MY THOUGHTS


❝Alas, I know how well God listens to the prayers of the damned.❞


The Damned is the infinitely quotable, addictive sequel to The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh — one of the key books in kickstarting the vampire resurgence within YA. In truth, The Beautiful was underwhelming for me and I only gave it two stars, but vampire books happen to be my guilty pleasure and I didn’t want to give up on this series at the first book. I’m extremely glad I read the sequel as the stakes have increased in tenfold this time around. Whilst a lot of the first book was slow paced and shrouded in mystery, The Damned is fast, fun and has the right amount of enigmas to keep the reader hooked.


❝It is never too late to chase the better version of yourself.❞


One thing I loved about the first book was the New Orleans setting — it’s very atmospheric — but the expanding supernatural world in The Damned is immensely enjoyable too. Readers were introduced to a few different creatures in The Beautiful, but the spotlight is shared more equally this time around as Ahdieh dives deeper into vampire/werewolf politics and the ever-exciting world of the fey. This is very different tonally to the first and feels less like an urban fantasy towards the end. However, it's a good change and propels a lot of the characters’ development forward as the complex layers and rules of the supernatural are peeled back. The found family trope is apparent within the Court of Lions and the unique relationships between this very diverse cast of characters makes it easy for a reader to resonate with at least one of them. Their bond and interactions are a true highlight. Albeit, this is also a perspective heavy book and I didn’t appreciate the excessive amount of POV changes. The different POV changes are overwhelming and too many things start to happen at once to the point of complication.

❝In the end, the monsters did possess the better stories.❞



CHARACTERS


❝And she was not a damsel in distress, waiting to be rescued by a knight on a shining horse.❞


Celine is the female protagonist in the series and she's seductive, fierce and smart. She reminds me a lot of Buffy Summers, serving as a prime example that women can be feminine and badass — they don't need to compromise between fighting and liking fashion, for example. She is a really refreshing character because she knows what she wants and isn't afraid of speaking her mind, which is a big feat considering the book is set in the 1800s. She doesn't take anything sitting down and I love how independent she is — she has her own mind and makes her own decisions without caring what others will think of her. I especially appreciated how quick she is to piece together people are lying to her and how determined she is to find out the truth. If anything, my only complaint is there's not enough of her in this book — the focus is more on Bastien this time.


❝The face of the obedient son. The benevolent brother. The cool-headed leader. The vengeful vampire. The lost soul. The forgotten lover.❞


Our other main character is Bastien — a newly turned vampire who longs to be 'unmade.' As a vampire, Bastien is angsty and brooding, which isn't the type of character I'd usually like. Whilst he isn't anything special, I think he balances Celine fairly well. He is an interesting character, one that comes from a place of privilege and has a past that unfolds with each page, but I can't understand why he didn't fight harder for Celine. I wonder if he was too caught up in himself at times to realise that he could have had everything he wanted if only he took charge more. However, I did admire his constant efforts to improve as a person and the emotional depth that he offered as it is rarely seen in male characters.



MY FAVOURITE MOMENT


❝And real love may be a choice, but I plan to choose someone who steals the breath from my body and haunts my very dreams. That is the only kind of love worth having.❞


By far, the standout moment for me is Celine's conversation with Pippa at the engagement party. It's heart wrenching to think that Pippa is so prepared to settle for less than she deserves and a part of me hopes she ends up with Arjun — I think some seeds were being planted for their relationship. This scene really called attention to who Celine is as a character for me though — it shows she is passionate and vivacious and certainly won't conform to the societal standards for women.


❝I have loved you in both my lives. I will love you in all the rest to come.❞


The notion of Celine not conforming is furthered when she takes control and initiates being intimate with Bastien. This ended up being another one of my favourite moments and it was done in a tasteful manner. It was nice to see the woman being dominant for once. When reading, I thought it felt natural and was the necessary step to strengthen Celine and Bastien's relationship. If anything, it serves as a pay off after all the pair endured to find their way back to each other.



MY LEAST FAVOURITE MOMENT


I don't think there's anything I strongly dislike about this book — other than the amount of POVs, that is. Some of the POVs are red herrings in concern to the true villain, but it creates confusion as opposed to intrigue. In fact, the unnamed POV is a particularly underwhelming reveal, one that I guessed almost immediately.



FINAL VERDICT


Regardless of how people felt about The Beautiful, I would urge everyone to give The Damned a chance. It's a phenomenal, action-packed read where there are no dull moments and it far surpassed my expectations. Twists and hints are around every corner, embedded into Adieh's compelling writing style — the extended metaphor of fairytales throughout is executed flawlessly and solidifies how intricately woven The Beautiful's world is. Although, it does contain an unnecessary amount French that is sometimes poorly placed (si les enfants sont précieux, then why are they so cruel to ethereals?). To me, it didn't make sense why characters would speak half a sentence in French and change to English, but my biggest gripe with it is the lack of a translation guide. Some words are easy to figure out, some others made Google Translate a permanently open tab whilst I read it. Nonetheless, I'm immensely excited for the future of this series.

I fell back into this world easily. I had thought I would need to reread The Beautiful before picking this up but thankfully I didn’t.

I flew through this. As in I read it within 24 hours. Faster than I expected. But I just couldn’t put it down. On one hand I didn’t want it to end. But I also needed to know what happened. Yet again I’m left wanting more. But more on that later.

I went into this nervous. I thought I knew where this would go. I was mostly wrong. In fact I was not expecting the Celine reveals. Although it’s a popular trope I liked it in this case. Maybe because I didn’t see it coming. I don’t think I had a reason to think this was coming. But it worked I think. It added another layer to Celine and the story itself. Where the book can go anywhere now.

Arjun and Pippa are a couple I would happily get behind. Their interactions made me smile. Even when Arjun teases Celine about Pippa. I just want more from them.

Obviously Celine and Bastien still own my heart. Their chemistry. I just find myself smiling some many times when they interact. The type of relationship they have. I just love it. I need them to be happy.

Yet again I am left heartbroken. But needing more. The story is left so open. I have many questions. There’s multiple stories waiting to be told. Odette? Michael? Pippa mission? Celine and Bastien? The Brotherhood? I need answers for all of these characters and their stories.

An epic conclusuon to an atmospheric & seductive tale! Impossible to put down with characyers you'll love (& loathe) for a long time to come. Renee Ahdieh is a must-read author!

The EARC of this book was provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Damned is the second book of the Beautiful saga by Renée Ahdieh. This is little-known news, unknown even to me until I finished reading, because the other two books have not yet been announced, but only spoiled in some articles. Anyway already from the first chapters, it is possible to understand that the story is far from its conclusion.

The Beautiful proved to be the tip of the iceberg of a much more complex world. The Damned opens immediately after the events that conclude the first volume but pushes us in an unexpected direction. The various characters have to work out what happened and Celine is perhaps the one who paid the most, but her journey takes time. Therefore the writer initially focuses on Bastien and La Cour de Lion.

In the first book, my major criticism was the lack of La cour de Lion, which leaves us fascinated but in some way hungry. Here, describing the story from their point of view, these characters, starting from the queen of my heart, Odette, up to Jae, manage to appear complete, and true. But in my opinion, Bastien also has an extra spark here. He has always been drawn to the darkness and has somehow always considered it his business card, but now that he is forced to deal with the real darkness, he starts chasing the light. His path will be to find out who he wants to be and to understand that he is light and dark and that he can control both.

"He is nothing. No one. Nobody."

The found family is the main topic, together with Bastien. I have already said that the various characters of the cour de lion finally manage to emerge from the background, but their bonds are the real protagonists. Their family was born of loyalty, a loyalty sometimes dictated by fear, sometimes by necessity, sometimes by time. But from this quality love was born. However, doubts torment everyone from the first to the last and wonder if their bonds are true if they can trust if they are the only ones who love their family unconditionally.
But above all, they wondered if loyalty and love are the same things.

Their sadness and terror are accentuated by the almost spasmodic way in which they continue to use words like brothers and sisters (which I think are the most repeated words).
This is truly one of the saddest and somehow sweet found family I have ever read.

Loyalty and darkness are therefore the two main themes of the first part of the book. The book is not made up of two parts, it is more my division that separates a slower and more reflective part from a richer action and twists. I liked the first part very much, I found it perfect. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about the second half because it happens too much too quickly. The author does not give herself the right time to explore the various discoveries and characters' reactions. Celine finally takes the reins of the book, but there is no real evolution, and she looks almost too perfet to be true.

" "You won't like my dreams."
He paused, glancing at her over one shoulder. "Why is that?" "

Not even Michael, one of the most important characters, has the space he deserves. His relationship with Celine ended up in the background.

One of the characters who instead showed how much she is worth, but who still has a lot to show us, is Pippa. I can't wait to find out what Renée has in store for her.

The Beautiful's worldbuilding is undoubtedly the richest and most complex of Ahdieh. In the first book, it is only presented to us, but here we have the opportunity to get to know it much more deeply.

I can say that this book is bittersweet, it surprises you at times and disappoints you in others. I hope that with the next volume the author will be able to erase the bitterness and create a perfect work from start to finish.

I found the first half or so of this book was a little infodump heavy. Although this did rehash my memory of what had happened in the first book, it was slow and trying to get through.
HOWEVER, I really enjoyed the second half! The relationships between characters were just so good! So much better than they were in the first book. The vampires? Incredible. I loved this book so much more than the first book in this series.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for sending me an eARC of The Damned in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I will start by saying that I did like the author’s writing style, it was easy to capture my attention and kept me reading. Also, I think that there are many good ideas in this book series, and that I thought The Damned to be a more solid book than The Beautiful.

I also enjoyed the development of the characters and back story, something that has been missing in the previous book. Also, Celine and Bastien’s love story sounds more credible now.

However, I have a lot of issues with the story, which became more difficult to ignore as I read more of the book. Here we go:

- So Émilie loves her brother so much that she goes deeper into a burning building to save him, and now she wants him dead? I get that she wanted to be saved by her uncle and all and ended up being saved by a werewolf, but… she wants her brother dead as a revenge against her uncle? She ran deeper into a burning building! How can she want him dead now? No logic whatsoever. Her character and involvement in the plot seems so forced, and adds nothing to the story.. the feud and the developments could have been achieved in a different way, she also gets almost no air time in this book and when she does it to repeat the same story. I did not buy this part of the plot

- In this book Bastien gained an internal voice not very different from Louis’ in Anne Rice’s novels… I could not be happy about this… and this is actual a common theme throughout the book… let’s see:
a. The revelation that Celine is part fey, and the fact that Michael is a in-line-to-be-werewolf sounds so much like The Southern Vampire Mysteries.

b. At some point when the Lady of the Vale gives Celine the light bauble and said “In moments of unrelenting gloom, let this be your light”, I thought to myself, wait a second I’ve read this somewhere else…. Yep when Galandriel gave Frodo the light of Eärendil's star she said “May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.”

- As I said At least we get a bit of back story. Even if the story of the Sylvian Vale, Sylvian Wyld, the courts and the feuds and all that seem flimsy and poorly constructed. When we get to go to the Vale and the Wyld, this construction becomes more solid and I got myself interested in reading more about it, but it was just in and out, literally. At the end of the book I felt that this was rushed so the story could finish where it did. So yes, the end of the book felt rushed and I wished the author made the book a bit longer and gave the journey through the Wyld, for example a few more pages.

- Also the sex scene seemed forced into the book and ate a lot of the Vale air time. I’m sure we could’ve waited for a better sex scene in the next book and would be happy for the happy couple to be reunited with a kiss and a loving embrace in this book.


I really wanted to have loved this book but cannot overlook all its faults, and this is the end of the road for me for this series. However, I do see this series being a successful for most readers of the genre, specially if they have just started on Vampire books, and I will give it 2 stars for the potential.

Where the first book in this series didn't quite live up to expectations of sexy vampires, this sequel definitely walks the Anne Rice path with style. It's a bit of a slow burn and you're given a lot of information early on, but over all this was an immersive and beautiful read.