Sacred Scars by Kathleen Duey

I’ve been foaming at the mouth to read the second in the Resurrection of Magic trilogy for almost two years now (has it really been that long?!), or basically ever since I closed Skin Hunger. So this one was eagerly anticipated and the book surprisingly huge – Sacred Scars clocks in at 554 pages, where the first one was a much slimmer 368 pages. And I think due to this, it was a bit slow in the beginning. Not poorly written, mind you, just a bit repetitive and slow to take off. Once it does (and oh boy does it) you won’t mind having spent that extra time with the characters, but I have to admit I was raring to go from the first page and felt a bit like letsgetonwithitpeoplecomeonletsgo until about 150 pages in.

The dual storyline is continued. We get Hahp’s and Sadima’s stories in alternating chapters. There is much going on in both and the story progresses quite a bit. We learn more about the foundation of the school and more – hopefully hopefully – about its upcoming demise. We learn more about the wizards, their friendships, their anger, their individual stories, but very little about where their loyalties actually lie. Readers may read into the subtext regarding the wizards, but I expect Duey has some surprises up her sleeve to reveal in the last book.

The character that frustrated me the most was Franklin. I think in the first book he was much more of a sympathetic character. In this one I found him much more of a co-dependent enabler with a smidgen of Stockholm Syndrome and I kind of wanted to shake him and maybe slap him up a bit. I actually came to hate him. Sadima, on the other hand I grew to love more and more. She is clearly the heroine to Hahp’s hero.

Hahp also comes more into his own. He grows in skill, he grows in self-awareness, and he becomes stronger and better for it. Gerrard is still very much a mystery, who he is and how he comes by his knowledge of magic is something that I strongly suspect will be resolved in the third book. And I have theories – oh yes I do.

Both storylines are extremely compelling – it would be impossible to pick out which one I enjoyed more. They complement each other well.

I strongly recommend this series and am on tenterhooks waiting for the third installment.

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Book Source: Tayshas review copy