Review: The Mirror of Beasts by Alexandra Bracken

The Mirror of Beasts by Alexandra Bracken
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC of this book via Netgalley, however I did opt to mainly listen to the final production audiobook via my library.  

Like the first book this is a bit on the long side, clocking in at around the 500 page or 19 hour mark depending on your preferred format. The narrator again did a great job giving each character a unique voice so you can tell who is who when there is dialogue and she also did conveying emotion throughout the book.

This picks up where book one leaves off, so you don't really want to read this as a standalone.  You really need to read the books in order to understand what is going on.  Tamsin and her group are attempting to regroup after the events of book one.  With Avalon destroyed, they must search for the artifacts that will defeat Lord Death and the Wild Hunt before he unleashes hell on Earth.  Tamsin has to use her skills at solving puzzles and tracking to figure out who her allies are and where those items are hidden before Lord Death finds them or destroys them.  She and her friends find help in unlikely places and she uncovers some new information that is hard to swallow that will help them with their mission.

I feel like this book lacked the focus that the first book had.  This wasn't as much of a quest, which is what I really enjoyed about the first installment.  While there was action in this book, it didn't feel as well choreographed as the first.  We still get some dark and gory scenes though.  There were so many characters (maybe too many characters) but I still don't feel like I got to know any of them.  I wanted more character development and backstory in the first book, and I still don't feel like I got that.  For as long as this book is, I wanted more information and more answers.

If you enjoy King Arthur retellings, this was an entertaining duology.  It doesn't strictly stick to Arthurian lore, but the characters and setting are certainly inspired by it.  While I didn't enjoy this as much as I enjoyed book 1 it was still fun, and tied things up nicely for our characters.

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