undefined

Madhouse

by Rob Thurman

Reviewed by Ruby

Niko and Cal are hired by a Valkyrie from the Metropolitan Museum. It seems that one of the exhibits has come to life and vanished. Worse yet, it was Sawney Beane, a Scottish mass murderer from the 16th century. Fortunately it was just him that was somehow reincarnated and not his cannibalistic clan.

It doesn't feel that fortunate for the brothers as the meet up with Beane and he turns out to be absolutely insane and practically indestructible and- oh yeah- takes a giant bite out of Cal. 

Also, it appears that someone has a grudge against Robin Goodfellow, their used-car salesmen (and puck) friend and now is trying to kill him. What is even more surprising is that he is closed mouthed about it. Considering he talks non-stop about anything or anyone, this doesn't bode well for anyone, and it seems that it came at the worst possible time because Beane is gathering a new clan.

I was talking with my friend who I lent the first book to and I asked her if she liked it. She said no, but she also told me that it reminded her of me. Which might be why I like these books so much. Cal is my kind of character: sarcastic, cynical and lazy. That's basically me (well, if you substitute procrastinator for lazy).

I don't actually read these books for the plot, even though this one actually had an enjoyable plot. I read it for the brothers and their character development and such. The one problem I did have the plot was that everything kind of happens at the end and one right on top of the other and there was no time to deal with the end of one and bam the second plot comes to a head.

Other than that (and the mini sub-plot of Cal trying to get laid) it was very good.

Grade: B

Coral's Review:

This was my least favourite book of the series so far.

Though I have thought the plots of the books have all been pretty weak, the plot of this book was just too ridiculous for me to really ignore.

First off we have Delilah. Considering what her brother and nephew went through last book, I thought it strained believability a little bit that we were only hearing about her now.

As a stand-alone plot, the Redcap story line wouldn’t have been so bad. It dragged, but that’s normal for this series, I guess.

The someone-is-trying-to-kill-Robin plot was where I had my main problems. Given who was revealed to be behind the plot, I found the reasoning of why they didn’t try sooner, or try a more direct approach rather than the means they used in the books a little far-fetched. I also thought the motive behind why they wanted to kill Robin a little weak. Let me rephrase that. At one point, we are told that Robin knows why he is being targeted, but won’t tell Cal and Niko because he is ashamed of what he’d done and didn’t want them to know about that part of him. When we find out what their motive was, I didn’t believe it would be something that Robin would be ashamed of, or that it would be something that he would hide from Cal and Niko.

I am also getting a little annoyed with Cal. His internal thoughts don’t really change all that much from book to book. It was nice to read about his realization that he valued Robin as a friend, and what they meant for him because he had only relied on his brother before, but I also wish we could get some Niko chapters. There was a part of the book, where Niko thinks that Robin is willing to give up, that bothers Niko, where I wish we could have had Niko’s thoughts. I mean, Niko came to rely on Robin faster than Cal, because Robin was there with him when Cal was taken in the first book. I may be the only one who wants a Niko-Robin pairing rather than the Robin-Ishiah pairing, but I also think they have a strong friendship that I wish could be explored outside of Cal’s whiny thoughts

This wasn’t a bad book. There just weren’t any moments that really stood out to me as something I would want to reread.

Grade: C