Just as compelling on the re-read! What I lived about this book the first time was how well the author plops you down in a world with so much you don't know and keeps the mystery alive the entire time. As you figure out who Meg and the Others are, you discover knew unknowns to puzzle over along with the characters. And the characters are so great.

The only thing I did not love was the prologue. The language really makes it sound like we're talking about our own Earth under slightly different names and comparing Native Americans to the terra indigene. And while the terra indigene are incredibly powerful and I don't think it ends up actually being problematic, that prologue really seems like Native Americans are being paralleled as beasts and predators, which is obviously not cool.

Written in Red is both the first book in The Others' series by Anne Bishop and the first book I finished by this author (because I'm not counting the first book in the Black Jewels Trilogy since it's in a bindup, okay? shush) and I had a blast.

The book is, very simplified, about a human woman who stumbles into a territory ruled by The Others, a bunch of supernatural creatures that are actually fucking terrifying if they want to be thank god, and finds a home there. Found family, healing, overcoming trauma and the like are all very prevalent themes in this book and I liked that a lot. The writing was at times a bit too simple for my taste usually but the dialogues were goddamn hilarious most of the time, and I really enjoyed getting to know all the characters!

The story itself has a lot of foreseeable twists and turns here and there, but it doesn't detract from the enjoyment factor because ultimately, the book is not about unexpected twists in the narrative. Rather, Bishop uses outward motivation like a (pretty standard) villain attacking the town to explore inner themes and self-realization (or at least the start of one, given that this is only book one in a series). If you are not too plot-driven of a reader, I highly suggest you give this series a try for the characters alone!