Anne Bishop

The dynamic between humans and Others has changed. Some, like wolf shifter Simon Wolfgard and blood prophet Meg Corbyn, see the closer companionship as beneficial - both personally and practically. But not everyone is convinced. A group of radical humans is seeking to usurp land through a series of violent attacks on the Others. They don't realize that there are older, more dangerous forces than shifters and vampires protecting the land-and those forces are willing to do whatever is necessary to protect what is theirs.

Marked in Flesh

Jasmine

WOW! Such a satisfying read!! So many things took place during this book and my heart broke thousand times over for all the persecution the Others had to go through. The development of Simon & Meg's relationship is one of the most complex and well thought out relationships I've read. So happy the new book came out yesterday, can't wait to read it. This has become one of my favorite urban fantasy series.

Ashley Janssen

Continued to have awesome world building, but it was a bit slow. There was very little character development.

Vilde

Swoon. I loved the book, and this audiobook is just as good. Alexandra Harris does a fabulous job as the narrator.

Sabetha Danes

I really fight with this series. the base story idea is so great. it's unique and has so many directions it could be expanded in. hell it would make a great TV series.

but the writing is poor, it lacks the expansion and explanation it needs. this is the 4th book, we shouldn't be forced to read a rehash of who every character is and their base traits. give a little remember what happened in the last book and move the story forward. I mean book 3 was all character development and filler so there wasn't a need for this book to be as well right? 

I could totally be alone but the idea and story are great. the writing just leaves a desire for someone else to come in and write the story instead. 

I assume most are still hanging on for the one question that has been dragged out through the books to be answered anyways. lol

Sarah Escorsa

➽ And the moral of this reread is: it is a truth universally acknowledged that one should beware of gaggles of geese girls, especially when they come equipped with tea kettles and broomsticks.



Quite welcome you are.

👋 Until next time and stuff.



[July 2020]

Actual rating: 3.75 stars. 

I seem to recollect someone shamelessly lied in their review for the previous installment in this series, and didn’t cut the crap as originally promised. (Most outrageous behaviour that.) Well someone really doesn’t have the time to write a full-length thingie for this one, so mercilessly severed the BS shall really very truly be today. (One can hope, anyway.)

So. Super Extra Quick Facts (SEQF ™) about this book:

① There’s even less action here than in the previous installment (hence my despicably low rating). I didn’t think this was humanly possible, but Anne Bishop made it happen. (I have it on good authority that she sold her soul to the devil in exchange for darkly nonchalant writing powers. Whatever that means.) Less action means the book is even slower paced than all previous instalments in the series put together. A shame stuff actually started happening around the 98.5% mark. Had this NOT been the case, I’m pretty sure Marked in Flesh would have made it to the Guinness Book of World Records as the slowest-paced book in the history of slowest-paced books. 



② Puny human quirks are most baffling indeed. I mean, what the fish is the point of clean underclothes that don’t smell? 🤔 And what is it with their discombobulating obsession with toilet paper? 😳 But I guess what I find most mystifying is that lowly mortals don't think that sharing a carcass with your friends is appropriate behavior. It seems they'd rather share information, of all things 🙄🙄. Those monkeys really are no fun, if you ask me.

③ There’s nothing quite like terra indigene humor:

“Do you know what the Sharkgard call human on a ship?”
“No, what?”
“Meat in a can.”



④ The slow-burn romance still is (and hopefully forever shall be) a no-burn romance. Meg and Simon recently entered Super Outré Risqué Territory (SORT™) and started holding hands (I kid you not), and their first kiss is expected to occur around Aprillis 2456 (give or take a century or two).

⑤ Thou shalt not, under any circumstance, mess with the Others. No, thou shalt not. They might slightly retaliate a little if you do. (view spoiler)[
  

  

  
  

  

  Pretty much, yes.
 (hide spoiler)]

➽ Nefarious Last Words (NLW™): who ever said I could not cut the crap out of a review is just as full of fish as I am when I say I can. Sorry, what? You’ve no idea what this sentence means, you say? Don’t worry, neither do I.

P.S. Some of my nefariously ill-intended dearest friends keep making darkly ominous comments about the next book in the series. “Hahahahahahaha,” I say to them. For not even scared I am. I mean, come on, I eat puny humans for breakfast and breed murderous crustaceans for a living, do you really think your ridiculously miserable attempts at intimidation will have any effect on my nefarious persona? Nope nope nope and stuff. So. Nice try and stuff.



Please don’t ask.

• Book 1: Written in Red ★★★★
• Book 2: Murder of Crows ★★★★
• Book 3: Vision in Silver ★★★★
· Book 5: Etched in Bone ★★★★

 

[Pre-review nonsense]

What happened to puny humans? The terra indigene, that's what.



HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Serves the lowly mortals right and stuff.

➽ Full review to come and stuff.

Nickie Mohler

Nicholas Scratch and the members of the Humans First and Last are getting ready to start their land reclamation. Meanwhile, Meg is trying to find new ways for the cassandra sangue to read prophecy without having to cut. If the Hope pup can do it through her drawings, then there has to be a way. Hopefully, before anyone else gets hurt. With the HFL escalating, any human not wearing a pin or displaying a decal will soon be targeted. With so much going on, Namid's teeth and claws are moving closer. The Elders have one question, "How much human do the terra indigene want to keep?" I LOVED this book! I am so bummed that I have to wait until next year for the next one! Anne Bishop is brilliant!

Judy Hudgins

Arroooo! Fantastic end to a series. But I want more. This series is definitely going to be on my reread over and over again list.

Ciska van Bokhorst

3 1/2 ster. Zaten voor mij opeens teveel personages in. Sprongen van hot naar her, maakte het warrig.

Katerina Thorson

4/5
BOOKSTAGRAM

After having a rough go with Vision in Silver, the third installment of "The Other's" series - I was worried Marked in Flesh would have the same outcome. Happy to report the plot picked up and I was happy to see the character development.

Not to say that the plot didn't drag in some areas because it certainly did. However, we were not given that "second book syndrome" feeling and the plot did thicken for us. What I love about this book is that the world becomes so ferocious and fierce. It almost reminds me of reality. When earth wants to re-balance itself it will do everything that it can to establish balance to the ecosystem. Now just put a face to each of the elements of earth and you have yourself an amazing time. 

Another thing I loved about this installment was the suspense. You could feel as the elders - the oldest creatures of Namid - crawl and walk the earth as they start the hunt on Humans. It almost made you want to shrink into yourself and hide. These were creatures that were made of legend. Even the Other's who are Namid's strongest creatures, feared what the Elder's could do. 

Unfortunately, just like the last three books, we are getting less and less of our main characters - Simon and Meg. I am becoming disappointed because even in the synopsis the main characters are mentioned. It's so hard to know if you love a character when they are only there 1/3rd of the time. 

We are also being thrown new characters still. Which is hard to believe since this is the 2nd to last book in the Other's series. By this point we should not be getting more characters. At least I personally wouldn't think so. The number of characters we have is already out of control and then to get more - it's just too much. Already I can not keep track of the POV's since there is no indicator of who is ever talking. 

Another issue I am dealing with is the slow, slow, slow, SLOW burn of the romance that is going on between Simon and Meg. Honestly, at this point I just want them to be friends because I am tired of waiting for a romance. I understand that Meg has been seriously injured mentally and physically. But the slow burn is killing a lot of things. At first it was great because it was realistic, now it's just annoying and kind of boring. 

I am hoping that Etched in Bone will pick up with more of the romance and follow the POV of Meg and Simon more. However, I am not too hopeful since the last 3 books have been everyone else's POV.

Ruth Lykins 

In the fourth novel in Anne Bishop’s New York Times bestselling series, the Others will need to decide how much humanity they’re willing to tolerate—both within themselves and their community... Since the Others allied themselves with the cassandra sangue, the fragile yet powerful human blood prophets who were being exploited by their own kind, the dynamic between humans and Others has changed. Some, such as Simon Wolfgard, wolf shifter and leader of the Lakeside Courtyard, and blood prophet Meg Corbyn see the closer companionship as beneficial. But not everyone is convinced. A group of radical humans is seeking to usurp land through a series of violent attacks on the Others. What they don’t realize is that there are older and more dangerous forces than shifters and vampires protecting the land—and those forces are willing to do whatever is necessary to safeguard what is theirs...

Marked in Flesh

Reviews