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The Arrivals
The Arrivals is the second novel for adults by internationally bestselling author Melissa Marr.
Chloe walks into a bar and blows five years of sobriety. When she wakes, she finds herself in an unfamiliar world, The Wasteland. She discovers people from all times and places have also arrived there: Kitty and Jack, a brother and sister from the Wild West; Edgar, a prohibition bootlegger; Francis, a one-time hippie; Melody, a mentally unbalanced 1950s housewife; and Hector, a former carnival artist.
None know why they arrived there--or if there is way out of a world populated by monsters and filled with corruption.
Just as she did in Graveminder, Marr has created a vivid fantasy world that will enthrall. Melissa Marr's The Arrivals is a thoroughly original and wildly imagined tale about making choices in a life where death is unpredictable and often temporary.
Chloe walks into a bar and blows five years of sobriety. When she wakes, she finds herself in an unfamiliar world, The Wasteland. She discovers people from all times and places have also arrived there: Kitty and Jack, a brother and sister from the Wild West; Edgar, a prohibition bootlegger; Francis, a one-time hippie; Melody, a mentally unbalanced 1950s housewife; and Hector, a former carnival artist.
None know why they arrived there--or if there is way out of a world populated by monsters and filled with corruption.
Just as she did in Graveminder, Marr has created a vivid fantasy world that will enthrall. Melissa Marr's The Arrivals is a thoroughly original and wildly imagined tale about making choices in a life where death is unpredictable and often temporary.
274 pages, Hardcover
First published July 2, 2013
About the author
Melissa Marr
108 books13k followersMelissa Marr is a former university literature instructor who writes fiction for adults, teens, and children and sometimes teaches in an MFA program. Her books have been translated into twenty-eight languages and been bestsellers internationally as well as domestically (NY Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal).
After a quieter spell the last few years (due to both adopting a sick baby & health complications--in part due to her lupus), she is back in 2024 with a queer fantasy (Remedial Magic), a picturebook about a wee one and his two moms (Family is Family), and a graphic novel about teen Harley & Ivy (The Strange Adventures of Harleen & Harley).
She currently lives with part of her family (wife & 2 of her 3 children) in Arizona.
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July 5, 2013
I really don’t like to sit here and say “How dare an author try to overstep their genres and try to write something different!”; I really don’t. I like it when authors I like do diversify and bring something different, even if it’s just a matter of how old the target audience is. Case in point: Melissa Marr. I really love the first three books in her Wicked Lovely series, enjoyed Carnival of Souls and I…have things to say about Graveminder. It’s not that I want her to just write YA urban fantasy, I do want to read more from her. But after finishing The Arrivals, I don’t know why I don’t like her adult books.
The premise completely drew me in. People are brought to a Weird West alternate dimension called the Wasteland and there are demon-summoning monks and giant sandworms (lindwurms actually) and insectoid vampires. Sign me up. Except that for all the cool stuff Marr throws in, none of its actually explained. This is the weakest example of world-building that I’ve come across from her so far. Jack explains to Chloe that the Arrivals’ job is to keep peace. From…what exactly? The demon-summoning monks? Are the demons that big of a problem? What is exactly Ajani’s deal? If he’s the Big Bad, I don’t understand what he’s doing that’s so bad other than killing his own people. Nothing about this world gets explained and I’m honestly so confused about what the actual plot is.
The only explanation at all that we get is to why the Arrivals have exactly landed here—they’ve all killed someone in their past and this is the way they’re atoning for it. (I’m kinda sad that we don’t get backstory for all of the Arrivals; I really wanted Melody to have been a fifties housewife who snapped under the misogyny. Alas, she doesn’t get much screentime.) This is probably one of the very few things that made some sort of sense—I don’t completely buy the fact that every single one of the Arrivals has killed before (and it’s even a stretch with Jack and Kitty’s group)—but I can see Jack asking newcomers about their past and putting things together. Now how fighting demon monks and sand worms figures into atonement, I really don’t know, but it’s at least one explanation in a book with so many holes.
(Also about the setting—is it just the Weird West? You know next to nothing about the human population of this world, the only characterization that we get of a native is Garuda, one of the insectoid vampires and his people. But the regular humans, we get nothing. They’re all in the background. And again, demon summoning monks—I REALLY WANNA KNOW ABOUT THE DEMON SUMMONING MONKS, OKAY? Why are they summoning demons? Is there religion in this world? What do the demons do, exactly? EXPLAIN IT TO ME.)
There’s no plot. There’s something going on, but I have no clue what it is. Jack and Kitty don’t like the other group of Arrivals, lead by Ajani. Ajani is evil. This is all of the plot that we get. I have no idea why Ajani is evil—aside from he wants power and he kills his men—but we never get why Jack and Kitty hate Ajani so much. Which is a really big issue considering that Jack wants to kill Ajani and Ajani wants Kitty on his side because she can do magic. The backstory for these three is barely explained. I want to know what happened. Did Ajani and Jack used to work together? Did something about one of them rub off the wrong way? Why is Kitty the only Arrival who’s able to do magic? Are she and Jack really from the Wasteland and not from the late 1800s? I have a hundred questions about all of this and none of its ever explained. Instead of having Kitty trying to uncover why she can do certain things, what we get is the two words that I’ve come to dread: love triangle. Marr has pulled off a good love triangle before; it’s one of the reasons why I really liked Wicked Lovely in the first place. Here, it’s just boring and trite especially when it lacks the background. I really didn’t care if Kitty ended up with Daniel or Edgar; as far as I’m concerned, they’re all superfluous to the plot of the book. No, Kitty’s plotline doesn’t hinge on her making a decision on who she wants to sleep with forever and ever, but the amount of time it’s given to versus her trying to uncover why she can communicate telepathically with Garuda is far more.
And the love triangle illustrates my biggest problem with the book. I don’t care about these characters. I want to. I really wanted to care about these characters, and get to know them more. But there’s nothing for me to grab onto. Kitty’s torn between two men; her brother Jack is honorable and loyal and wants to kill Ajani; Chloe is surprisingly adaptable. That is the majority of characterization that we get in this book. When Jack’s lover Mary is killed in the beginning, I really didn’t get his grief or that he was all that upset over it. (Not helping was his willingness to jump in bed with Chloe the first moment they realized that they had a thing. Look, I’m fine with them wanting to sleep together, but I do not buy that Jack wasn’t over Mary yet, even if he did call Chloe by the former’s name.) As the group’s going into their final confrontation with Ajani, it’s revealed that one of their own, Hector, has betrayed the group. And I’m sitting there, reading and thinking, “Did Hector even have a line beyond confirming battle strategies?” That should have been a big moment, omg how could he do that why did he do that, but we never spend time with Hector so I honestly don’t care. Chloe’s one of our main focus characters but she acclimates so quickly into this world that I never get the feel that I’m learning things along with her. Really, all Chloe’s reactions are “Oo Wild West? Wait how did I get here? I CAN SHOOT GIANT WORMS and Jack’s hot. I’m good.”
(OH CAN I BRING UP THE VERROT HERE? So the bluedzuigers’—the insectoid vampires—blood has healing properties and can telepathically link a human to Garuda if the human drinks it. THREE HOURS after Chloe wakes up, Jack forces it on her and she describes as an addictive rush and that she needs to get more. This is after establishing that Chloe’s been sober for five years, only breaking her sobriety the day before she wakes up in the Wasteland. Chloe wants more Verrot, wants the rush of it and addiction is never discussed. Nuh uh. I don’t care if there’s no stated affections of Verrot addiction, why Chloe’s reaction doesn’t worry her ticked me off.)
None of these characters stand out for me. All of the Arrivals are supposed to come from different time periods and different backgrounds, but they’re so largely interchangeable that I didn’t get the feel that they’re people. Melody is a sociopath, Francis is a weirdo, Edgar’s a silent killer, Kitty’s brash, etc., etc. They fulfill one role and that’s it. I don’t get the sense of why these people do stick together, why they turned away from Ajani. Ajani’s not even a good bad guy, we only get two scenes from his perspective and that’s it. Also, not helping is the fact that all of the characters are from different timelines, and it doesn’t read that way. I can excuse Jack or Kitty or even Edgar for picking up some slang and current idioms from the more current Arrivals, but there’s nothing in here that tips me off that Francis is a drug-dealing hippie or that Edgar’s a former Mafia hitman unless it’s outright stated in the text.
I hate to say this, but this feels like an earlier draft—the “Okay I see where you’re going, but it’s not quite there.” As I said, the setting sold me (I would honestly play that Deadlands campaign if there was one) and I was ready to get into the characters. But the lack of development, both for the plot and the characterization, killed this for me. There’s so much in here that’s not explained or revealed and it’s frustrating for me, particularly if the reason is that there’s potential future volumes in store. (Even though I know Marr has said that this is going to be a standalone book; however, with the prevalence of series these days…) I don’t want to wait for these revelations, I want to know them now, especially since there’s nothing to grab me in this book that makes me want to read more. Unfortunately, all I can say is that you’re better off grabbing Marr’s YA books because I think she does a better job of plotting and characterization in those and to skip this one altogether.
The premise completely drew me in. People are brought to a Weird West alternate dimension called the Wasteland and there are demon-summoning monks and giant sandworms (lindwurms actually) and insectoid vampires. Sign me up. Except that for all the cool stuff Marr throws in, none of its actually explained. This is the weakest example of world-building that I’ve come across from her so far. Jack explains to Chloe that the Arrivals’ job is to keep peace. From…what exactly? The demon-summoning monks? Are the demons that big of a problem? What is exactly Ajani’s deal? If he’s the Big Bad, I don’t understand what he’s doing that’s so bad other than killing his own people. Nothing about this world gets explained and I’m honestly so confused about what the actual plot is.
The only explanation at all that we get is to why the Arrivals have exactly landed here—they’ve all killed someone in their past and this is the way they’re atoning for it. (I’m kinda sad that we don’t get backstory for all of the Arrivals; I really wanted Melody to have been a fifties housewife who snapped under the misogyny. Alas, she doesn’t get much screentime.) This is probably one of the very few things that made some sort of sense—I don’t completely buy the fact that every single one of the Arrivals has killed before (and it’s even a stretch with Jack and Kitty’s group)—but I can see Jack asking newcomers about their past and putting things together. Now how fighting demon monks and sand worms figures into atonement, I really don’t know, but it’s at least one explanation in a book with so many holes.
(Also about the setting—is it just the Weird West? You know next to nothing about the human population of this world, the only characterization that we get of a native is Garuda, one of the insectoid vampires and his people. But the regular humans, we get nothing. They’re all in the background. And again, demon summoning monks—I REALLY WANNA KNOW ABOUT THE DEMON SUMMONING MONKS, OKAY? Why are they summoning demons? Is there religion in this world? What do the demons do, exactly? EXPLAIN IT TO ME.)
There’s no plot. There’s something going on, but I have no clue what it is. Jack and Kitty don’t like the other group of Arrivals, lead by Ajani. Ajani is evil. This is all of the plot that we get. I have no idea why Ajani is evil—aside from he wants power and he kills his men—but we never get why Jack and Kitty hate Ajani so much. Which is a really big issue considering that Jack wants to kill Ajani and Ajani wants Kitty on his side because she can do magic. The backstory for these three is barely explained. I want to know what happened. Did Ajani and Jack used to work together? Did something about one of them rub off the wrong way? Why is Kitty the only Arrival who’s able to do magic? Are she and Jack really from the Wasteland and not from the late 1800s? I have a hundred questions about all of this and none of its ever explained. Instead of having Kitty trying to uncover why she can do certain things, what we get is the two words that I’ve come to dread: love triangle. Marr has pulled off a good love triangle before; it’s one of the reasons why I really liked Wicked Lovely in the first place. Here, it’s just boring and trite especially when it lacks the background. I really didn’t care if Kitty ended up with Daniel or Edgar; as far as I’m concerned, they’re all superfluous to the plot of the book. No, Kitty’s plotline doesn’t hinge on her making a decision on who she wants to sleep with forever and ever, but the amount of time it’s given to versus her trying to uncover why she can communicate telepathically with Garuda is far more.
And the love triangle illustrates my biggest problem with the book. I don’t care about these characters. I want to. I really wanted to care about these characters, and get to know them more. But there’s nothing for me to grab onto. Kitty’s torn between two men; her brother Jack is honorable and loyal and wants to kill Ajani; Chloe is surprisingly adaptable. That is the majority of characterization that we get in this book. When Jack’s lover Mary is killed in the beginning, I really didn’t get his grief or that he was all that upset over it. (Not helping was his willingness to jump in bed with Chloe the first moment they realized that they had a thing. Look, I’m fine with them wanting to sleep together, but I do not buy that Jack wasn’t over Mary yet, even if he did call Chloe by the former’s name.) As the group’s going into their final confrontation with Ajani, it’s revealed that one of their own, Hector, has betrayed the group. And I’m sitting there, reading and thinking, “Did Hector even have a line beyond confirming battle strategies?” That should have been a big moment, omg how could he do that why did he do that, but we never spend time with Hector so I honestly don’t care. Chloe’s one of our main focus characters but she acclimates so quickly into this world that I never get the feel that I’m learning things along with her. Really, all Chloe’s reactions are “Oo Wild West? Wait how did I get here? I CAN SHOOT GIANT WORMS and Jack’s hot. I’m good.”
(OH CAN I BRING UP THE VERROT HERE? So the bluedzuigers’—the insectoid vampires—blood has healing properties and can telepathically link a human to Garuda if the human drinks it. THREE HOURS after Chloe wakes up, Jack forces it on her and she describes as an addictive rush and that she needs to get more. This is after establishing that Chloe’s been sober for five years, only breaking her sobriety the day before she wakes up in the Wasteland. Chloe wants more Verrot, wants the rush of it and addiction is never discussed. Nuh uh. I don’t care if there’s no stated affections of Verrot addiction, why Chloe’s reaction doesn’t worry her ticked me off.)
None of these characters stand out for me. All of the Arrivals are supposed to come from different time periods and different backgrounds, but they’re so largely interchangeable that I didn’t get the feel that they’re people. Melody is a sociopath, Francis is a weirdo, Edgar’s a silent killer, Kitty’s brash, etc., etc. They fulfill one role and that’s it. I don’t get the sense of why these people do stick together, why they turned away from Ajani. Ajani’s not even a good bad guy, we only get two scenes from his perspective and that’s it. Also, not helping is the fact that all of the characters are from different timelines, and it doesn’t read that way. I can excuse Jack or Kitty or even Edgar for picking up some slang and current idioms from the more current Arrivals, but there’s nothing in here that tips me off that Francis is a drug-dealing hippie or that Edgar’s a former Mafia hitman unless it’s outright stated in the text.
I hate to say this, but this feels like an earlier draft—the “Okay I see where you’re going, but it’s not quite there.” As I said, the setting sold me (I would honestly play that Deadlands campaign if there was one) and I was ready to get into the characters. But the lack of development, both for the plot and the characterization, killed this for me. There’s so much in here that’s not explained or revealed and it’s frustrating for me, particularly if the reason is that there’s potential future volumes in store. (Even though I know Marr has said that this is going to be a standalone book; however, with the prevalence of series these days…) I don’t want to wait for these revelations, I want to know them now, especially since there’s nothing to grab me in this book that makes me want to read more. Unfortunately, all I can say is that you’re better off grabbing Marr’s YA books because I think she does a better job of plotting and characterization in those and to skip this one altogether.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 27, 2013
Possible DNF. Very brief review to come.
I cannot recall a damn thing that is memorable about this book. I can't even begin to tell you what the plot is because it is so forgettable and dull.
It is a spaghetti western that's the equivalent of riding in a bus full of tourists to Las Vegas and looking at the scenery outside the window (hint: there's nothing there but desert shrubs).
I cannot recall a damn thing that is memorable about this book. I can't even begin to tell you what the plot is because it is so forgettable and dull.
It is a spaghetti western that's the equivalent of riding in a bus full of tourists to Las Vegas and looking at the scenery outside the window (hint: there's nothing there but desert shrubs).
November 26, 2013
3.5 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum http://bibliosanctum.blogspot.com/201...
This book was a bit quirky and slightly odd at times, but for me it was like a breath of fresh air. It's different from the stuff I usually pick up, and ultimately it may have been a little too bizarre for my tastes, but I certainly don't regret reading it. When it comes to originality and interesting ideas, this book gets massive points.
My love for speculative fiction, especially when other genres are infused with a paranormal twist, is what drew me to this book in the first place. A fantasy western about a group of people from different times and places all mysteriously ending up in an unfamiliar world called the Wasteland? It sounded too intriguing to pass up.
Other than the fact this Wasteland is full of monsters and other unsavory types, however, I didn't know much else about the novel, so I settled back and prepared to let myself be drawn in. And that's exactly what the story did, thanks to the unusual but simply extraordinary ideas I found in here. The characters are a motley group made up of: Jack and Kitty, siblings from the Wild West; Edgar, a bootlegger from the time of the prohibition; Francis, a hippie; Hector, a former carnie; and Melody, a crazy 1950s housewife. And then there's Chloe, the newest addition to the team, who passes out one night in 2013 after a crazy night of binge drinking, and wakes up in the Wasteland.
These "Arrivals" were all ne'er-do-wells in the times they came from, but the most remarkable thing about them is what happens after they die -- or rather, what doesn't happen. Death isn't always permanent, but they don't find out whether it is or not until days later when the Arrival who died either wakes up good as new...or they don't. Their nemesis is a man called Ajani, a force of evil they have been struggling against ever since the first Arrival came to the Wasteland.
This is very much a character-driven novel, and their relationship dynamics form the basis for much of the story. Jack and Kitty take center stage most of the time and sometimes Chloe, even though I wished more attention could have been paid to the other Arrivals, such as Melody. I gathered she's pretty unbalanced through the fearful conversations the others have about her and their reluctance to get too close, but I would have loved to see more examples of Melody living up to her reputation. There are great characters here, but it's a pretty short book and it's just a shame the secondary characters don't get more screen time.
As I said, the book has many interesting and original ideas, and expect to have a lot of questions when reading this. If you're like me and prefer your books to also provide the answers, then you might find it a little frustrating, because at times you'll feel like you're only getting half the story. I was disappointed that there weren't more explanations, but the good news is that this doesn't diminish the quality of the world building. The Wasteland is not as desolate as it sounds, and the essence of the land and its creatures will constantly surprise you.
In many ways, The Arrivals is the kind of book you have to take as it is, and just go with the flow. I'm not a big fan of info-dumps, but I also like some explanations when they're warranted, and I have to say I enjoyed this book a lot more once I've accepted that I probably won't get answers to all my questions. What this novel offers, though, is a story of adventure about an unusual but fascinating group of people, and what they mean to each other. There's nothing out there like it!
This book was a bit quirky and slightly odd at times, but for me it was like a breath of fresh air. It's different from the stuff I usually pick up, and ultimately it may have been a little too bizarre for my tastes, but I certainly don't regret reading it. When it comes to originality and interesting ideas, this book gets massive points.
My love for speculative fiction, especially when other genres are infused with a paranormal twist, is what drew me to this book in the first place. A fantasy western about a group of people from different times and places all mysteriously ending up in an unfamiliar world called the Wasteland? It sounded too intriguing to pass up.
Other than the fact this Wasteland is full of monsters and other unsavory types, however, I didn't know much else about the novel, so I settled back and prepared to let myself be drawn in. And that's exactly what the story did, thanks to the unusual but simply extraordinary ideas I found in here. The characters are a motley group made up of: Jack and Kitty, siblings from the Wild West; Edgar, a bootlegger from the time of the prohibition; Francis, a hippie; Hector, a former carnie; and Melody, a crazy 1950s housewife. And then there's Chloe, the newest addition to the team, who passes out one night in 2013 after a crazy night of binge drinking, and wakes up in the Wasteland.
These "Arrivals" were all ne'er-do-wells in the times they came from, but the most remarkable thing about them is what happens after they die -- or rather, what doesn't happen. Death isn't always permanent, but they don't find out whether it is or not until days later when the Arrival who died either wakes up good as new...or they don't. Their nemesis is a man called Ajani, a force of evil they have been struggling against ever since the first Arrival came to the Wasteland.
This is very much a character-driven novel, and their relationship dynamics form the basis for much of the story. Jack and Kitty take center stage most of the time and sometimes Chloe, even though I wished more attention could have been paid to the other Arrivals, such as Melody. I gathered she's pretty unbalanced through the fearful conversations the others have about her and their reluctance to get too close, but I would have loved to see more examples of Melody living up to her reputation. There are great characters here, but it's a pretty short book and it's just a shame the secondary characters don't get more screen time.
As I said, the book has many interesting and original ideas, and expect to have a lot of questions when reading this. If you're like me and prefer your books to also provide the answers, then you might find it a little frustrating, because at times you'll feel like you're only getting half the story. I was disappointed that there weren't more explanations, but the good news is that this doesn't diminish the quality of the world building. The Wasteland is not as desolate as it sounds, and the essence of the land and its creatures will constantly surprise you.
In many ways, The Arrivals is the kind of book you have to take as it is, and just go with the flow. I'm not a big fan of info-dumps, but I also like some explanations when they're warranted, and I have to say I enjoyed this book a lot more once I've accepted that I probably won't get answers to all my questions. What this novel offers, though, is a story of adventure about an unusual but fascinating group of people, and what they mean to each other. There's nothing out there like it!
August 8, 2013
This was not very good.
My first instinct is to say that it felt unfinished but when I think about it for a moment longer I realize that it felt un-started and undeveloped, too. It was annoying.
The Arrivals is one of these books that drops you into a world without any explanation, and you go from there. This is a device that authors use with varying degrees of success. Sometimes it's exciting to feel a little lost, and then exhilarating when you begin to make discoveries about this world and how things work there.
But when it's poorly done it just leaves the reader stranded in this world where the rules are different and things are thrown at them without there being any hope of them figuring out how to manage any of it.
The Arrivals was the second kind.
Information about The Wasteland is just kind of dropped in our lap, without a lot of context or any explanation. I didn't feel LOST (it wasn't complicated enough for that) but I felt a mild irritation. Mild, because I didn't CARE enough about any of it.
The characters were equally under developed. Kitty and Jackson are sister and brother. They've been in the Wasteland for 26 years. They are close. Jackson doesn't love anyone. Kitty loves Edgar, but she's afraid to be close to him because she doesn't want to lose him and be hurt. Chloe is a new arrival. Jackson likes her more than he's ever liked anyone. There are ancillary characters - Melody is crazy, Francis is sweet, Hector is quiet but capable (incidentally, Hector is also the character that we hear the absolute LEAST about, which makes it entirely unremarkable when it turns out he was a spy for the bad guy.)
Ajani is a bad guy. He leads another band of arrivals. Daniel is one of them - a former member of our group and a former lover of Kitty's. None of this matters in the least.
Garuda is a native of the Wasteland. Jack trusts him. Kitty does not. He leads a group of bloedzuigers, which are kind of like vampires (the bloedzuigers were the only thing about this book that was even sort of cool, and they were in it for about 3 pages TOTAL.)
And my few paragraphs there give JUST AS MUCH information as Marr does in the entire book. I swear.
There's this romance element to the book that is just lame. Kitty and Edgar are the main story and their relationship is just one more annoyance. Edgar threatens Kitty constantly - "if you do this, I won't be here for you anymore." And she's all "Okay! You were right anyway."
Bleck. I am not drawn in, I am not rooting for anyone, I am certainly not breathless with anticipation.
Jack and Chloe were much better than that, but their relationship really wasn't about anything more than a physical connection (despite attempts to make it otherwise) and we never REALLY got anywhere with it. So it was unsatisfying, too.
Just like the whole book.
At least this was a stand-alone and not the start to a series!
My first instinct is to say that it felt unfinished but when I think about it for a moment longer I realize that it felt un-started and undeveloped, too. It was annoying.
The Arrivals is one of these books that drops you into a world without any explanation, and you go from there. This is a device that authors use with varying degrees of success. Sometimes it's exciting to feel a little lost, and then exhilarating when you begin to make discoveries about this world and how things work there.
But when it's poorly done it just leaves the reader stranded in this world where the rules are different and things are thrown at them without there being any hope of them figuring out how to manage any of it.
The Arrivals was the second kind.
Information about The Wasteland is just kind of dropped in our lap, without a lot of context or any explanation. I didn't feel LOST (it wasn't complicated enough for that) but I felt a mild irritation. Mild, because I didn't CARE enough about any of it.
The characters were equally under developed. Kitty and Jackson are sister and brother. They've been in the Wasteland for 26 years. They are close. Jackson doesn't love anyone. Kitty loves Edgar, but she's afraid to be close to him because she doesn't want to lose him and be hurt. Chloe is a new arrival. Jackson likes her more than he's ever liked anyone. There are ancillary characters - Melody is crazy, Francis is sweet, Hector is quiet but capable (incidentally, Hector is also the character that we hear the absolute LEAST about, which makes it entirely unremarkable when it turns out he was a spy for the bad guy.)
Ajani is a bad guy. He leads another band of arrivals. Daniel is one of them - a former member of our group and a former lover of Kitty's. None of this matters in the least.
Garuda is a native of the Wasteland. Jack trusts him. Kitty does not. He leads a group of bloedzuigers, which are kind of like vampires (the bloedzuigers were the only thing about this book that was even sort of cool, and they were in it for about 3 pages TOTAL.)
And my few paragraphs there give JUST AS MUCH information as Marr does in the entire book. I swear.
There's this romance element to the book that is just lame. Kitty and Edgar are the main story and their relationship is just one more annoyance. Edgar threatens Kitty constantly - "if you do this, I won't be here for you anymore." And she's all "Okay! You were right anyway."
Bleck. I am not drawn in, I am not rooting for anyone, I am certainly not breathless with anticipation.
Jack and Chloe were much better than that, but their relationship really wasn't about anything more than a physical connection (despite attempts to make it otherwise) and we never REALLY got anywhere with it. So it was unsatisfying, too.
Just like the whole book.
At least this was a stand-alone and not the start to a series!
May 22, 2013
I was fortunate enough to get an ARC of this at RT this year. That made me happy since I had been wanting to read it anyway. I'm so glad I did!
First of all, let me say that I'm not a big wild west fan. I never have been; dusty towns and cowboy shoot-outs have never interested me. But throw in some supernatural time-travely stuff and a band of misfits, and I am in!
The Arrivals tells the story of the Arrivals - people from our world that for one reason or another get transported to this place called the Wasteland. They come from different time periods, and the only thing they have in common is that they did some bad things when in this world.
I won't say anything else because it needs to be read to fully understand. (Actually, I don't know that the world can be fully understood.) If you've read anything else by Melissa Marr then you know how good she is. This is an adult book, meaning there is cussing and some mild sexy times, but it is just as entertaining as her YA.
First of all, let me say that I'm not a big wild west fan. I never have been; dusty towns and cowboy shoot-outs have never interested me. But throw in some supernatural time-travely stuff and a band of misfits, and I am in!
The Arrivals tells the story of the Arrivals - people from our world that for one reason or another get transported to this place called the Wasteland. They come from different time periods, and the only thing they have in common is that they did some bad things when in this world.
I won't say anything else because it needs to be read to fully understand. (Actually, I don't know that the world can be fully understood.) If you've read anything else by Melissa Marr then you know how good she is. This is an adult book, meaning there is cussing and some mild sexy times, but it is just as entertaining as her YA.
August 28, 2013
I wish I could give a full review, however I didn't even finish the book. I was only about 50 pages away from the end...and yet I have absolutely no interest in finishing it. I have no investment in the characters, I have no investment in the plot. I'm not one for western settings, but surprisingly I did enjoy this one in particular. However, I found the plot to be slow moving, the characters mostly unlikeable, although not 2-dimensional.
Perhaps for me it is Miss Marr's writing that I can't cope with. I attempted at Wicked Lovely years ago. I wanted to love it so very much but ran into the same issue of a slow plot and unlikeable characters. I think Marr's writing serves to people with more patience, and I have little of that! If I'm not going to devour a book in one sitting, I'm probably not going to eat it at all (yikes, that sounds terrible).
I think this book and Marr's other books are for a more specific crowd--and hopefully you'll be a part of it!
Perhaps for me it is Miss Marr's writing that I can't cope with. I attempted at Wicked Lovely years ago. I wanted to love it so very much but ran into the same issue of a slow plot and unlikeable characters. I think Marr's writing serves to people with more patience, and I have little of that! If I'm not going to devour a book in one sitting, I'm probably not going to eat it at all (yikes, that sounds terrible).
I think this book and Marr's other books are for a more specific crowd--and hopefully you'll be a part of it!
July 31, 2019
this book did not meet my expectations
July 9, 2013
The Arrivals takes place in the Wasteland, an alien desert environment with towns and characters strongly reminiscent of a classic western. The Arrivals themselves are people from our world that end up in the Wasteland. Each Arrival is from a different time, ranging from the Old West to the present day, making the novel filled with a very unique cast of characters. Kitty and Jack lead the group of Arrivals, taking odd jobs from the regions governor to earn some cash. One of The Arrival's strange abilities is that they can die and after six days they sometimes get up again like nothing happened, sometimes they don't. When one of the Arrivals, Mary, dies and doesn't back Chloe is swept into the wild desert landscape and into the long standing feud between Jack's group and Anji, the leader of a different group of Arrivals, a group that never dies.
The Arrivals is the first book I have read written by Melissa Marr and after reading I can't wait to pick up her other adult novel Graveminder. When reading the description and just looking at the cover I expected a very entertaining adventure story, I was however surprised to find that though the adventure is still there, the story is much more character and emotionally driven, which even though I didn't know going into enjoyed immensely. The land Marr creates is incredibly original, with bat like miners, the vampire analogue bloedzuigers, and even the flightless sand dragon like lindwurms. As much as I enjoyed the setting it isn't really a main part of the actual story and doesn't get as much emphasis as I would have liked, but that's only because I liked it so much! The main characters are fleshed out incredibly well and are flawed and real. Marr writes her character's interactions amazingly real and life like. The Arrivals is a stand alone and ends well but I strongly hope Marr returns to this world and brings back her wonderful cast of characters.
The Arrivals is the first book I have read written by Melissa Marr and after reading I can't wait to pick up her other adult novel Graveminder. When reading the description and just looking at the cover I expected a very entertaining adventure story, I was however surprised to find that though the adventure is still there, the story is much more character and emotionally driven, which even though I didn't know going into enjoyed immensely. The land Marr creates is incredibly original, with bat like miners, the vampire analogue bloedzuigers, and even the flightless sand dragon like lindwurms. As much as I enjoyed the setting it isn't really a main part of the actual story and doesn't get as much emphasis as I would have liked, but that's only because I liked it so much! The main characters are fleshed out incredibly well and are flawed and real. Marr writes her character's interactions amazingly real and life like. The Arrivals is a stand alone and ends well but I strongly hope Marr returns to this world and brings back her wonderful cast of characters.
August 22, 2013
*Genre* Western, Fantasy, Paranormal, Adult
*Rating* 3-3.5
*First Thoughts*
The synopsis of this book is kind of misleading in that it makes it sound as though Chloe is the main character and thus the story teller of The Arrivals. Which, in fact, is not true at all. I would say that Jack and his sister Katherine (Kitty) are the main protagonists, with the secondary characters being Edgar, Francis, Melody, Hector, and then Chloe who just happens to be the last Arrival added to the motley crew that has gathered in the Wasteland.
As I was reading this book, it harkened me back to my western days when I would gobble up everything including John Wayne movies like I was addicted to crack. The Arrivals reminds me of Perdition where people are sent who have committed crimes (like killing people) and are sent there in order to find redemption in order to move on to Heaven or Hell. In this case, Jack and Kitty & crew, hunt down demons, and cynanthropes who roam the Wasteland as well as a sad sack villain who is the reason they are all there in the first place.
This is the second adult themed novel that I have read by Melissa Mar. The premise is obviously something that appeals to me, otherwise I would have never asked to borrow it from my library. I like the fact that it mixes a bit of western with paranormal and yes, a bit of romance as well. I would also say that I would not say not to a potential sequel to this story.
Published July 2nd 2013 by William Morrow
*Rating* 3-3.5
*First Thoughts*
The synopsis of this book is kind of misleading in that it makes it sound as though Chloe is the main character and thus the story teller of The Arrivals. Which, in fact, is not true at all. I would say that Jack and his sister Katherine (Kitty) are the main protagonists, with the secondary characters being Edgar, Francis, Melody, Hector, and then Chloe who just happens to be the last Arrival added to the motley crew that has gathered in the Wasteland.
As I was reading this book, it harkened me back to my western days when I would gobble up everything including John Wayne movies like I was addicted to crack. The Arrivals reminds me of Perdition where people are sent who have committed crimes (like killing people) and are sent there in order to find redemption in order to move on to Heaven or Hell. In this case, Jack and Kitty & crew, hunt down demons, and cynanthropes who roam the Wasteland as well as a sad sack villain who is the reason they are all there in the first place.
This is the second adult themed novel that I have read by Melissa Mar. The premise is obviously something that appeals to me, otherwise I would have never asked to borrow it from my library. I like the fact that it mixes a bit of western with paranormal and yes, a bit of romance as well. I would also say that I would not say not to a potential sequel to this story.
Published July 2nd 2013 by William Morrow
March 9, 2015
Добро пожаловать в Пустоземье, где вас на каждом углу подстерегают опасные существа, где вы можете умереть и снова ожить, где ружье и пистолет является вашими лучшими друзьями, где никому нельзя доверять, где вы всего лишь – незваные гости. :)
Для меня это вторая книга Марр и в целом я осталась довольна. Не поразила меня Марр своим суховатым стилем а–ля вестернов 19 века. Просто не мое, хотя я нашла это оригинальным. Произведение неторопливое, мрачное, немного путанное, поэтому читая первую половину книги я откровенно скучала. Большую часть времени герои занимаются выяснением отношений. Мир интересный, но показан кусками. Ближе к середине завязывается сюжет, довольно таки предсказуемый, ну и затем следует быстрая развязка. В истории есть две любовные линии, две пары с ними тоже все ясно и просто с самого начала книги. Какой то интриги в книге тоже нет. Кто плохой парень ясно и понятно с самого начала. Лично мне не хватило интриги и напряжения, может быть даже экшена.
Из плюсов отмечу красивую обложку русского печатного издания, в жизни очень классно смотрится, внутри текст красиво украшен, бумажка хотя и серенькая, но плотная. Минус – насчитала около 20 опечаток :( Оценка : 3 из 5.
Для меня это вторая книга Марр и в целом я осталась довольна. Не поразила меня Марр своим суховатым стилем а–ля вестернов 19 века. Просто не мое, хотя я нашла это оригинальным. Произведение неторопливое, мрачное, немного путанное, поэтому читая первую половину книги я откровенно скучала. Большую часть времени герои занимаются выяснением отношений. Мир интересный, но показан кусками. Ближе к середине завязывается сюжет, довольно таки предсказуемый, ну и затем следует быстрая развязка. В истории есть две любовные линии, две пары с ними тоже все ясно и просто с самого начала книги. Какой то интриги в книге тоже нет. Кто плохой парень ясно и понятно с самого начала. Лично мне не хватило интриги и напряжения, может быть даже экшена.
Из плюсов отмечу красивую обложку русского печатного издания, в жизни очень классно смотрится, внутри текст красиво украшен, бумажка хотя и серенькая, но плотная. Минус – насчитала около 20 опечаток :( Оценка : 3 из 5.
November 12, 2013
I was excited about this book. The premise sounded super interesting and I thought it'd be fun to get into a Western swing of things. But the book just felt entirely too flat to me. Usually I'll finish a book pretty quickly, but i had to force myself to keep reading this one. I didn't care about any of the characters, and the plot itself seemed distant most of the book. Basically the bad guy is bad and we must kill him. Character relationships were lacking throughout, and both romances felt contrived. Even the ending felt off, it was pretty anti-climactic and was described poorly.
A big part of my disappointment is that the magic system isn't really described. When one person dies, another takes their place. But then how did it go from only Jack and Kitty to all the many arrivals? If the exchange rate is 1:1, this makes no sense. And while we're on the subject of Kitty, please, please, PLEASE can the romance/supernatural books stop naming the heroines "kitty"? There are so many GOOD names out there, no need to keep reusing this totally obnoxious one.
A big part of my disappointment is that the magic system isn't really described. When one person dies, another takes their place. But then how did it go from only Jack and Kitty to all the many arrivals? If the exchange rate is 1:1, this makes no sense. And while we're on the subject of Kitty, please, please, PLEASE can the romance/supernatural books stop naming the heroines "kitty"? There are so many GOOD names out there, no need to keep reusing this totally obnoxious one.
December 31, 2018
This book has a great world and pretty interesting characters, but where the hell was the story? The premise is GREAT - a recovering alcoholic wakes up in a Wild West style world (that has dragons and vampires and other monsters) and meets a band of other ‘arrivals’ including a carni, a mobster from the prohibition period, a hippie, and an unhinged 50’s housewife. This could have been great but unfortunately it was SO short. This is a very short stand alone book. It either needed to be much much longer or a series. There were too many characters and too much world to establish and unfortunately it couldn’t deliver with so little time. It’s too bad, this could have been amazing.
May 11, 2013
This review first appeared on www.medusaslibrary.com
The Arrivals is a fantasy western. Let's just take a moment and look at those words, shall we? A Fantasy... Western. Can you think of many other fantasy westerns? There's The Dark Tower and...
Ok, so there are some steampunk westerns out there. Railsea and Iron Council have fantastical elements in a Western-ish setting. Dead Reckoning has steampunk and zombies.
But I'm talking gun slingers, saloons, and magic. There isn't much of it out there, but Melissa Marr gives us just that.
The book is smanbatet in the Wasteland. It's a strange world full of various forms of not-quite-humans. There are miners who have evolved to work underground. There are the bloedzuigers, who are equivalent to vampires (think the really ugly man-bat form from Bram Stoker's Dracula). There are cyanthropes, aka werewolves. Then there are the Arrivals. Arrivals are from our world. They don't know how they got to the Wasteland. They don't know if there's a way to get home. They come from all different eras starting with siblings Jack and Kitty from the 1870's and going up to the newest Arrival, Chloe who came from 2010.
If an Arrival dies she might stay dead or she might wake up in six days. No one knows until it happens. The only other thing that the Arrivals have in common; they've all killed someone back in the "real" world. It might have been for a good reason, but they all have blood on their hands.
Jack and Kitty believe that they have to use their strange powers to improve the Wasteland. They're in direct opposition to the mysterious Ajani. He seems interested only in personal profit. The siblings are constantly fighting Ajani for the most precious resource in the Wasteland - new Arrivals.
I read this while I was on jury duty and it did a great job of keeping me from feeling like I was in a weird, perpetual waiting room. At the same time, that feeling of being trapped in a bureaucratic Purgatory probably added something to my experience with the book. We'd all done something to land ourselves in jury duty, right?
Overall, I really enjoyed the book. The characters were interesting and the world building was phenomenal. The only thing I can really complain about is that the book was too short. It's not that I felt shortchanged at the end, just that I wasn't ready to leave yet. The End came about 100 pages too soon for me. I have so many questions left! I really hope that Marr plans to turn this into a new series. I'm not saying that it's bad as a standalone, because it isn't. But there's still so much I want to know.
The Arrivals is a fantasy western. Let's just take a moment and look at those words, shall we? A Fantasy... Western. Can you think of many other fantasy westerns? There's The Dark Tower and...
Ok, so there are some steampunk westerns out there. Railsea and Iron Council have fantastical elements in a Western-ish setting. Dead Reckoning has steampunk and zombies.
But I'm talking gun slingers, saloons, and magic. There isn't much of it out there, but Melissa Marr gives us just that.
The book is smanbatet in the Wasteland. It's a strange world full of various forms of not-quite-humans. There are miners who have evolved to work underground. There are the bloedzuigers, who are equivalent to vampires (think the really ugly man-bat form from Bram Stoker's Dracula). There are cyanthropes, aka werewolves. Then there are the Arrivals. Arrivals are from our world. They don't know how they got to the Wasteland. They don't know if there's a way to get home. They come from all different eras starting with siblings Jack and Kitty from the 1870's and going up to the newest Arrival, Chloe who came from 2010.
If an Arrival dies she might stay dead or she might wake up in six days. No one knows until it happens. The only other thing that the Arrivals have in common; they've all killed someone back in the "real" world. It might have been for a good reason, but they all have blood on their hands.
Jack and Kitty believe that they have to use their strange powers to improve the Wasteland. They're in direct opposition to the mysterious Ajani. He seems interested only in personal profit. The siblings are constantly fighting Ajani for the most precious resource in the Wasteland - new Arrivals.
I read this while I was on jury duty and it did a great job of keeping me from feeling like I was in a weird, perpetual waiting room. At the same time, that feeling of being trapped in a bureaucratic Purgatory probably added something to my experience with the book. We'd all done something to land ourselves in jury duty, right?
Overall, I really enjoyed the book. The characters were interesting and the world building was phenomenal. The only thing I can really complain about is that the book was too short. It's not that I felt shortchanged at the end, just that I wasn't ready to leave yet. The End came about 100 pages too soon for me. I have so many questions left! I really hope that Marr plans to turn this into a new series. I'm not saying that it's bad as a standalone, because it isn't. But there's still so much I want to know.
August 13, 2013
So, this is my first Melissa Marr book, which, knowing my penchant for the young adult genre, is as surprising to me as to anyone that it'd be one of her two adult books I'd be reading first. Especially when those who know me and my reading habits would have assumed I'd already devoured her "Wicked Lovely" YA urban fantasy series for teens and young adults long ago, right? Well, even though I am aware of those books, and have them on my horribly long to-be-read list, I just haven't gotten around to them yet. But, the blurb, cover and summary for Ms. Marr's newest novel caught my eye in such a way that I just couldn't let it wait at the back of a list that is so long it could probably spin around the Earth umpteen times without pause and I'd probably grow old and die before I got around to it. I am halfway through it right now and so far my opinion is I think it's a fine novel. I am wondering if it's a standalone or if Ms. Marr's planning on writing a follow-up. I suppose once I reach the end that particular query will be answered by how many strings are tied neatly and how many are left laying frazzled around the story. So far, I have to say; So far, so good! Next I really want to read her other adult book; "Graveminder", which has been out for a while now.
November 7, 2013
Fun book, with a comic-book kind of feel.
Random people from different time periods have suddenly awakened in an alternate world with an Old West/Post-apocalyptic/Fantasy flavor. Some of these ‘Arrivals’ have banded together against a local honcho who seems rather villainous – and may have something to do with their displacement.
I thought there was a lot of potential in the scenario that Marr sets up, but the book didn’t live up to that full potential. We’re dropped into the action in media res - this situation has been going on for a while. The starting point is one woman’s ‘arrival,’ but she’s not really the ‘main character’ [it’s more of an ensemble work] and the voice is third-person. The backgrounds of the different characters are sketched very briefly, and the result is that they seem rather flat and similar, where they should be very different.
There’s some enjoyable action, drama, a bit of romance, some intriguing details about the world that Marr’s introducing, as the characters try to figure out why them, why here? (Not all questions are answered…) There’s the big showdown – and plenty left over for some sequels.
Random people from different time periods have suddenly awakened in an alternate world with an Old West/Post-apocalyptic/Fantasy flavor. Some of these ‘Arrivals’ have banded together against a local honcho who seems rather villainous – and may have something to do with their displacement.
I thought there was a lot of potential in the scenario that Marr sets up, but the book didn’t live up to that full potential. We’re dropped into the action in media res - this situation has been going on for a while. The starting point is one woman’s ‘arrival,’ but she’s not really the ‘main character’ [it’s more of an ensemble work] and the voice is third-person. The backgrounds of the different characters are sketched very briefly, and the result is that they seem rather flat and similar, where they should be very different.
There’s some enjoyable action, drama, a bit of romance, some intriguing details about the world that Marr’s introducing, as the characters try to figure out why them, why here? (Not all questions are answered…) There’s the big showdown – and plenty left over for some sequels.
February 1, 2015
I've read a lot of negative reviews about this book. They said it's a complete waste of time...I disagree. Melissa Marr always takes me to a completely different world everytime and this book is no different. Okay, it's a little dry but I was still so interested about the character development and the relationships among them. But what's up with Hector though? Where has he gone to? Or what happened to him? I couldn't believe he got away with what he did! He shoudn't really. And two thumbs up on KittyxEdgar and ChloexJack. :) I was definitely rooting for them! And I actually quite like Melody and Francis. The variety of characters in this book is really interesting but they mesh together. You know? Despite Melody's craziness or Kitty's trigger-happy attitude or Edgar's stoic personality, they all still went pretty well as a team of cowboy hunters! So excuse me when I say this, screw those who hated this book. I still felt the same love as I did for Melissa's other books. The Arrivals is no different. It still captured my heart.
December 6, 2013
The Good: The premise was awesome. What a perfectly unique idea. People, ripped from their own time periods, brought together in this unfamiliar land having no idea how or why. The execution of the characters themselves was spectacular. You'd think that the supernatural angles would be overkill on top of a solid science fiction base, but you'd be wrong in this case. They meshed well and caused a majority of the novel to go in directions you could never see coming.
The Bad: Westerns aren't my thing. I thought I could look past that, given the magical and science fiction aspects of the story, but I was wrong. No matter how unusual and interesting the story, I couldn't get into it because everything revolved around the western ways of life in some degree. Due to this, it was very slow reading for me.
The Bad: Westerns aren't my thing. I thought I could look past that, given the magical and science fiction aspects of the story, but I was wrong. No matter how unusual and interesting the story, I couldn't get into it because everything revolved around the western ways of life in some degree. Due to this, it was very slow reading for me.
October 25, 2017
I've been reading this book for more than 2 months, and I honestly wish I DNF'ed it at page 50. It was so short and I was more than halfway through so I couldn't justify it, but this was a real struggle. It had more cons than pros but the cover's nice. Never again.
January 11, 2014
I was entertained, but this wasn't a very exciting read. Mostly, people just went along with whatever happened, and then end wasn't very dramatic. Just a calm, strange read.
September 17, 2017
Just OK for what it is. The writing is OK, the pacing is OK, the characters are OK.
May 29, 2017
Chloe walks into a bar, blowing 5 years of sobriety and the next thing she knows she finds herself waking up in a completely unfamiliar world. Where she fell asleep in the year 2013, she finds herself in something that can be only compared to the old west of American history. Here she meets a group of people from all times and places who have arrived at different times. There's Kitty and Jack Reed, a brother & sister from the actual wild west; Edgar, a prohibition bootlegger; Francis, a one-time hippy; Melody, a mentally unstable housewife from the 1950's; and Hector, a former carnival artist. None of them know why or how they've arrived there other or how they'll make it home, if they ever do. But they've banned together to fight to survive against the creatures and the people that populate this strange new world filled with monsters, some of whom are the human kind.
The Arrivals once again showed the talent that Melissa Marr has in world creation. She managed to make you feel like you were actually there. She didn't just create a world but managed to populate it with a variety of creatures, of both the human and nonhuman variety. The citizens of the towns managed to show the instinctual mistrust that many of us have of anyone that's different and how much different can you be than someone that's appeared out of nowhere dressed in the various time periods? I love the characters, even the ones that are evil. I particularly loved Garuda and enjoyed the scenes between him and Kitty. I enjoyed that unlike so many fantasy genre novels, there was no one that was completely evil (okay, Ajani came pretty close. He was seriously slimy) or completely good. They all have flaws. I loved the relationships between all of the Arrivals and the way they had each other's backs, especially Kitty and Edgar, and of course Kitty and Jack, all while they gave each other crap. They were like a real family. I really loved watching the relationship between Chloe and Jack evolve. All in all, it was interesting seeing Melissa Marr's foray into writing an adult novel but I really enjoyed it.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006...
The Arrivals once again showed the talent that Melissa Marr has in world creation. She managed to make you feel like you were actually there. She didn't just create a world but managed to populate it with a variety of creatures, of both the human and nonhuman variety. The citizens of the towns managed to show the instinctual mistrust that many of us have of anyone that's different and how much different can you be than someone that's appeared out of nowhere dressed in the various time periods? I love the characters, even the ones that are evil. I particularly loved Garuda and enjoyed the scenes between him and Kitty. I enjoyed that unlike so many fantasy genre novels, there was no one that was completely evil (okay, Ajani came pretty close. He was seriously slimy) or completely good. They all have flaws. I loved the relationships between all of the Arrivals and the way they had each other's backs, especially Kitty and Edgar, and of course Kitty and Jack, all while they gave each other crap. They were like a real family. I really loved watching the relationship between Chloe and Jack evolve. All in all, it was interesting seeing Melissa Marr's foray into writing an adult novel but I really enjoyed it.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006...
November 15, 2020
This was very weird., which isn't bad so much as not what I expected (or maybe wanted right now). I went in thinking it was going to be just portal fantasy, but the Wasteland that the Arrivals found themselves was a lot for me. I'd compare this to Down Among the Sticks and Bones + Wild West, but it just didn't work for me.
January 24, 2020
Brilliant. Would love a second book to this!
August 18, 2020
2.5 stars
This was pretty boring. It dropped you in at the deep end, it was slow, and the whole thing just dragged, and dragged. Bored.
This was pretty boring. It dropped you in at the deep end, it was slow, and the whole thing just dragged, and dragged. Bored.
November 18, 2020
This was so different than anything I have read by Melissa Marr. I really enjoyed it. I liked Jack and Chloe. I also loved the side characters. It was a weird awesome world. I would recommend it.
July 8, 2024
A random quick grab from the library that turned out to be a fantastic read!
June 25, 2013
I received this ARC while at the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention. I was in no way compensated for this review.
I was most happy to receive and ARC of Melissa Marr's next adult release, The Arrivals, while at RT. Although the story seemed odd, I was willing to try it out. And it was definitely a bit odd. Even after finishing I am still left wondering the why of everything. I feel stupid for having missed why these people were brought to the Wasteland. It's not that the storytelling wasn't good, because it was, I guess I was just overwhelmed with the new world setting and trying to figure out what's what that I somehow just missed a few details.
I was surprised when the story opened up to Kitty and Jack in the middle of some business, and not with Chloe. I felt like the description I read made it seem like the story would follow Chloe adjusting to this new world. Well, Chloe didn't show up until a few chapters later. It's true that in the Wasteland that if you die, you won't stay dead. You'd rise in six days, but not always. It's a gamble either way. 50/50 shot that if you get shot--or die some other way--you'll still live to tell the tale. And when one of the group Jack and Kitty have formed dies and stays dead, they know someone from the normal world will be coming shortly.
It's definitely a strange world building here, but strange in a good way. They are bloedzuigers, which is basically a vampire, but they are not like the vampires we're used to. Not moody or sparkly or carnivorous, just different somehow. I struggle with trying to explain, it's really just one of those things you have to read for yourself to truly grasp it!
The bad of misfits that are described in the book description above, all came from different times, yet they have one thing in common; they have killed someone. In order to arrive in this Wasteland, you have to had killed someone. How you get chosen is still a little unclear to me, I guess it's just Fate. So when Chloe does arrive and hears this tidbit, she realizes she's with a band of murderers...like herself. But there are always extenuating circumstances when it comes to murder, like with her case, so she figures maybe there's reasons why these other people killed too. Unfortunately, we don't really ever find out. Not about everyone. We just know that they have killed before arriving.
This story definitely focuses more on the actual Arrivals, those who have come to the Wasteland from another world and time, so Chloe gets some facetime, but it's not just her story.
The characters were definitely engaging and intriguing, but I felt like it was more focused on Jack, Kitty and Edgar, along with Chloe while the others were just sort of there and played a few roles into the story. Kitty and Edgar have a history, after being trapped in the Wasteland for so many years, romance is bound to happen. But after a particular occurrence, Kitty ends their relationship. There's definitely lots of tension between the two, as Edgar still loves Kitty and lets her know that daily.
Kitty was an oddity herself, but I still loved her! For some reason she has some sort of abilities that she got from her, but it's never quite clear on what they are. They just make her the prime target for Ajani, our villain in the story. He wants Kitty because of what she can do and will do whatever possible to get her in his clutches.
There's also a bit of romance between Jack and Chloe, although it's hard to say if it's real. First things get heavy after they have this special kind of drink and are moving with adrenaline. Then later when things start to get a little more hot and heavy, they are interrupted and Jack accidentally calls her by his old lover's name--the woman who died that essentially brought Chloe to him. So yeah...things are definitely complicated between them.
The ending was likely just as complicated in some respect. I get the whole showdown with the bad guy and why he finally wanted Kitty. But I can't grasp a tiny why he wanted to do what he needed Kitty for. It's hard to explain without spoilers, so I guess I'll leave it there and we can all be confused together!
The ending was good though, definitely wasn't expecting that particular turn of events. And there was just one little tidbit that is left uncalled for that makes me wonder, well? What happened there? I don't think this is a series, I believe it is another standalone like Graveminder was, but again, I don't know for sure.
The Arrivals is definitely an intriguing story with a cast of colorful characters that are sure to keep you entertained! The world building was fantastic, it's definitely a strange world they live in. It was just a few of the plot details that have me reeling, but all in all, it was definitely a good read!
Overall Rating 3.5/5 stars
The Arrivals releases July 2, 2013
I was most happy to receive and ARC of Melissa Marr's next adult release, The Arrivals, while at RT. Although the story seemed odd, I was willing to try it out. And it was definitely a bit odd. Even after finishing I am still left wondering the why of everything. I feel stupid for having missed why these people were brought to the Wasteland. It's not that the storytelling wasn't good, because it was, I guess I was just overwhelmed with the new world setting and trying to figure out what's what that I somehow just missed a few details.
I was surprised when the story opened up to Kitty and Jack in the middle of some business, and not with Chloe. I felt like the description I read made it seem like the story would follow Chloe adjusting to this new world. Well, Chloe didn't show up until a few chapters later. It's true that in the Wasteland that if you die, you won't stay dead. You'd rise in six days, but not always. It's a gamble either way. 50/50 shot that if you get shot--or die some other way--you'll still live to tell the tale. And when one of the group Jack and Kitty have formed dies and stays dead, they know someone from the normal world will be coming shortly.
It's definitely a strange world building here, but strange in a good way. They are bloedzuigers, which is basically a vampire, but they are not like the vampires we're used to. Not moody or sparkly or carnivorous, just different somehow. I struggle with trying to explain, it's really just one of those things you have to read for yourself to truly grasp it!
The bad of misfits that are described in the book description above, all came from different times, yet they have one thing in common; they have killed someone. In order to arrive in this Wasteland, you have to had killed someone. How you get chosen is still a little unclear to me, I guess it's just Fate. So when Chloe does arrive and hears this tidbit, she realizes she's with a band of murderers...like herself. But there are always extenuating circumstances when it comes to murder, like with her case, so she figures maybe there's reasons why these other people killed too. Unfortunately, we don't really ever find out. Not about everyone. We just know that they have killed before arriving.
This story definitely focuses more on the actual Arrivals, those who have come to the Wasteland from another world and time, so Chloe gets some facetime, but it's not just her story.
The characters were definitely engaging and intriguing, but I felt like it was more focused on Jack, Kitty and Edgar, along with Chloe while the others were just sort of there and played a few roles into the story. Kitty and Edgar have a history, after being trapped in the Wasteland for so many years, romance is bound to happen. But after a particular occurrence, Kitty ends their relationship. There's definitely lots of tension between the two, as Edgar still loves Kitty and lets her know that daily.
Kitty was an oddity herself, but I still loved her! For some reason she has some sort of abilities that she got from her, but it's never quite clear on what they are. They just make her the prime target for Ajani, our villain in the story. He wants Kitty because of what she can do and will do whatever possible to get her in his clutches.
There's also a bit of romance between Jack and Chloe, although it's hard to say if it's real. First things get heavy after they have this special kind of drink and are moving with adrenaline. Then later when things start to get a little more hot and heavy, they are interrupted and Jack accidentally calls her by his old lover's name--the woman who died that essentially brought Chloe to him. So yeah...things are definitely complicated between them.
The ending was likely just as complicated in some respect. I get the whole showdown with the bad guy and why he finally wanted Kitty. But I can't grasp a tiny why he wanted to do what he needed Kitty for. It's hard to explain without spoilers, so I guess I'll leave it there and we can all be confused together!
The ending was good though, definitely wasn't expecting that particular turn of events. And there was just one little tidbit that is left uncalled for that makes me wonder, well? What happened there? I don't think this is a series, I believe it is another standalone like Graveminder was, but again, I don't know for sure.
The Arrivals is definitely an intriguing story with a cast of colorful characters that are sure to keep you entertained! The world building was fantastic, it's definitely a strange world they live in. It was just a few of the plot details that have me reeling, but all in all, it was definitely a good read!
Overall Rating 3.5/5 stars
The Arrivals releases July 2, 2013
January 5, 2018
I really did not care for this book. I felt that the characters were stereotypical and two dimensional. Not impressed at all. However, if you enjoy westerns with a psychedelic twist this might just be for you.
May 12, 2014
The Arrivals by Melissa Marr has an interesting, quirky, and entertaining premise that almost sounds like a bad joke gone horrible awry:
Delivery: A twenty-something woman walks into a bar blowing five years of sobriety after catching her fiancé screwing her boss in her own bed...
Punch Line: Said woman wakes up in a distant and desolate and desert dystopian world called The Wastelands that is as harsh and merciless to its inhabitants and new arrivals as the name suggests.
And let’s not forget the horse size canines with a distinct taste for all things flesh or the bloedzuigers who are the equivalent to what we refer to as vampires but much more primal and vicious than we could ever imagine or than the movies and TV could ever depict.
Of course, the 1800’s western gambler brother and saloon girl sister team, a 1920’s Prohibition gangster thug, a 1950’s housewife with mental issues, a 1970’s hippie that has enjoys his medicinal and recreational herbs a great dealt, and a 1980’s tattooed carnie with an affinity for knives were not exactly the nurturing companions to wake up to in this strange world either, but fate is funny when it comes to sins and atonement or so the leader of this group, Jack, believes. And we certainly cannot forget Jacks’ nemesis, the British megalomaniac with godhood on his brain, insanity in his eyes, and a wealth of power and influence to obtain all he desires in the Wastelands with the exception Katherine, Jack’s sister and the only magic worker in their group, and she has no intention of joining Ajani and his people no matter what he offers her.
With all these personalities and conflicts, new arrival Chloe will have to decide fast where her loyalties lie even if she has only been in the Wastelands for a couple of days: stay with the ragtag group of killers that include the sexy cowboy she can’t seem to stop thinking about or go with the power-hungry group of strangers that live comfortably even if it is at the expense of native Wastelanders and any other people who get in their way. More importantly, she will also have to consider the one thing both Jack and Ajani’s groups have in common with one another: all the Arrivals have killed someone in the world and time period they came from.
I have to say, I liked this story overall even though there were some confusing moments in the story and some questions that remained unanswered in the end. One of the most confusing aspects in this book was the alternating point of views of the main characters. I enjoyed Jack and Chloe’s point of views and I could tolerate Kitty’s even with her temperamental issues, but Ajani’s was odd and it also felt too underdeveloped. I felt like there was something missing and even though I understood the man was unstable and a bit on the insane side, I felt like I never really found out exactly what it was he was after besides power and I just could not connect with him even though his villainy made sense to the story. I did enjoy the humor, the action, the mystery, and the backdrop of the story though, and the characters were very well written and developed throughout the book. I particularly liked the addition of the bloedzuigers and how their motivations and personalities came into play. Garuda was quite interesting and I liked the dynamic of his “pack” and enjoyed the “etiquette” he practiced when dealing with Jack or Kitty. Ms. Marr did leave the ending open for possibly future books in this world, but she also made this book a standalone which I appreciated as no author seems to write just one novel.
All in all, The Arrivals was a fun, interesting, and unique book that I would recommend to fans of the author or fans of Paranormal/Urban Fantasy genres. I give this book a high 3 ½ stars in the end.
Delivery: A twenty-something woman walks into a bar blowing five years of sobriety after catching her fiancé screwing her boss in her own bed...
Punch Line: Said woman wakes up in a distant and desolate and desert dystopian world called The Wastelands that is as harsh and merciless to its inhabitants and new arrivals as the name suggests.
And let’s not forget the horse size canines with a distinct taste for all things flesh or the bloedzuigers who are the equivalent to what we refer to as vampires but much more primal and vicious than we could ever imagine or than the movies and TV could ever depict.
Of course, the 1800’s western gambler brother and saloon girl sister team, a 1920’s Prohibition gangster thug, a 1950’s housewife with mental issues, a 1970’s hippie that has enjoys his medicinal and recreational herbs a great dealt, and a 1980’s tattooed carnie with an affinity for knives were not exactly the nurturing companions to wake up to in this strange world either, but fate is funny when it comes to sins and atonement or so the leader of this group, Jack, believes. And we certainly cannot forget Jacks’ nemesis, the British megalomaniac with godhood on his brain, insanity in his eyes, and a wealth of power and influence to obtain all he desires in the Wastelands with the exception Katherine, Jack’s sister and the only magic worker in their group, and she has no intention of joining Ajani and his people no matter what he offers her.
With all these personalities and conflicts, new arrival Chloe will have to decide fast where her loyalties lie even if she has only been in the Wastelands for a couple of days: stay with the ragtag group of killers that include the sexy cowboy she can’t seem to stop thinking about or go with the power-hungry group of strangers that live comfortably even if it is at the expense of native Wastelanders and any other people who get in their way. More importantly, she will also have to consider the one thing both Jack and Ajani’s groups have in common with one another: all the Arrivals have killed someone in the world and time period they came from.
I have to say, I liked this story overall even though there were some confusing moments in the story and some questions that remained unanswered in the end. One of the most confusing aspects in this book was the alternating point of views of the main characters. I enjoyed Jack and Chloe’s point of views and I could tolerate Kitty’s even with her temperamental issues, but Ajani’s was odd and it also felt too underdeveloped. I felt like there was something missing and even though I understood the man was unstable and a bit on the insane side, I felt like I never really found out exactly what it was he was after besides power and I just could not connect with him even though his villainy made sense to the story. I did enjoy the humor, the action, the mystery, and the backdrop of the story though, and the characters were very well written and developed throughout the book. I particularly liked the addition of the bloedzuigers and how their motivations and personalities came into play. Garuda was quite interesting and I liked the dynamic of his “pack” and enjoyed the “etiquette” he practiced when dealing with Jack or Kitty. Ms. Marr did leave the ending open for possibly future books in this world, but she also made this book a standalone which I appreciated as no author seems to write just one novel.
All in all, The Arrivals was a fun, interesting, and unique book that I would recommend to fans of the author or fans of Paranormal/Urban Fantasy genres. I give this book a high 3 ½ stars in the end.
July 13, 2013
This has to be one of the most original stories I have read in years. If you are not drawn in by the cover, or by the fact that this is by Melissa Marr (I loved Graveminder), then I don't know how to sell it to you. Is is SciFi? I say yes. Is it fantasy? Also yes. Is it a Western? Meh, not really. I tore into this in a blaze and right away I made the guess that they were all characters in a video game. That made the most sense to me. Whether I was right or not, I'll never tell.
Here's what I will say: this is completely original. It's fast paced. It has elements I've never come across before, and some that I thought I knew but that appear in a different form here. It's not a beach read, and it will not appeal to anyone who wants a story handed to them in a tight package with a tiny bow. And all of that is OKAY by me. I appreciated that the romance was not the driving force in the story.
What I had some trouble with was 1. the world building-it's not complete and what we are given isn't satisfying at all. We see one tiny sliver of the Wasteland, and it's the one created by the "arrivals" not the natives, so it's not even the real Wasteland. 2. Characterization- everyone is really only a single layer. Jack and Kitty are fleshed out a bit more than the others, but not by much. No one seems to evolve beyond the time period they came from. 3. The villain- he's nuts, but beyond that who is he and what does he want? Why does he want Kitty so badly when he can do what she does already? It feels a little incomplete. 4. Repetition- there is a ton of repetition. Page after page about how much Jack trusts Garuda, about about how he is the leader of the group. I could have used a lot less repetition about stuff we already know (I should have counted how many time the phrase "Garuda is on Jacks' short list of people he trusts" showed up) and more time on stuff we don't- like why we should even care about Chloe and where do the goods come from in the stores? How do people survive in the Wasteland, what kind of history did this world have?, and what other creatures roam the desert at night?
So, overall, a good read. I wonder if it will be a series and if more will be fleshed out later. I recommend it to people who are looking for something "different" to read. As I am still waiting for a sequel to Graveminder, we may have a bit of a wait, but I would read about the group again.
A cover note: I had it in my mind for the first 100 pages that Edgar was supposed to be a Charlie Chaplin type, because he does not look like a gangster on the cover- I would have given him a fedora and a tommy gun, not a Victorian dandy-ish cane. Also, Chloe never wears a dress, and Kitty's never described as wearing that full of a skirt. A bustle would have been more appropriate. I do LOVE the graphics!
Here's what I will say: this is completely original. It's fast paced. It has elements I've never come across before, and some that I thought I knew but that appear in a different form here. It's not a beach read, and it will not appeal to anyone who wants a story handed to them in a tight package with a tiny bow. And all of that is OKAY by me. I appreciated that the romance was not the driving force in the story.
What I had some trouble with was 1. the world building-it's not complete and what we are given isn't satisfying at all. We see one tiny sliver of the Wasteland, and it's the one created by the "arrivals" not the natives, so it's not even the real Wasteland. 2. Characterization- everyone is really only a single layer. Jack and Kitty are fleshed out a bit more than the others, but not by much. No one seems to evolve beyond the time period they came from. 3. The villain- he's nuts, but beyond that who is he and what does he want? Why does he want Kitty so badly when he can do what she does already? It feels a little incomplete. 4. Repetition- there is a ton of repetition. Page after page about how much Jack trusts Garuda, about about how he is the leader of the group. I could have used a lot less repetition about stuff we already know (I should have counted how many time the phrase "Garuda is on Jacks' short list of people he trusts" showed up) and more time on stuff we don't- like why we should even care about Chloe and where do the goods come from in the stores? How do people survive in the Wasteland, what kind of history did this world have?, and what other creatures roam the desert at night?
So, overall, a good read. I wonder if it will be a series and if more will be fleshed out later. I recommend it to people who are looking for something "different" to read. As I am still waiting for a sequel to Graveminder, we may have a bit of a wait, but I would read about the group again.
A cover note: I had it in my mind for the first 100 pages that Edgar was supposed to be a Charlie Chaplin type, because he does not look like a gangster on the cover- I would have given him a fedora and a tommy gun, not a Victorian dandy-ish cane. Also, Chloe never wears a dress, and Kitty's never described as wearing that full of a skirt. A bustle would have been more appropriate. I do LOVE the graphics!
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