe a mortal’s experience with the dead shields them from caster
contact damage? This book doesn’t even mention that mortals and casters can’t
touch so maybe I’m just digging for an explanation where there isn’t one.
Final
Comments
We get flashbacks of Rid’s
childhood. She definitely was not a good child. For Lena to think Rid was good,
no wonder Lena turned out to be half Dark. Although, to be completely fair,
Ridley once wanted to help drowners; Reece (the ‘perfect’ and good one)
declined because the drowners were mortals. Sure, and Ridley’s the bad one.
Even though it took a good while to
get to the plot, the first half of the book didn’t feel empty. After all, Link
and Ridley were just drifting so it makes sense for the reader to drift with
them. The grammar and humour were of high quality and the authors demonstrated
amazing writing skills. Sure, there were more plot mistakes than is usual but
they were so minor that the plot remained steady. Plus, at last we see the ins
and outs of Ridley and Link’s relationship! It’s like a love story, almost.
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