Continuing in the sumptuous footsteps left behind by The Beautiful, Renée Ahdieh returns to the dark and decadent world of New Orleans with The Damned. And this time, she brought the fey.
Celine cannot remember what happened to leave her injured and without her memories, but her nightmares are screaming at her. The constant feeling of being lied to, and that something extraordinary has been taken from her, drives Celine into reckless choices to uncover the truth. Sébastien, on the other hand, cannot stop thinking about the night that Celine gave up her memories in exchange for his life. Now, prowling the streets as a vampire, Sébastien must balance the needs of his supernatural family and the unrelenting desire he feels for Celine. When Sébastien and Celine meet again, their worlds ignite as truths are revealed and new foes make themselves known.
Ahdieh certainly has a way with words. The Damned continues the thematic elegance and glamour found in The Beautiful and manages to take it up another level. Never heavy handed with description, but each scene in the novel has a presence that is easily built in the reader’s mind. There is a deep and seductive ambience that weaves throughout the story and leaves you feeling like you are reading the novel while lounging in a richly appointed New Orleans drawing room.
Much of the story focuses on Celine trying to remember the events that lead to her current predicament. And while she remains as strong willed and sassy as ever, there is very little actual character growth for her in The Damned. Sébastien however, struggles with his complex feelings over being turned into a vampire and having the love of his life lose all memory of him. While he may not be a shining paragon of good decisions, Ahdieh focuses a lot of good emotional energy on building his character.
While we are on the topic of characters, let’s talk for a minute about the POVs (points-of-view) in this novel: there are more than five and I honestly had to stop counting by that point. While the majority of the story is told from the POV of Celine and Sébastien, other POVs are scattered throughout the story. And while these other POVs helped get certain plot points established, the constant switching can lead to a bit of confusion. Each POV is clearly distinguished not only by chapter headers, but by the character’s individual voices. Though even with that, I was left wondering if there could have been a better way to move the plot forward. If a character is going to have a POV, it should be consistent, not randomly appearing when it’s needed.
The supernatural world that Ahdieh builds in this series is nothing short of fantastic. If you felt The Beautiful was a bit lacking in outright supernatural creatures, you are in for quite the surprise with The Damned. Ahdieh takes the old ideas of vampires and werewolves and fey, and twists them to bring something exciting yet familiar to her world. Readers will be particularly intrigued by the inclusion of the fey. No matter the story, the fey are always up to tricks and it’s fun to watch them play out.
While the overabundance of POVs in The Damned may have muddied the waters a bit, Ahdieh crafted a wholly satisfying supernatural sequel. And while I shall drop no spoilers of the ending, I will say that it will leave you frantically searching for a publishing date on the next instalment in this seductive and supernatural series.
The Damned is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of July 7th 2020.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
New York Times bestselling author Renée Ahdieh returns with the second installment of her new sumptuous, sultry and romantic series, The Beautiful.
Following the events of The Beautiful, Sébastien Saint Germain is now cursed and forever changed. The treaty between the Fallen and the Brotherhood has been broken, and war between the immortals seems imminent. The price of loving Celine was costly. But Celine has also paid a high price for loving Bastien.
Still recovering from injuries sustained during a night she can’t quite remember, her dreams are troubled. And she doesn’t know she has inadvertently set into motion a chain of events that could lead to her demise and unveil a truth about herself she’s not quite ready to learn.
Forces hiding in the shadows have been patiently waiting for this moment for centuries. And just as Bastien and Celine begin to uncover the danger around them, they learn their love could tear them apart.
