Fantasia Reviews Contrition

 

Fantasia Reviews Contrition by Haven Cage

Published 5/30/2018

Genre – Urban Fantasy

Ages 18+

A Gritty Urban Fantasy

We have been reading Miss Cage’s work for quite some time, and as such, we know what to expect. In Contrition, she presents the same gritty fantasy, advancing an interesting story. Perhaps to its detriment, Contrition is chockablock full of characters with enough PoV shifts to leave our heads spinning. While some added to the narrative, others felt unnecessary.
Regarding the story, Contrition provides the resolution readers of the series have wanted. While we won’t spoil the ending, we will say that the two epilogues somewhat diminished the finale of the story without adding anything meaningful to it. Because of this, we are adding a public message to Miss Cage here: You are a fine writer and a great storyteller. Be confident in your ability, and the intelligence of your audience and your work will improve immensely.

Contrition is Contrite

We tend to focus on the faults of a book when reviewing it, so we want to quickly reiterate that Contrition is worth reading, as is the entirety of the Faltering Souls series. That said, we would be remiss if we didn’t offer feedback to the author and inform potential readers. The lack of confidence we previously mentioned rears its head every now and again as you turn the pages. Scenes that should be bold can come off as sheepish, falling short of their emotional impact potential.

The imagery is also questionable at times, feeling a bit heavy-handed and repetitive. This holds the work back as a whole, causing what should be a smooth experience to stutter(falter?).

A Rose by Any Other Name

So we hammered it a bit, but, as we keep recommending it, we must have liked something, right? While we marked the numerous PoVs as a negative, Miss Cage’s Contrition continues to provide vivid and believable characters, whose fates are tied to an imaginative fantasy adventure that draws so much from what is familiar and manages to turn it new. It’s not only fun to read, but it manages to serve as a satisfying finale to a series that we thought would be difficult to end. We look forward to reading more of Miss Cage’s work for many years to come.

The Rating –

Contrition is a good read. It’s really good. However, it’s not quite great. Missed opportunities rob it of what could have been a perfect review. While we enjoyed the end of Nevaeh’s story, we wish the execution had been a little sharper. Overall, we highly recommend Contrition to anyone who loves urban fantasies and gritty stories.

If you want to read Contrition, you can find it here. If you’re new to the series, you can find all of it here.