Backlist Burndown Review: Written in Red by Anne Bishop

No one creates realms like New York Times bestselling author Anne Bishop. Now in a thrilling new fantasy series, enter a world inhabited by the Others, unearthly entities—vampires and shape-shifters among them—who rule the Earth and whose prey are humans.
As a cassandra sangue, or blood prophet, Meg Corbyn can see the future when her skin is cut—a gift that feels more like a curse. Meg’s Controller keeps her enslaved so he can have full access to her visions. But when she escapes, the only safe place Meg can hide is at the Lakeside Courtyard—a business district operated by the Others.
Shape-shifter Simon Wolfgard is reluctant to hire the stranger who inquires about the Human Liaison job. First, he senses she’s keeping a secret, and second, she doesn’t smell like human prey. Yet a stronger instinct propels him to give Meg the job. And when he learns the truth about Meg and that she’s wanted by the government, he’ll have to decide if she’s worth the fight between humans and the Others that will surely follow.

Written in Red was definitely a fun read (listen) this month. When the book starts out, Meg’s history is a bit of a mystery. Since it’s in the blurb I will explain a bit. She possesses special powers to see the future in visions. These visions are brought about by cutting her skin, and the experience can be incredibly painful. Now the interesting thing about her ability is that it is extremely useful to people and also limited in how many prophecies that can do within their lifetime. So they are kept pretty much in captivity with their sole purpose being provide visions to their controllers and clients. As you may have guessed, Meg manages to escape. In her escape, she needs somewhere safe to hide. In comes The Others.

In this world, there are humans, and then there are The Others. The Others are the supernatural beings comprised of some beings that readers will find quite familiar such as vampires and werewolves as well as some fresher varieties that add another interesting aspects to the story and world. And while The Others share the world and space, they do tend to sort of colonize into specific areas, isolated themselves a bit from the humans. They have common zones where humans are allowed to mingle to some degree, but where The Others live is strictly off limits to humans. Also, human law does not apply where The Others live. Meg is not quite fully human, but she is not considered one of the Others either. Meg sees their safe zone as her best chance at eluding the people pursuing her, so she applies for a position as a human liaison.

This is where we meet Simon Wolfguard. He hires Meg, and I guess pack etiquette makes him very protective of her. It’s kind of strange, really, but hey, he’s a wolf. My dog certainly becomes attached and guards sillier things than some random girl. Overall, I enjoyed the mystery of what was going on and most of the interactions. This is the type of audiobook that is super easy to listen to and follow, with enough going on to keep you interested.

My main complaint with this book/audiobook is the whining. Ahhk! I don’t know if I want to fault the narrator for this or not, because I suspect she was reading the words and tone true. But when it comes down to it, when I read my books, I don’t want to listen to whining! Both Meg and one other character had moments of major whining and I have to admit, it annoyed me. HOWEVER, the strengths of the book definitely outweighed the nuisance of hearing whining read a bit too true for my tastes.

And along those lines, I really wanted Meg to grow up a bit and become a stronger character. I know this is a book one, so there is still time for that to develop. I find I often have this problem in a book one of a series to see the character sort of grow into their own and become more the type of character I enjoy. I am hoping Meg is on that path.

Overall, I am happy with my backlist choice this month. I already have the second in this series, and definitely plan to continue.

I have challenged and committed myself to reading at least one book from my backlist every month and posting the review on the last Friday of the month. I invite anyone interested to join me and link up their own Backlist Burndown reviews. I will offer the link at the bottom of my monthly Backlist Burndown reviews, and also will keep a running record of the reviews on my Dracarys! Backlist Burndown page available from my top menu.

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