The Inheritants: The Funeral March by K.M. Mackmurdie



         I had a hard time with this book. Certain parts were great, the writing flowed well, and the world was interesting, but the characters were incredibly hard to like. The Inheritants starts us off with a funeral. Meredith (the main character) is walking behind her boyfriend Sloane's coffin in a wedding dress that she'll never get to use. It's a sad start to an equally sad and frustrating story.

        "It was as if there were a magic cord binding her to the casket as she followed, half blind from unshed tears and the splash of fine rain across her cheeks. Still, she refused to rest. She would walk for however long it took."

         Sloane is dead, he's not coming back, but when Meredith opens his coffin and finds out that his body is missing, she teams up with her ex-boyfriend/ex-bestfriend to find it. This is where things started to get dicey for me. Meredith's ex-boyfriend Kenny is a misogynistic tool that can barely keep himself from raping Meredith during the entire book. He even did rape her in the past, which is why he's an ex-boyfriend, and the only reason he doesn't now is because she's powerful and he didn't know that before.

     "He wanted her, to take her right there in the car, desperately. Someone out there wanting to hurt her made him feel almost powerful. Her vulnerability was addictive to him, but the newfound knowledge of what she was capable of stilled his hand."

         Kenny is an important character in the story, a borderline main character that we're supposed to feel sorry for and the only thing I felt was disappointment that he wasn't dead yet. His and Meredith's relationship ended up taking away from a story that I might've loved.

         Despite the characters there is a lot to love about this book, the magic system for one was incredibly interesting. Certain bloodlines aren't completely human and end up passing down very specific magic to their children and these people are called Inheritants. In Meredith's case, her family is able to control fire, other families are able to control people's minds and still others have the power of decay. It was a really cool idea that I'm curious to hear more about in the second book.

        Even though I didn't really enjoy either of the main characters, some of the side characters and villains were intriguing enough to keep me going. Diane, Sloane's ex-wife and the probable thief of his body is a disgusting villian who's easy to hate. Our first introduction to her in the book had me terrified and intrigued as to what the hell is actually going on. My only warning is that Diane is a very, very sexual character in a horrifying, not at all pretty way, so beware of that going in.

        If I had to give this book a rating I'd go in the 2.5 - 3 star range, it has potential and I'm curious to see what K.M. Mackmurdie does next, but I would've enjoyed it a lot more if there had been even one likeable male character. Meredith tries to be likable and at times, she even succeeds, but every single male character is a POS and the fact that she kept hanging around them drove me crazy. That dude raped you! And didn't care! And every single one of his friends believes that women are the weaker sex that's good for nothing but protecting. MEREDITH CONTROLS FIRE!! Why is she putting up with this?! Sorry... end of rant. I'll definitely be checking out the sequel and if your not bothered by obnoxious male chauvinism, this book is worth giving a try. It's a surprisingly well put together debut novel that has a ton of potential.

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