Actual Rating: 2.5 StarsThis review contains spoilers for Incarnate, the first book in this trilogy.There was something off about Janan. Inside the temple, he’d called me a mistake, which implied that he had a plan. He’d also said I was “of no consequence,” which implied that he didn't view me as a threat.I aimed to be a threat.Ana, girl, you and I need to have a little chat. Ready?We are done with the self-pity. We were done yesterday.After kicking ass and taking names at the end of Incarnate, I thought we had arrived. Ana found the strength in herself to face dragons, deities, and even her parents. She saved Sam's life. She rescued a great number of the citizens of Heart. Now, it didn't surprise me that certain townspeople continued to be ignorant and fear-mongering, and of course Ana should have self-doubts that lingered. These aren't the types of problems you see disappear overnight. What I was hoping to see in Asunder?A new storyline. Because this novel followed the same basic outline as it's predecessor: Ana is presented with a mystery. Ana gets distracted. Ana hates herself. Romantic quandary! ALL THE CLUES A GIRL COULD ASK FOR. Nope, don't care; romantic quandary! Self-hatred! Oh, better check up on that mystery. Holy smokes, look at all this information just lying around! Maybe I could—PERSONAL CRISIS. Annnd look at the entire mystery unfold. How coincidental.Yes, plenty of these are tropes seen in many a novel. There aren't many great stories without a dash of coincidence and misdirection, but the problem here is that Ana's devolved from a character with an obvious hamartia into a simple unreliable narrator. She's so busy concerning herself with her status as a newsoul that her perception of her world suffers, and the reader is left frustrated by her inability to pick up on the obvious. I wasn't only aggravated by her inattention to plot points (The sylph! Menehem's research! You can't devote the entire opening to a subject and then not have the main character look into it), but was confused as to whether I'm even supposed to sympathize with her anymore. Her treatment of Sam throughout Asunder was, to be plain, pathetic.It's made clear from the first chapter that Sam will be the same patient, devoted love interest he was constructed as in Incarnate."I have to get out," I told Sam. "I need to get away? Will you go with me?""Anywhere," he said, and kissed me.While he has his own pressures to deal with, he always puts Ana first. Such a big deal is made about the fact that Ana can't reply when he first tells her he loves her, but he can wait for her to be ready. I assumed it was because he could see that Ana loved him, and so in the wisdom of his 5000 years wasn't going to perish without the assurance (And because he's just a genuinely sweet guy), but if love was there, I didn't see it. Instead only Ana's perceptions counted, and so it was nothing her to callously disregard his opinions and even his presence.Boy, I know this is a female-dominated genre and you're supposed to be all about the girl, but you don't have to put up with that. Kick her to the curb.I praised author Jodi Meadows characterizations so highly in my previous review that the lack of growth here astounded me. Secondaries that were more well-rounded before actually seemed to regress in this sequel. Steph, in particular, while obviously still in love with Dossam and jealous of Ana throughout Incarnate, let those feelings manifest as a protective but slightly aloof nature. Her role's now been reduced to little more than that of the jealous harpy after Ana's man. A new character brought into the mix, Cris, is presented as an obvious important addition to the story, but we go on to really only dance around his history and witness surface interactions before his duty as a plot vehicle becomes evident.Still, I continue to be intrigued by the concepts behind this series and how Meadows is sure to explore not only the ramifications of immortality on the souls themselves, but the universe as a whole. When things did begin to happen, I was constantly surprised by the directions the story took and the elaborate histories of the world. Even so, I'll be going into this trilogy's conclusion frustrated and all too wary of how I might be left wanting.Originally posted at JUSTINEXORABLE.COM.
