Book Review: The Venom Spreads by Erin Hunter (Bravelands: Curse of the Sandtongue #2)

 

Book two time! Let's see how Bramble, Prance and Chase are dealing with the rise of a reptile-worshiping cult in the midst of their communities. Spoilers ahead.

Bramble, Chase and Prance still face their issues. Chase struggles in looking after Seek more than ever now that he's been bitten. Prance learns that she possesses new abilities and wishes to help Great Father Thorn, who is now ancient. Bramble, finally, travels to see the Great Father and ask him for advice on how to deal with the problems within his troop. Meanwhile, the reptiles are still gathering, and a mysterious individual known as "Grandmother" is in the midst of all this.

Solid book. Good at buildig up the mystery further. I said this in my review of Shadows on the Mountain, but this arc is doing a much better job at setting up the main conflict so far. Here's to hoping they don't chicken out on making the reptile-cult thing the main plot like they did in arc one, where the arc could almost be split into two mini-arcs rather than a large overarching story.

I still like our characters, but like I said in the last book, they're just so bland. Maybe they'll get some good development later down the line, but so far they're just kind of boring to be honest. The stuff going on regarding Prance is still very interesting (her cheating death countless times, losing the Us and her shadow, gaining special powers and now being appointed the next Great Parent). But even her personality is just so uninteresting. 

It's a decent book, don't get me wrong, but it feels like it would have so much more potential if the characters had actual personalities and more than one trait to them. Bramble had an actual personality in early book one, this being one of a jokester who doesn't take things seriously, but that trait was instantly dropped a few chapters in. Now he's just yet another blank slate. Chase is fierce...as are pretty much all predatory species in the Bravelands, so this doesn't make her unique at all. Just sucks, because if these characters had actual personalities and arcs this story would be so much better. It's not too late yet, maybe they'll spontaneously become rounded three-dimensional characters by the next book. But so far they feel utterly lacking.

Rating: 3.5/5