I’m going to talk just a little or a lot about The Hidden City by Michelle West today. If you’ve browsed my blog before, you might have noticed me talking about the Cast (officially known as the Chronicles of Elantra) series by Michelle Sagara. They’re the same person. Michelle Sagara West is also her. She goes by different names for her different stories, and probably also the different styles of writing she has for each. Not that I can tell what the difference in her styles are any more. When I first read the Cast series, it irritated me so much I often had to put the books down. But then I got used to it and it’s just a natural part of her stories.

Now, I must say, I am so bitter with the events that lead up to the conclusion of this book. It’s the first book as well as the one that Michelle West herself recommends for the introduction into this world that she has placed this story in. For readers of her other series, I think both of them (check her site yourself for more info), they already know what will partially happen to Jewel in her adult years. In this first book in the House Wars series, she’s 10 years old. Jewel never speaks or acts like a 10-year-old throughout the whole book, no matter how much Michelle West keeps on insisting that she is. Even the depth of her sentences astound me, and I will never expect a child to speak so well, even if she is always surrounded by adults. I may be wrong, but until you read the novel yourself, please don’t think that you can convince me otherwise of children who are known to speak eloquently and fluently in an adult’s version of English, since I firmly believe they usually don’t. In any case, because Michelle West insists that Jewel is 10 years old, I’m even more bitter at what happens at the end. I am curious about how Michelle West will resolve this story, and I hope that after what she’s put the characters through I will be able to feel at peace with it.

In another way, I see why Michelle West might want us to read this series first. It’s probably because of Rath. I liked him a lot. Until the end, when he proved himself to be the biggest fool in the world. How the hell could he let himself do that? Yes, I get what the author’s trying to say, but still. Arrgh. I still like Rath. I just hate him for his decisions, and even the fact that he’s suffering the consequences of his actions doesn’t mollify me.

I’m probably going to read her Sundered series next. I feel like I’ve read the first book before.