Undone
Undone by Rachel Caine
Outcast Season #1
Once she was Cassiel, a
Djinn of limitless power. Now, she has been reshaped in human flesh as
punishment for defying her master--and living among the Weather Wardens,
whose power she must tap into regularly or she will die. And as she
copes with the emotions and frailties of her human condition, a
malevolent entity threatens her new existence...
Cassiel, the hardest, most un-human Djinn has defied her master and has been imprisoned in human form without the ability to draw on her powers. Without a direct tie to the Mother, she knows she will surely die, and is about ready to accept that fate when she realizes she can draw small amounts from the Weather Wardens. It sounds like torture to her, living off of the scraps of others, but her attitude starts to change once she realizes the potential good she can do. Even so, it will be a very long and bumpy road as she adjusts to her new way of existence, but she can't take too much time as a deadly force is just waiting on the horizon, and it has its sights set on her.
I'm not really sure why I expected the Outcast Season books to be Joanne 2.0, but they most definitely were not. Granted it has a been a long time since I read Joanne's books, but I remember her to be very determined to do the right thing, sympathetic, loyal, and a little flighty at times. Cassiel is absolutely none of those things, at least not at the start. She is so cold and hard, yet there also is a vulnerability about her that kept her from being completely closed off. As she learns what it means to be human she slowly grows a heart and attachments with others, even if she isn't really sure what to do with those emotions. A lot of her internal dialogs show her believing that the attachment is only due to the fact that she needs the Wardens in order to survive, but I don't believe that to be the case. I think there is a really connection there, and I can't wait to see it grow even more.
For almost the entire book I was being driven crazy because I wanted to know why Cassiel was cast out and that information was not revealed until the very end. Looking back I think that build up to the reveal was actually a good thing because I wouldn't have looked at things the same way, and I would have really missed that suspense. Although I will say that when she finally revealed the reason, my jaw literally dropped and I was just so speechless. To be honest I was quite surprised she actually refused in the first place, considering how cold she was in the beginning, but let me just say it's probably a good thing she did. Well, there really is no probably about it. I'm just really interested to see where things go from here.
The unique thing about this series is that it happens at the same time as the Weather Warden books, with Undone being back a few books in the timeline. So considering the fact that I know the outcome of those books, you would think that the big bad threat in this book wouldn't seem so, well threatening. However that could not be further from truth as it hits home with an issue that is really personal to me. I have to be quite vague here in order to not spoil things, but whenever something involves this type of issue I am always extremely attacked to the outcome of the plot. Perhaps after I read the next book I'll be able to address that issue more in depth as it shouldn't be quite a spoiler by that point. For now I'd be happy to discuss things in the comments, and close this review up here. I have to say that overall Undone was a rather impressive read, and I'm looking forward to diving into the next installment.
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Undone (Outcast Season, Book 1)
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