This book was reviewed for the San Francisco Book Review
Fourth, and most recent in Bishop’s The Others series, Marked in Flesh continues to follow Meg Corbyn, cassandra sangue for the Lakeside Courtyard. She and the other females of the human pack have discovered more to aid the other people caring for the rescued blood prophets. Part of this is the realisation that if drawing keeps Hope, a cassandra sangue living with the Sweetwater pack, from needing to draw blood to reveal prophecy, then perhaps there are other ways best suited to different girls. One big thing that seems to help is the use of oracle cards and Meg is working with a deck composed of cards from several different oracle decks, in the hopes of finding an ideal deck for the blood prophets to use.
The HFL are turning ever more lethal. An audacious plan is launched to ‘get rid of the terra indigene. Across Thaisia enclaves of Wolves are being slaughtered. The humans think they’ve won. Little do they know, humanity is now being watched and judged by terra indigene old as time itself. They are Namid’s teeth and claws, and they are angry. Meg and the human pack at the Lakeside Courtyard may be all that speaks to mercy for the humans living on Thaisia.
Meg continues to be a frail, yet strong young woman, who is a beloved confusion for the Lakeside Courtyard. We get to see more of Hope, and of Joe and Jackson’s territories. The Intuit communities around Thaisia still work with, and honour, the terra indigene, knowing that it is only by their sufferance that humans are allowed on this continent at all. As things heat up even more for Meg and the others, I still cannot help but see the parallels between the HFL and Trump’s America. Rampant hatred, and blatant dismissal of fact are a growing infection. Things finally come to a head on Thaisia. The festering boil is lanced by the teeth and claws of Namid, draining out the infection. An open, raw wound is left behind, one that must be watched and carefully tended lest the infection returns.
As always, this series had solid writing. I’m so invested in this book family and now I must wait for the next one!!! Many threads were tied off in this novel, and I’m eager to see where the next book will go.
????? Highly recommended
