Name: Born of Hatred (The Hellequin Chronicles Book 2)
ISBN: 9781477898093

Steve McHugh

Born of Hatred (The Hellequin Chronicles Book 2)

Terrible Lazy trite predictable and repetitive 

I enjoyed the first novel for its fast paced action and looked forward to seeing the protagonist Nate evolve and learn more about the world. Unfortunately this sequel is a giant leap backwards—I’m not 100% sure it’s even the same author except for the repetitive use of rape to vilify the antagonist and torture on both sides. The author makes zero effort as evidenced by his repetitive use of similes and lack of metaphors—sometimes the same exact simile in the same chapter! (“Like nails screeching on a chalkboard”). Every time I see “like _______” I cringe. The action scenes used to be exciting but as characters get brutalized and then “a faint pulse” allows them to survive everything, even after one gets eviscerated its intestines spilled out by a ghoul yet survives. And Nate always “narrowly misses a claw swipe” and every permutation of that sentence. The antagonists always have something else to do before they deal the final blow. 

The characters are one dimensional without any character development including the protagonist (save for a few baits in hope that you continue to read the “chronicles”). The plot proceeds in a predictable linear manner. I wanted to draw comparisons to Twilight or a crappy Marvel film but that wouldn’t be fair to either of those series. The quality of prose dips below high school reading level. I read the whole book just to make sure I wasn’t deceiving to myself. 

This book is like taking all the worse books you’ve ever read, eating them, and then crapping them out and binding the feces together.

Good riddance.

Born of Hatred (The Hellequin Chronicles Book 2)

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