Surprising and compelling

I really loved the world that Tamara Geraeds has set up with the Cards of Death series. It reminded me of Beautiful Creatures with less gooey romance and drama, and more scary monsters and excitement! There is enough to enjoy while reading this story, but there were some clichés I struggled with.

What I didn’t like as much:

• The first few pages, title, cover and Dante’s name led me to believe that The First Demon might be filled with clichés, but that is definitely not the case! It was much better than I expected. I do believe that that first picture I got in my head about the books could have captured the vibe and storyline better.
• Saving Maël kind of feels like it’s there to fill up the story, but on the other hand: that scene does get into strengthening bonds between characters en helping the reading create an idea of the magic system.
• I hate visions haha, can’t help it. It gets kind of confusing distinguishing between illusion, vision, dream and reality. That’s probably the point, but I personally just don’t like that.
• I also don’t really care for the angels versus the devil (I can handle demons tho haha).

Still, The First Demon is interesting enough to keep me engaged! I knew from the Soul Jumper short stories that I love Tamara Geraeds writing, and I’m really happy that I started reading the Cards of Death as well.

What I really liked:

• It’s very original (at least I haven’t read something like it yet) to read about Dante’s mother who deals with mental illness. She doesn’t let it get in her way and as a reader, you get involved in her story and want to see her get better. I actually worry about her haha. It also ties in with the fantasy aspect of the story, and I’m definitely interested in seeing how that angle plays out.
• Even though Dante has to perform some magical rituals, he stays down to earth. He feels like he’s easy to get along with and doesn’t get all hippy or intense about it. That makes the magical aspects of the story easier to process.
• Dante has such a heartwarming bond with his Shield (which is a pack of ghosts, awesome). It just makes me really happy and warm inside.
• That is because Tamara Geraeds creates such awesome characters that feel real and are easily distinguishable from each other. They could be actual people.
• The characters also develop quite nicely and get me hooked with their secrets and backgrounds.
• The fight scenes are awesome.

Something I’m on the fence about:
A lot goes down in this first book, which needs to happen in order to set up the rest of the story of course. But: I have so many unanswered questions after reading this! I get the general idea (stopping the world from being destroyed, as usual), but there are a lot of side stories waiting to unfold, a lot of information that I don’t know what to do with yet. I totally get why everyone keeps telling Dante that he’s not ready to know everything yet ;) In short: on the one hand it’s mildly frustrating that there’s so much up in the air, but on the other hand I am quite excited to read the next book!