WereWorld 4: Nest of Serpents
Writing: 6/10 Plot: 8/10 Characters: 7/10 Creativity: 10/10
Overall: 7.75/10
I really like it, but…
Spoilers Ahead!
The Plot: After meeting with the Hawklords, Drew is summoned by Milo, son of Manfred, to help Stormdale fight against the Ratlords of Vermire and the Crowlords of Riven. He and the cranky Hawklord Red Rufus learn to put aside their differences as they help defend Manfred’s people. Whitley and Gretchen make their reappearance and they are traveling with a group of Romari people to Brackenholme. Unfortunately, they learn that their allies are actually disguised Wyldermen, the wild men of the Dyrewood, led by their leader, Vala the Wereserpant. They trap the girls in the city while Trent, Drew’s brother, runs to their aid after defecting from the Catlord army. Meanwhile, Duke Bergan is found alive and he and Bo Carver’s small group escapes the sewers of Highcliffe and run to Strumland, seeking refuge with Bergan’s cousin Lord Henrik the White Bear. Hector has sided with the Catlords and is sent to Strumland to meet with The Beast of Bast Lord Onyx. There he pretends to ally with Bergan while scheming to take over Icegarden.
As usual, I left a lot out because a lot happens, however this time around the plot is more contained. Everything happens within a few days but it doesn’t feel rushed or too bloated which is impressive. There’s more fighting in this one, more prolonged battles over multiple chapters which I prefer. The twists and turns in this are plentiful and exciting. I especially love Hector’s and Whitley’s chapters. Hector is the best character and Whitley’s harrowing situation is a blast to read. The siege of Stormdale is a bit bland at points, but I really like Drew’s and Red Rufus’ dynamic, and I like how the final battle ends. Plus War Marshal Vorjavik is a scary foe. He’s the second scariest Ratlord (second of course to Vanmorten) and I love how intimidating his wereform is.
The Writing: The writing is the same as always. We get very few descriptions of characters which is really starting to bother me. I’m a visual reader and I like to know what the characters look like. We quite literally just get names with no description at all. I have no clue what Tristam or Pick or Quist looks like. I have no idea what Manfred’s children look like. Most of the Crowlords get little to no distinguishing traits other than "shady.” I don’t like it. We get great descriptions of the wereforms which I’m all here for but damn! I want to know what people look like! Another thing I don’t really care about is the dialogue. I don’t like how formally Trent speaks. He grew up in the countryside. One would think he would be a bit more gruff with his speech, much like Red Rufus. When he’s talking to Werelords, sure he can adopt a formal tone, but maybe he could slip up a bit? I don’t know. He talks too similarly to Drew.
The epithets. Oh man, the epithets. I don’t mind epithets (I actually disagree with people who say to avoid them), but Jobling relies on them way too much. It’s like he’s afraid to say a character’s name or pronoun twice in a row so instead, he says “the Werewolf” or “the Wolf” or “the lycanthrope” or “the Wolflord” or “the boy” or “the youth” over and over again. Once you notice it, it’s relentless. I know Drew is a Werewolf! You don’t have to keep telling me! I get wanting to get rid of the monotony of saying a character’s name over and over. That’s one of the downsides of writing in third person limited. It becomes even harder when you have multiple characters of the same gender in a scene. Saying “he said this” and “he did that” can be confusing to the reader so using epithets in the placement of names and pronouns is acceptable. But for fuck’s sake, Jobling! When Hector’s by himself you don’t have to keep saying “the Boar” or “the Boarlord” or “the magister” or “therianthrope” or “the Baron of Redmire” etc. etc. It’s annoying!
Lastly, I am not at all a fan of the Wyldermen. Don’t get me wrong! I like them as villains! They’re terrifying especially Vala (she’s beyond creepy), but I’m not a fan of the “savage tribesmen” trope/harmful stereotype. They’re described as being savage, they have headdresses, their leaders are called shamans, and they’re cannibals. There’s one moment where Vala states that the Wyldermen were in Lyssia first and everyone came around later. Ech… It’s just unfortunate. Perhaps Jobling could’ve made them a ragtag Vala cult instead of tribesmen. Y’know? Make them less overtly offensive, but it’s what we got. At least they don’t resemble any particular real-world tribe (to my knowledge. Correct me if I’m wrong. Fuck I hope not).
The Characters:
Drew: Alright, it’s time to admit this… I don’t like Drew. He’s just so bland and boring. I like his sections because of the people he interacts with and the events that revolve around him, but he himself is just so by the numbers. I don’t care about him. He has an arc in this about killing for the greater good but it feels very forced. Red Rufus (my fav) argues with him about killing Count Croke, the elderly father of the Crowlord brothers, in order to disrupt the organization of the Riven soldiers during their fight in Stormdale. Drew doesn’t want to because Croke is an elderly unarmed man. It goes against Drew’s character to kill someone who is not trying to kill him. Croke is a vile guy and mocks Drew, but Drew does not let up on his principles. Eventually, Rufus disguised as a Vermirian soldier, just kills him which causes a split between the Vermire and Riven armies which turns the tide of the siege. Okay sure. Drew learns that war is gray. There isn’t enough room for kindheartedness, but… I don’t really care about Drew learning this lesson. Croke sucked. I feel like this lesson would hit harder if Croke was an okay guy. Since the majority of the villains are objectively evil, it is weird to have Drew hesitate about killing one of them. He knows that Croke sucks! He’s killed bad guys before so why is he hesitating? The lesson doesn’t hit. What a dull character…
Trent: Eh, he’s certainly Drew’s brother alright. He’s bland af. His interactions with Gretchen are fun though, so there’s that. I don’t really have much to say about him. He’s Trent.
Hector: THE BEST CHARACTER! Hector is fully evil at this point. He’s scheming and then betraying the Catlords, he lies and tricks Bergan, he takes over Icegarden in order to gain access to their magical artifacts so that he can grow stronger, and he’s even adopted a new name: Blackhand, named after his gross, basically dead mummified black left hand. I love it! He’s so far away from the Hector we saw in book one and I’m here for it! He’s quickly becoming the most powerful character in the story and that’s so fascinating. It is even implied that Onyx is scared of him. How fucking cool!
Gretchen: The second best character. She and Whitley make their grand return after being absent for a whole book and I’m happy to see her back. She’s more toned down in this which is fine (though her hotheadedness was one of the reasons why I liked her in the first place), but she’s also not as present as she was in previous books. She gets two great moments to shine. One is when she (nearly) goes full Fox and gouges out Vala’s eye. Awesome scene! I loved that. The second is when she sets up a trap for the Wyldermen on a frozen river, saving her and Trent. It’s cool to see her intelligence come out more. But that’s really it. If my memory is correct, she shines brighter in book five. Can’t wait for that!
Whitley: Whitley has a lot of moments of greatness! She’s taking charge, beating people up, protecting people, and being tough. She becomes a full scout as soon as she arrives at Brakenholme which is so rewarding! I loved that scene. However, she struggles with being in charge. She’s not used to it. She was used to taking orders from others. Her deceased brother and lost father were the commanders, but they are gone. She’s the Lady of Brakenholme now, a status she’s not used to. There are moments when she feels vulnerable and wishes she could be strong like her father, especially when Vala takes over. She squarely blames herself for trusting the snake and leading her to her home, getting so many people killed in the process. She struggles to call upon the Bear for aid when she needs it. Gretchen has some control over her therianthrope, but Whitley can barely get it out. Luckily, when Vala is fighting with Drew, who has come to aid Brakenholme, she finally unleashes the Bear, and together with Drew in his Wolf-form, they crack Vala’s jaw, killing her. It’s the best scene in the book. We finally see Whitley embrace both her role and the Bear. After she does this, she’s fully in control and is more confident than ever. I love this! Third best character!
The Others: Bergan is back (yay!), but he’s a shell of his former self. After having rocks fall on top of him, he’s been unconscious while Bo Carver the thief, and his ragtag group of survivors traversed the dark sewers. They go through hell in there. They struggle with heat, light, and food, tensions amongst the group split them apart, and they end up fighting giant sewer maggots when they finally reach the end. Bergan is pretty much the same guy as he was before, now weaker due to the hell he’s been through. He sadly puts too much trust into Hector, the boy he treated like a son which is tragic. He gets into an argument with Henrik about the betrayal of Wergar. They eventually come to a reconciliation and vow to help each other. That’s really it. Now Bo Carver… I like him. He’s crafty, he’s surprisingly honorable despite being a thief, he treats Pick- a young girl who is a part of the Thieves Guild- like his own daughter which is cute, and he’s observant. He rightfully suspects Hector as soon as he shows up. He ends up saving Pick’s life and sends her away to Henrik and Bergan just before he is captured. I like him a lot. Red Rufus is a new character that I adore. He’s a Hawklord (which automatically makes him badass), he’s a gruff old soul, he looks out for Drew despite butting heads with him every now and then, and he's funny. I like his grumpy tone. He doesn’t take anyone’s shit. Unfortunately, he dies off-screen which boils my blood! If you’re gonna kill him, I want to see that happen! I want to know what his last words to Drew were! We don’t see that! I’m pissed! Justice for Red Rufus. I want him back. The Crowlords are good villains. I love the werebirds in general. They’re just the coolest things. The Crow brothers are all kind of the same, but they’re intimidating and shady which is great for this series. Flint is the only notable Crow. He’s Onyx’s messenger and he interacts with Hector. He’s actually scheming behind Onyx’s back, planning to overthrow the Catlords. He sees the strength in Hector and offers his allyship. Hector is a bit put off by him, but he eventually accepts. I like this scheming. I like what’s being set up here. Either Hector is going to betray him or Flint is going to betray Hector. It can go either way. We meet Henrik and Onyx and we get to see their wereforms for the first time. Henrik is fine. I don’t have much to say about his character yet. He’s a polar bear which is awesome. Polar bears are my favorite bear and Henrik’s wereform is rightfully pointed out to be greater than Bergan’s (Polar bears are bigger and scarier than grizzlies. This is just a fact). Onyx is fucking terrifying. The way Jobling talks about him and his wereform is like the stuff of nightmares. Black leopards (panthers) are not scary IRL, at least not to me, but Jobling found a way to make Onyx horrifying. Speaking of werecreatures…
The Worldbuilding: We don’t see a lot of different werecreatures this time around, but the ones we do see are awesome. I already talked about Oynx and Henrik. Now Vala… absolutely horrifying. She’s the first Werelord we see that can fully transform into their beast. Other Werelords can become anthro versions, but she can go full giant snake. The idea of a Weresnake is just gross and terrifying. I love snakes- I don’t find them scary in the slightest, but Jobling found a way! When she’s in her humanform, she’s this little old lady which just makes her worse! There’s one grotesque moment where, in her serpantform, she swallows a poor boy whole off-screen, and when she comes back to mock Whitley she’s in her human form but her stomach is stretched and misshapen, showing the outline of the boy. It’s so gross! The imagery is too much! It’s up there with Drew holding a man’s beating heart in his hand. It’s a lot for a children’s book… and I’m here for it! I love it so much! The fact that this gross shit got written into a book for ten-year-olds is insane!
A little criticism I have for the worldbuilding is how small Lyssia feels. The Dyrewood takes up the majority of the map which is fine because the forest is said to be incredibly dangerous but I find it a bit funny that Drew while standing atop the castle of Stormdale can see Brakenholme smoldering deep off in the woods. How small is this country?
This one shines in some places and falters in others, but not by much. I remember loving this one the most as a child, but honestly, it’s not as fun as I remember it being. Shadow of the Hawks is better. I enjoyed that one more. The buildup in this, however, is great! We are deep in the war now and things are heating up! I’m excited to see where the plot goes. I don’t remember too much about book five, but I do know Vega comes back so yay! I really hope Drew and Trent become more interesting. I doubt it though but hey, it might surprise me.
I’m going to take a break from WereWorld for a while. I have other things to read. All of the volumes for Beastars are finally out and I read them all, so I’m preparing to write a long review about that. Sam Fennah’s long-awaited book The August Few 1: Amygdala is out and it’s a thick boi. It’s almost 1000 pages! Don’t worry if you don’t know what I’m talking about. I’ll write a review about it when I’m done. I acquired the critically acclaimed manga series Goodnight PunPun. From what I know it’s going to be an emotional rollercoaster and I can’t wait to dive in! I’m also trudging my way through The Dragon War Trilogy by Daniel Arenson again because I want to write a thorough deep dive into that trash fire.
So it’ll be a while before I return to WereWorld. So far my favorite childhood series is holding up pretty damn well much to my shock and happiness.
