The Veil (The Devil's Isle, #1)

by Chloe Neill

[Berls]

This review appeared first at Fantasy is More Fun.

Here's the thing y'all. I read A LOT of Urban Fantasy. It's easily one of my favorite genres. But the downside of reading a lot of one genre is that it's easy for things to get stale. You've been there seen that a million times.

I NEVER had that problem reading The Veil. If it weren't for that pesky need to sleep, I would have read The Veil in one sitting, easily. Chloe Neill took some of my favorite paranormal elements - the fae!! Squee!! - and put them in a fairly brilliant new world that I adored.

World building can so easily bog down book 1 of an Urban Fantasy, but Chloe is an expert at weaving in details as you need to know them while keeping the momentum going. It certainly helps that she's taken one of my favorite settings - New Orleans - and used it's rich history of fascination with the paranormal to give it a great post-apocalyptic twist.

I just loved reading about life in the zone -the area where paranormal creatures passed through into our world, which includes New Orleans - their struggles with electricity, growing food and most especially, their fear of anything and anyone magical. It's good old human racism at it's finest. I saw a bit of what reminded me of the Jewish Ghettos that popped up in Early Modern Europe - but this time humans are afraid of anyone magical, even humans -- called Sensitives -- that have no control over who they are. I thought Chloe did a really great job showing how this situation was much more complicated than clear cut good and evil, particularly through the eyes of her main character Claire.

Claire is a Sensitive and yet, she holds some of these prejudices. I really enjoyed seeing her world view shaken and stirred up. It totally helped that the main shaker and stirrer was an equally great charater - Liam. I'm so excited for this love interest - it's going to be a slow build with lots of obstacles... AKA The Best Kind!! Claire and Liam are very likable characters. Claire lives in a world where exposing her abilities - that she's a Sensitive - could mean permanaent lockdown, but she's willing to take that chance to save a complete stranger. What's not to love? And Liam - well, I like that he doesn't share the prejudices that the majority of the world seem to share and is willing to put pressure on Claire and other's to make them see things differently, even at his own expense. Like I said, LIKEABLE!!

The Veil wasn't perfect though. I have two main complaints - first off, and this is the big one... Claire's sudden ability fast-forward. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say that one of the things I was loving was that Claire was STRUGGLING hard-core with her magic. And then, all of sudden, well, she wasn't. It was a bummer for me. Secondly, and this is very minor - I want to know more about what's going on outside the zone. Probably not fair to ask for because that's not the focus of the book, but I just want to understand how the rest of the world is coping a bit better. I mean, their REALLY having a hard time in the Zone and I'm wondering, what's the rest of the world doing to help them? Because it seems like some of their problems the world SHOULD be able to do something about. But I do know our world, so I believe that they aren't... I just want to know WHY. I'm curious.

Ultimately, The Veil was pretty great. I loved the world, I loved the characters- including the friendships that I haven't had time to talk about but were pretty strong - and I loved the sense of potential epicness for the series over the long haul. I mean, that ending! Yowzers y'all! Things are going to get INTENSE!! And I can't wait for the ride!