I have been following Becca Coffindaffer ever since debut. I knew I had to read The Bloody and the Damned ASAP! I love this science fiction world of privilege, morality, and family. Keep reading this book review of The Bloody and the Damned for my full thoughts.
Summary
Mercy has no place here.
On Trinity, a metal world where the privileged live in the skies and the rest fight for water below, you do what you can to survive.
18-year-old Val knows this better than anyone. They’ve sacrificed everything to provide for their younger sisters. Using their outlawed teleportation powers, they’ve become the most infamous assassin-for-hire on Trinity, known as the Butcher.
No one should be able to trace the Butcher to Val. But when things go horribly wrong on a routine mission and Val’s sisters are kidnapped by a gang in retaliation, it means that someone has to know the truth.
Desperate and friendless, Val has no one to turn to but their ex-childhood best friend turned vigilante thief. He broke their heart, but he owes them.
But as Val fights for the return of their sisters, they start to realize there might be something much bigger at play… something that could upend everything they’ve ever known about Trinity.
Val’s journey will take them from a maximum security prison transport to the headquarters of the most powerful gang on Trinity, and all the way to the Gate of Heaven. Each more heavily guarded than the last.
Good thing the Butcher has never blinked at an extra casualty.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
The Bloody and the Damned is an emotional science fiction about family and community. It’s about what we would do for our family, for the ones we love, and the depths and mistakes we would excuse. Val has to figure out all the lines they would and wouldn’t cross for the ones they love. And what Val quickly figures out is all the goal posts which keep getting moved. What is sneaking up on Val is the knowledge that at some point their siblings will find out who they are and nothing will be the same. Because while we may be doing what we are doing for someone, that might not be how they see it, they might never look at us the same.
(Disclaimer: Some of the links below are affiliate links. For more information you can look at the Policy page. If you’re uncomfortable with that, know you can look up the book on any of the sites below to avoid the link)
The action in The Bloody and the Damned will keep you on your toes. The betrayals and the motivations. I loved the world so much. Coffindaffer explores themes of religion, obedience, and what happens when we haven’t been told the whole truth. About what a group of the few would do for what they think is the greater good – and how that ripples down through the generations. The Bloody and the Damned examines how much sacrifice progress demands and by whom. I loved my time with The Bloody and the Damned and the world of sacrifice, pressure points, and change. Find The Bloody and the Damned on Goodreads, Storygraph, Bookshop. org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.