Who has two thumbs and is now all-caught up to the Dogs of the Spires series at the time of writing this review? That's me. I do still have the spinoff Misty and Vernin to go through, but I'm finally at the current releases with the main series. Bit late, but better late than never. Let's delve into the midway-point of arc two, shall we. Spoilers ahead.
Duchess has finally learned the truth about Alex and Arcanum, and she and her allies now try to put a stop to the Red Madness and the flesh-stealers. However, she ends up discovering and freeing an ancient evil in the process of doing so. Soon it turns out it's not just the Red Madness they Spire-packs are facing, but a whole lot more than they expected.
Another very solid installment in this series. Dogs of the Spires so far has never disappointed me. Duchess' journey continues and is as intense as ever.
Some criticisms I had for the last book are also somewhat negated in this book. There, I criticized Duchess' character development as she went down her "corruption arc" too fast, but in this book it turns out that Alex had indeed been drugging her during book two in order to turn her more Duke-like. And thing is, it worked. Even now that Duchess knows she's been manipulated like this, she doesn't even feel all wrong about it, leading to a bit of a minor identity crisis for her, which very interesting to see. I also like that we got a few chapters from a non-protagonist POV in this book as we get a few from Alex's, Skye's and Hunter's POV.
Old favorite Delta also returns, though I think she may be dead now. The last chapter of her and Skye took place on a Spire, and not much later the Spires collapse. I do hope they both somehow made it out as I like both characters a whole lot, especially Delta. Also, Step (like I predicted) is still alive. It takes more than a little electricity to bring down this dog. His arc when it comes to his relationship with Duchess also comes to somewhat of a close in this book, which I was glad to see. I don't think the duo will ever be on great terms with one another after everything what happened, but Step forgives her at least, which is a good step (haha) in the right direction.
Two other characters I just have to bring up are Salvo and Macy. Salvo is slowly starting to rot even more due to the aftermath of the destruction of the Heart, and Macy forges a nice but brief friendship with Duchess. I do hope we see both again as they're quickly growing to become some of my favorites (well, Salvo already was).
The Spirit of Dark (Abaddon) being the main villain is also something I somewhat predicted once I saw where the chapters were heading, but the reveal was still very good and now the Spires are once more up against a bigger-than-life threat. Before it was Guardian, now it's Abaddon, though I definitely like Abaddon more. I just couldn't ever quite get behind Guardian as a villain, but the Spirit of Dark so far is truly intense and I'm very interested in seeing what's happening next. Especially now that the Spires, the setting all of these books have taken place in (with one or two detours into the mountains) up until now, are destroyed and a lot of the dogs living in are dead, if not because of its destruction then by the Red Madness.
Definitely another very intense book in the series. We also seem to be finally getting some info on that mysterious Emperor character in the next book, so that'll definitely be engaging to read. I just wish these poor dogs like Duchess and yes even Step after everything he did a break. Not a moment of peace for them, it seems.
Rating: 4.5/5
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