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A review by iam
A Ferry of Bones & Gold by Hailey Turner
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
4.0
A Ferry of Bones & Gold as a fast-paced urban fantasy novel that has absolutely everything the genre has to offer: magic/mages sorcerers wizards and witches, werecreatures, vampires, gods, succubi, federal bureaus focusing on the supernatural, and more.
The plot focuses on Patrick, who just wants to go on vacation but his job as special agent specalizing in demonic activity doesn't always allow for breaks. Especially not when the case he's taking over ties back to not only another attempt at a ritual to unleash hell on earth, but also to his own past.
And what a past it is!
From the very start it's obvious that Patrick has lived through some pretty serious stuff. Some of it is told early in the beginning but there is so much to unpack that there is revelation after revelation right until the very end. There isn't always an explanation for everything, which left me confused about some things, but as this is the first in a new series I'm hoping for more conclusions in the sequels.
Patrick was a great main character. He's not exactly something I've never seen before - snarky, sarcastic, a bit rought around the egdes but kind and responsible - but I enjoyed reading about him. The vast cast of supporting characters is great, and includes a seer who never does as he is told, a badass ex-military friend who I would absolutely die for and who I hope will be in the sequels, various gods that Patrick wishes would just leave him alone, and a werewolf without a pack.
Let's talk about the gods first. Most of them were from Greek Mythology, with a side mention of some Norse, West African Egyptian deities, but mostly Greek. I wish there had been more different ones involved. I didn't 100% understand how it worked with mythology in this world - there seems to be a Hell that has demons, and an Underworld as the Greek myths mention, which made me wonder if all the other hell/heaven/etc places from different mythologies and religions exist.
While I was a bit underwhelmed by how some of the god stuff was handled, I really liked some of the interpretations. Especially Persephone and Hera were superb!
Onwards to the second main character: Jono, the werewolf without a pack. A few chapters are written from his PoV and I guess he counts as love interest, though there isn't much love or romance involved. In fact I would argue that the book doesn't have romance at all - the attraction between Jono and Patrick is purely physical, and while they seem to grow to like each other over the course of the book there isn't much emotion involved for the most part.
Which made me a little confused about Jono. I often had no idea why he was acting as he did, but what bothered me more was the way Patrick reacted - or rather, didn't react - to some of Jono's actions. Mainly his possessiveness - there are a few scenes were Jono clearly oversteps the boundaries of their current relationship and Patrick just... doesn't react to it and simply let's him, when I really wouldn't have pegged him for someone who just let's things like that go.
One thing I really liked was how casually present phones were. Various characters used phones for various things, messaging each other, using it for navigation or casually using apps. I always love to see that in books!!
The final battle was shorter than I thought it would be compared to the author's other books. It was well written and kept the tension high, though at parts I was a bit confused about how Patrick knew what to do. A few times he just convenietly does things and I had no idea how he knew how to do them - specifally god and artifact related things that nobody seemed to have explained to him, and partially even he himself is surprised by the results.
As mentioned earlier, Patrick is a special agent. He works with various other officers from various other agencies that all have different acronyms which.... honestly, keeping track of which three letters stood for what and how they were connected to who and who worked for what and what did that mean again... was exhausting at times. Sometimes the department and agency names were written in full, sometimes just the acronym, and while there was an index at the end (THANK GOD FOR THAT!!) not all the acronyms were in there. Maybe some of them are obvious to Americans but as a non-American and non-native English speaker I had a hard time keeping track of all that.
Overall I enjoyed A Ferry of Bones & Gold. It not only has a truly amazing cover but delivers adequately on all levels and was a fun and engaging read. I looking forward to the next book in the series, especially meeting the Hellraisers and hopefully seeing more of Nadine (who I want to step on me pls?!)
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The plot focuses on Patrick, who just wants to go on vacation but his job as special agent specalizing in demonic activity doesn't always allow for breaks. Especially not when the case he's taking over ties back to not only another attempt at a ritual to unleash hell on earth, but also to his own past.
And what a past it is!
From the very start it's obvious that Patrick has lived through some pretty serious stuff. Some of it is told early in the beginning but there is so much to unpack that there is revelation after revelation right until the very end. There isn't always an explanation for everything, which left me confused about some things, but as this is the first in a new series I'm hoping for more conclusions in the sequels.
Patrick was a great main character. He's not exactly something I've never seen before - snarky, sarcastic, a bit rought around the egdes but kind and responsible - but I enjoyed reading about him. The vast cast of supporting characters is great, and includes a seer who never does as he is told, a badass ex-military friend who I would absolutely die for and who I hope will be in the sequels, various gods that Patrick wishes would just leave him alone, and a werewolf without a pack.
Let's talk about the gods first. Most of them were from Greek Mythology, with a side mention of some Norse, West African Egyptian deities, but mostly Greek. I wish there had been more different ones involved. I didn't 100% understand how it worked with mythology in this world - there seems to be a Hell that has demons, and an Underworld as the Greek myths mention, which made me wonder if all the other hell/heaven/etc places from different mythologies and religions exist.
While I was a bit underwhelmed by how some of the god stuff was handled, I really liked some of the interpretations. Especially Persephone and Hera were superb!
Onwards to the second main character: Jono, the werewolf without a pack. A few chapters are written from his PoV and I guess he counts as love interest, though there isn't much love or romance involved. In fact I would argue that the book doesn't have romance at all - the attraction between Jono and Patrick is purely physical, and while they seem to grow to like each other over the course of the book there isn't much emotion involved for the most part.
Which made me a little confused about Jono. I often had no idea why he was acting as he did, but what bothered me more was the way Patrick reacted - or rather, didn't react - to some of Jono's actions. Mainly his possessiveness - there are a few scenes were Jono clearly oversteps the boundaries of their current relationship and Patrick just... doesn't react to it and simply let's him, when I really wouldn't have pegged him for someone who just let's things like that go.
One thing I really liked was how casually present phones were. Various characters used phones for various things, messaging each other, using it for navigation or casually using apps. I always love to see that in books!!
The final battle was shorter than I thought it would be compared to the author's other books. It was well written and kept the tension high, though at parts I was a bit confused about how Patrick knew what to do. A few times he just convenietly does things and I had no idea how he knew how to do them - specifally god and artifact related things that nobody seemed to have explained to him, and partially even he himself is surprised by the results.
As mentioned earlier, Patrick is a special agent. He works with various other officers from various other agencies that all have different acronyms which.... honestly, keeping track of which three letters stood for what and how they were connected to who and who worked for what and what did that mean again... was exhausting at times. Sometimes the department and agency names were written in full, sometimes just the acronym, and while there was an index at the end (THANK GOD FOR THAT!!) not all the acronyms were in there. Maybe some of them are obvious to Americans but as a non-American and non-native English speaker I had a hard time keeping track of all that.
Overall I enjoyed A Ferry of Bones & Gold. It not only has a truly amazing cover but delivers adequately on all levels and was a fun and engaging read. I looking forward to the next book in the series, especially meeting the Hellraisers and hopefully seeing more of Nadine (who I want to step on me pls?!)
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.