Obsessed with the latest Sherrilyn Kenyon book...
My life has been taken over by Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Styxx, which is book number eight bazillion in her Dark Hunters series, is 836 pages long (you could use it as a murder weapon!) and is the first DH book I have read since Acheron, which came out in 2008, was also a gazillion pages long, and had enough angst and suffering to trigger mass depression in a battalion of cheerleaders.
I read all the DH books before and including Acheron, but once I read that one, I got all the closure I wanted and moved on. I’ve read her other series but left DH alone since.
Still, I decided to get Styxx because I remembered him as Acheron’s twin/antagonist in a number of books and I was possessed by curiosity to see how she’d turn him into a hero I’d root for. Ummm. THIS BOOK IS EATING MY LIFE. I was skipping on sleep and compulsively turning the pages.
OK, if you are not familiar with Dark Hunters, it’s a series that is all about what basically amounts to demon hunters/world saviors who are assembled from fallen warriors who have been raised from the dead for that purpose and bound to service. It has an insanely complicated mythology (oh, and Greek Gods are vampires), a hell of a lot of manly angsty dudes and kickass ladies. I basically read them all in order back way when and developed an unhealthy obsession with Acheron, their tall, gorgeous leader who is the oldest of them all, has a creeptastic relationship with Artemis, and is basically the perfect combo of BAMF and tortured woobie. Oh, and is also a god of the Atlantean pantheon. Then I got to his book, which I devoured and thought was a good place to end the series and moved on.
And then...came Styxx. Styxx is the story of one of the recurring characters in the Dark Hunters series - Styxx is the twin brother of Acheron, his tormentor in their human lives a long time ago, and occasional antagonist/reluctant ally in the present.
In this book, Kenyon set out not as much to redeem Styxx as to show that redemption isn’t really necessary and perception really is everything - Styxx may not be the pampered and soulless prince he initially appears.
I am not sure the book objectively deserves the 5 stars I give it, as I have a few continuity/characterization problems with it (about which more below), but it was so addictive, so impossible to put down, that I cannot, in all conscience, give it less. Not to mention that it made me both laugh and bawl (which is pretty rare), as well as ship like mad, get angry, and get nightmares. This one is a keeper.
First, three quick disclaimers, in the unlikely event this review is your sole source of information on whether you should read this book. 1. This is a doorstopper. Most of DH books are slim, fun volumes. This baby clocks in at over 830 pages and most of it is…gritty is a kind way to put it. 2. Speaking of gritty - this book is one giant trigger warning for most of its pages - there is abuse, rape, incest, torture and a mix of all four. If you’ve read Acheron, you probably get a pretty good idea of the level of trigger-ness of this and whether it’s something that you can deal with. Though this book has forced drugged twincest, which is not something (thankfully) mentioned in Acheron. 3. This book will make little to no sense if you’ve never read any other DH books. You’d have to read at least Acheron prior to this, as they are sort of bookmarks to each other.
OK, on to the review. First the few issues I had, before I get to the gushing.
Styxx was a bad guy for much of the series, and I don’t think Kenyon originally conceived of him as anything more than the dark to Acheron’s light, a prince as spoiled as Acheron was mistreated, and his brother’s cruel tormentor. Which means that in order to portray him as a tortured woobie and the spoiled/cruel impression from the early books as mistaken, Kenyon has to twist continuity and characterization from the past books into a pretzel. Impressively, she largely manages that very well - twisting or not, it ends up working. There is one (or possibly one-and-a-half) exception however. And that is Ryssa. If you’ve read Acheron, you remember Acheron’s older sister, the only person in his human life who ever cared whether he lived or died. Ryssa was sweet and caring. And, much more importantly, while Acheron was her favorite brother, she also was fond of Styxx and proud of him at least at one point (see entries from her diary in Acheron). But in Styxx, Ryssa is basically bipolar - an angel to Acheron, but a consistently soulless and occasionally murderous bitch to Styxx. Ummm? Ummmm?! I could buy her being not particularly interested in Styxx or even to occasionally snap at him but to be that consistently horrible to him does not jive in a lot of ways with the information in Acheron. The other continuity/characterization issue is less severe (which is why I said I have one-and-a-half issue, and not two), and it is Acheron himself. Despite the horrors of his past, Acheron is basically the most unselfish, selfless human (?) being ever. That’s been established for the last 20 or so books. But if Styxx is a misunderstood woobie, then Acheron’s actions towards him aren’t fully in keeping with that image. Not to mention that Acheron’s actions towards Styxx in Atlantis (I am trying to be not spoilery) during their human lives are…I really have a hard time buying Acheron that way. I have less issues with this than with Ryssa however, because Acheron, reasonably, believes Styxx tortured and tormented him, and everyone, however saintly, has a breaking point, and during the Atlantis sequence, he was terrified and drugged out of his mind, not to mention utterly fucked up and horribly young but I kinda wish Kenyon didn’t go there.
OK, now on to the gushing: I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!! I loved the backstory, the complicated plot, the mythology etc, but above all I adored Styxx and shipped him with Bethany like mad. Styxx is pretty much a perfect mixture of victim and hero and someone who keeps going no matter what is thrown at him. As with Acheron, the bulk of the book is set in the past but (don’t kill me!) I found the part set in the past more appealing than the similar portion of Acheron. In a way, it’s like Kenyon rewrote Acheron but perfected it. For one, while Styxx’s past is horrific, it is not the unmitigated catalog of torment and victimhood that was Acheron. Styxx has the means to occasionally escape and/or lash out - due to their different circumstances, Styxx is less passive about the horror show of his life than Acheron was (not that I would blame Acheron one bit for not being able to put even one toe out of the pit of despair). For another, Styxx’s OTP, Bethany, is someone he meets as a teenager and continues to love and interact with for the duration of the past section. She is involved in his life back then and she truly knows what his life is like. And she gives him interludes of happiness which Acheron’s past utterly lacks (oh, how I wished Acheron’s OTP was similar in knowing him in the past, but Kenyon was constrained by her backstory in that case).
So yes, I loved the romance, with its theme of basically undying love no matter what humans, pantheons, and the sheer weight of time throw at it (talk about destined!). And as much as the romance, I loved Styxx’s complicated, tortured relationship with Acheron and their eventual reconciliation (which made me cry almost as much as Styxx’s hallucination about his wife and child which made me ugly-cry for ages). One of the most horrible things that human and divine beings did in the past was to take the brothers’ twin bond and to twist, pervert and almost destroy it. Honestly, I just want to get a time machine and kidnap those two kids into some normalcy and away from surely the worst fictional family of all time.
Most of the book was about Styxx’s desire to belong to someone and to have someone belong to him - to have some to care and to love for and with. And the end of that quest, as well as the path he took there were so incredible to read about.
Basically, this is a great read - there is romance and misery and battles and overcoming horrible pasts, and reconciliation and reincarnation and secret children and wall-to-wall inspired craziness.
And oh, how I love Styxx himself. Love.
So basically, perfect. And now I am rereading the whole DH series. Which leads me to a random SK list of faves, because I am anal that way.
Favorite SK Novel: Styxx (see above) Runner-up: Born of Silence (densely plotted space adventure romance with a ridiculously tormented hero, which I've reread a billion times)
Least favorite SK novel: I tend to stay away from the ones I know I won't like, Born of Shadows. It wasn't bad, but I was pretty blah on it. so Runner up: Seize the Night. I find Tabitha quite annoying.
Favorite SK hero: Ash, Acheron and a lot of other books (My first and biggest Kenyon crush). Runner up: Darling, Born of Silence or Styxx, Styxx or Nykyrian, Born of Night or Zarek, Dance with the Devil. What can I say, I love them tormented.
Least favorite SK hero: Caillen, Born of Shadows, I don't dislike him, but I am blah on him. Runner up: Syn, Born of Fire, ditto.
Favorite SK heroine: Kiara, Born of Night. She is feminine and tough and just I want to be her BFF. Runner up: Zarya, Born of Silence. Or Beth, Styxx. They are both tough as nails and fight like hell for their men (though occasionally they screw up and the results are not good), plus have their own agendas and vengeance quests.
Least favorite SK heroine: Tabitha, Seize the Night. Just not my type and rather grating. Why Valerius got saddled with her, I don't know. Runner up: Tory, Acheron. She's actually fine and she makes Ash happy but I just wish she was a cooler heroine for my favorite hero (I wish she was like Zarya or Beth - Darling and Styxx are kinda like Ash and their heroines are awesome!)
Favorite SK OTP: Nykyrian/Kiara, Born of Night (teeny dancer and princess and deadly and devoted bodyguard? Yum.) Runner up: Styxx/Beth, Styxx or Darling/Zarya, Born of Silence (what can I say, I go for the deeply tormented deadly dude and violent strong lady who's his salvation).
Hero with the worst past: Ash or Styxx. They pretty much had the same past, and I can't really pick who had it worse. Runner up: Darling. At least he had a happy childhood until his father was murdered.
Evilest villain: Estes in Acheron and Styxx. If there was ever someonw who deserved to be gruesomely tortured to death for months... Runner up: I pretty much hate most of the Gods in Dark Hunters series.
Most depressing book: Acheron Runner up: Styxx (at least, unlike in Acheron, dude gets a break/OTP moments in the horrid portion of his life).
If I could bring home to Mom, it would be: None. They all need eternal therapy.
Who I'd wish would get his/her own book: Nero, the League books - he has all those freaky mind powers and an interesting past. Runner up: Urian. I want SK to reincarnate Phoebe already and give him a happy ending.
I read all the DH books before and including Acheron, but once I read that one, I got all the closure I wanted and moved on. I’ve read her other series but left DH alone since.
Still, I decided to get Styxx because I remembered him as Acheron’s twin/antagonist in a number of books and I was possessed by curiosity to see how she’d turn him into a hero I’d root for. Ummm. THIS BOOK IS EATING MY LIFE. I was skipping on sleep and compulsively turning the pages.
OK, if you are not familiar with Dark Hunters, it’s a series that is all about what basically amounts to demon hunters/world saviors who are assembled from fallen warriors who have been raised from the dead for that purpose and bound to service. It has an insanely complicated mythology (oh, and Greek Gods are vampires), a hell of a lot of manly angsty dudes and kickass ladies. I basically read them all in order back way when and developed an unhealthy obsession with Acheron, their tall, gorgeous leader who is the oldest of them all, has a creeptastic relationship with Artemis, and is basically the perfect combo of BAMF and tortured woobie. Oh, and is also a god of the Atlantean pantheon. Then I got to his book, which I devoured and thought was a good place to end the series and moved on.
And then...came Styxx. Styxx is the story of one of the recurring characters in the Dark Hunters series - Styxx is the twin brother of Acheron, his tormentor in their human lives a long time ago, and occasional antagonist/reluctant ally in the present.
In this book, Kenyon set out not as much to redeem Styxx as to show that redemption isn’t really necessary and perception really is everything - Styxx may not be the pampered and soulless prince he initially appears.
I am not sure the book objectively deserves the 5 stars I give it, as I have a few continuity/characterization problems with it (about which more below), but it was so addictive, so impossible to put down, that I cannot, in all conscience, give it less. Not to mention that it made me both laugh and bawl (which is pretty rare), as well as ship like mad, get angry, and get nightmares. This one is a keeper.
First, three quick disclaimers, in the unlikely event this review is your sole source of information on whether you should read this book. 1. This is a doorstopper. Most of DH books are slim, fun volumes. This baby clocks in at over 830 pages and most of it is…gritty is a kind way to put it. 2. Speaking of gritty - this book is one giant trigger warning for most of its pages - there is abuse, rape, incest, torture and a mix of all four. If you’ve read Acheron, you probably get a pretty good idea of the level of trigger-ness of this and whether it’s something that you can deal with. Though this book has forced drugged twincest, which is not something (thankfully) mentioned in Acheron. 3. This book will make little to no sense if you’ve never read any other DH books. You’d have to read at least Acheron prior to this, as they are sort of bookmarks to each other.
OK, on to the review. First the few issues I had, before I get to the gushing.
Styxx was a bad guy for much of the series, and I don’t think Kenyon originally conceived of him as anything more than the dark to Acheron’s light, a prince as spoiled as Acheron was mistreated, and his brother’s cruel tormentor. Which means that in order to portray him as a tortured woobie and the spoiled/cruel impression from the early books as mistaken, Kenyon has to twist continuity and characterization from the past books into a pretzel. Impressively, she largely manages that very well - twisting or not, it ends up working. There is one (or possibly one-and-a-half) exception however. And that is Ryssa. If you’ve read Acheron, you remember Acheron’s older sister, the only person in his human life who ever cared whether he lived or died. Ryssa was sweet and caring. And, much more importantly, while Acheron was her favorite brother, she also was fond of Styxx and proud of him at least at one point (see entries from her diary in Acheron). But in Styxx, Ryssa is basically bipolar - an angel to Acheron, but a consistently soulless and occasionally murderous bitch to Styxx. Ummm? Ummmm?! I could buy her being not particularly interested in Styxx or even to occasionally snap at him but to be that consistently horrible to him does not jive in a lot of ways with the information in Acheron. The other continuity/characterization issue is less severe (which is why I said I have one-and-a-half issue, and not two), and it is Acheron himself. Despite the horrors of his past, Acheron is basically the most unselfish, selfless human (?) being ever. That’s been established for the last 20 or so books. But if Styxx is a misunderstood woobie, then Acheron’s actions towards him aren’t fully in keeping with that image. Not to mention that Acheron’s actions towards Styxx in Atlantis (I am trying to be not spoilery) during their human lives are…I really have a hard time buying Acheron that way. I have less issues with this than with Ryssa however, because Acheron, reasonably, believes Styxx tortured and tormented him, and everyone, however saintly, has a breaking point, and during the Atlantis sequence, he was terrified and drugged out of his mind, not to mention utterly fucked up and horribly young but I kinda wish Kenyon didn’t go there.
OK, now on to the gushing: I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!! I loved the backstory, the complicated plot, the mythology etc, but above all I adored Styxx and shipped him with Bethany like mad. Styxx is pretty much a perfect mixture of victim and hero and someone who keeps going no matter what is thrown at him. As with Acheron, the bulk of the book is set in the past but (don’t kill me!) I found the part set in the past more appealing than the similar portion of Acheron. In a way, it’s like Kenyon rewrote Acheron but perfected it. For one, while Styxx’s past is horrific, it is not the unmitigated catalog of torment and victimhood that was Acheron. Styxx has the means to occasionally escape and/or lash out - due to their different circumstances, Styxx is less passive about the horror show of his life than Acheron was (not that I would blame Acheron one bit for not being able to put even one toe out of the pit of despair). For another, Styxx’s OTP, Bethany, is someone he meets as a teenager and continues to love and interact with for the duration of the past section. She is involved in his life back then and she truly knows what his life is like. And she gives him interludes of happiness which Acheron’s past utterly lacks (oh, how I wished Acheron’s OTP was similar in knowing him in the past, but Kenyon was constrained by her backstory in that case).
So yes, I loved the romance, with its theme of basically undying love no matter what humans, pantheons, and the sheer weight of time throw at it (talk about destined!). And as much as the romance, I loved Styxx’s complicated, tortured relationship with Acheron and their eventual reconciliation (which made me cry almost as much as Styxx’s hallucination about his wife and child which made me ugly-cry for ages). One of the most horrible things that human and divine beings did in the past was to take the brothers’ twin bond and to twist, pervert and almost destroy it. Honestly, I just want to get a time machine and kidnap those two kids into some normalcy and away from surely the worst fictional family of all time.
Most of the book was about Styxx’s desire to belong to someone and to have someone belong to him - to have some to care and to love for and with. And the end of that quest, as well as the path he took there were so incredible to read about.
Basically, this is a great read - there is romance and misery and battles and overcoming horrible pasts, and reconciliation and reincarnation and secret children and wall-to-wall inspired craziness.
And oh, how I love Styxx himself. Love.
So basically, perfect. And now I am rereading the whole DH series. Which leads me to a random SK list of faves, because I am anal that way.
Favorite SK Novel: Styxx (see above) Runner-up: Born of Silence (densely plotted space adventure romance with a ridiculously tormented hero, which I've reread a billion times)
Least favorite SK novel: I tend to stay away from the ones I know I won't like, Born of Shadows. It wasn't bad, but I was pretty blah on it. so Runner up: Seize the Night. I find Tabitha quite annoying.
Favorite SK hero: Ash, Acheron and a lot of other books (My first and biggest Kenyon crush). Runner up: Darling, Born of Silence or Styxx, Styxx or Nykyrian, Born of Night or Zarek, Dance with the Devil. What can I say, I love them tormented.
Least favorite SK hero: Caillen, Born of Shadows, I don't dislike him, but I am blah on him. Runner up: Syn, Born of Fire, ditto.
Favorite SK heroine: Kiara, Born of Night. She is feminine and tough and just I want to be her BFF. Runner up: Zarya, Born of Silence. Or Beth, Styxx. They are both tough as nails and fight like hell for their men (though occasionally they screw up and the results are not good), plus have their own agendas and vengeance quests.
Least favorite SK heroine: Tabitha, Seize the Night. Just not my type and rather grating. Why Valerius got saddled with her, I don't know. Runner up: Tory, Acheron. She's actually fine and she makes Ash happy but I just wish she was a cooler heroine for my favorite hero (I wish she was like Zarya or Beth - Darling and Styxx are kinda like Ash and their heroines are awesome!)
Favorite SK OTP: Nykyrian/Kiara, Born of Night (teeny dancer and princess and deadly and devoted bodyguard? Yum.) Runner up: Styxx/Beth, Styxx or Darling/Zarya, Born of Silence (what can I say, I go for the deeply tormented deadly dude and violent strong lady who's his salvation).
Hero with the worst past: Ash or Styxx. They pretty much had the same past, and I can't really pick who had it worse. Runner up: Darling. At least he had a happy childhood until his father was murdered.
Evilest villain: Estes in Acheron and Styxx. If there was ever someonw who deserved to be gruesomely tortured to death for months... Runner up: I pretty much hate most of the Gods in Dark Hunters series.
Most depressing book: Acheron Runner up: Styxx (at least, unlike in Acheron, dude gets a break/OTP moments in the horrid portion of his life).
If I could bring home to Mom, it would be: None. They all need eternal therapy.
Who I'd wish would get his/her own book: Nero, the League books - he has all those freaky mind powers and an interesting past. Runner up: Urian. I want SK to reincarnate Phoebe already and give him a happy ending.