Grishma

by Kelly Anne Blount

[inlibrisveritas]

I really wanted to like Grishma, but in the end it just wasn’t working for me at all. Grishma revolves around Ryder and Brooklyn, who have been forced together by a horrible beast called Grishma. This is a very fast paced adventure taking place in a world called Necoh, where everything is being turned on its head.

While the plot does promise some rather unique ideas, but I felt that some of them were never fully realized and others became confusing. I loved the idea of their being a world in addition to our own, but it felt disconnected and I wasn’t really sure why it necessary to have ‘our world’ involved at all. I was also quite intrigued by the Grishma, who is at first depicted as this towering beast of legend that is more than willing to rend flesh from bone….but then it sort of evolves into a more power hungry, intelligent being that is less likely to gut you. It was such a weird transition for me and not one I fully understood, if the Grishma was such a well known nightmare why is it in a position of power? There were also inconsistencies that I wasn’t sure about. For example: Ryder doesn’t know about the King or the missing princess, but this is his world and it seems odd that he of all people would be out of the loop on it. I did like the variety of creatures in Necoh, but wish they had been expanded upon so that I could get a feel for what they were like culturally. The world seems rather interesting and I liked learning about the different plants and foods that Brooklyn encountered.

Ryder showed some potential toward the beginning, but I think due to how quickly things were progressing and the lack of true description really pulled some of that back. I don’t feel like I know him that well but I do feel his skill level doesn’t match the way it was described. Brooklyn got on my nerves for most of the book and felt sort of like a stereotypical teenage girl, who doesn’t really do a lot as a whole. The one big issue I did have was the conversation, it felt odd. Being in a different world usually means a different way of speaking, but not in Necoh. There were only a few moments where something Brooklyn said was pointed out as being weird, and they were not even the weirdest things she said. In fact most of the characters speak like we do and understand modern curse words, and it really brought me out of the story.

So in short Grishma just wasn’t for me. I had issues all through this story and it’s not likely that I’ll continue the series.