Kameron Hurley: Infidel

Hi everyone

Infidel is the second book in the Bel Dame Apocrypha by Kameron Hurley.
My copy has 390 pages and I got it from Bol.
You can read my other Kameron Hurley reviews here.

                                                *    SPOILERS    *

Honestly, I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first one. And I wasn’t blown away with that one either.

Hurley makes her characters suffer just to see them suffer, just because she can. And it doesn’t do anything for me. There’s no point in it either, because by now we all know that anything can be cured. Dismembered limbs, death, anything can be healed, and that makes it a complete farce. Aside from the complete lack of suspense, it also fails at making me care for the characters and making the characters realistic. It feels like Hurley is trying too hard to write a dark and grim book.

The world-building is similar to the first book.
I love the world in general; the faith, the politics, the different regions, the people,…  it’s all very interesting, unique and different. Bugs and insects are used for everything but there’s no explanation of how that’s possible or how the magic works. I think it’s a great idea to have magic and technology based on bugs but I would like to know a bit more about the ‘how’ of it.

The book starts out very slowly until some old friends show up and then the plot speeds forward.
It’s also not as predictable as I thought it would be at the beginning so that’s a plus too. 

I enjoyed the book but I had a hard time getting past Hurley's ‘make-them-suffer-because-I-can philosophy’. 

3 STARS

Happy reading!
Helena