Dauntless - Anne Malcom

★ ★ ★ ★

I received a copy of this book from the author and I voluntarily reviewed it. Thank you Anne Malcom!

This book covered dark themes. Themes I love reading about; addiction, recovery, grief. There's something special about Anne Malcom's writing. It is fluid and full of personality. She also crafts these beautiful metaphors, although there weren't as many as I would've liked in this book. In Beyond the Horizon, the book was brimming with beautiful literary language, and I was missing that from Dauntless.

I loved the plot of the story. The struggle and back and forth was very believable and honest. I loved that aspect of it. I felt as though the pace was off a little. It seemed like so much happened in the last 10%, like maybe too much happened in the last 10%. I think the book would have also needed a little more editing. I would have liked to see the resolution of the conflict begin a little earlier and take longer, but that's just me.

One thing that really wowed me was Anne Malcom's character development. It's slow, real, raw, believable. Lucky and Bex... sigh... such beautifully broken characters with demons dancing behind their eyes. With devils on their backs, and, pardon my humour, but no Florence Welch to tell them shake it out and to shake them off. Malcom creates such complex characters I forget they are fictional at times.

Anne Malcom remains one of my all time favourite authors, and I cannot wait to read her next masterpiece. (less)