This week we are discussing From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout, Ch. 32-End.
Content Warning!!! This book contains situations and subjects related to: sexual assault, murder, torture, death, kidnapping, imprisonment, war themes, slavery, animal death, blood drinking, blood and gore descriptions, physical, psychological & emotional abuse, gaslighting, suicide mentioned, descriptions of dead bodies, and other adult themes.
Spoiler Warning!!! This post is full of spoilers for From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout.
Discussion:
Michaela: Hello friends and welcome to our final discussion of From Blood and Ash! I feel like everything happened very fast at the end here. We arrived in New Haven’s Keep, had some spicy time, and then instantly thrown into a very violent turn of events. I’ve known Hawke was lying to us since the beginning because obviously, he’s the love interest so I expected nothing less. However, I think him telling Poppy “don’t forget this” after they had sex for the first time was a little cheap. Like bitch, don’t you worry I will remember and it fuels my hate fire to be honest. I think him being willing to have sex with Poppy without telling him his real identity was crossing a line. Clearly Poppy still wants a relationship with him after she finally figures out who he is but that doesn’t make it okay that he was willing to participate in a very important sexual experience with Poppy under the basis of a lie. Which can I just say Poppy is miles behind everyone else with that realization. As far as the writing goes it was quite heavily foreshadowed, but even from Poppy’s perspective she’s straight up got blinders on or something. She sees Hawke’s closest friend turn into a wolven and goes ‘oh no, I must find him to warn him”....ma’am.
Jacilyn: He wants Poppy to remember that his feelings for her are real, but he can’t really expect her to be able to do that easily when she has to face this betrayal. I doubt just telling her the truth would have gone very well, and no matter what the guards from Masadonia had to die….. But basically just letting Poppy figure things out on her own as shit is going down was bullshit. It was a cowardly move on Casteel’s part. Because of this, he and Poppy have to basically rebuild their relationship and the trust that they had developed. He clearly cares about her, and honestly I think he realized very quickly after meeting her that he wasn’t going to be able to use her for ransom.
Poppy, in spite of all the secrets she’s had to keep throughout her life, trusts so blindly. She wasn’t even kind of tuned into what was happening with “Hawke.” Part of that is due to the fact that she’s been very sheltered and is therefore pretty naive, but still. She has better instincts than that but those blinders are so firmly in place.
Michaela was spot on with a lot of her suspicions about the Ascended, so I was so excited for us to finally get to the point where Casteel is revealing the truth to Poppy. The Ascended have been using Craven to control the population for decades. It’s disgusting, and it is really hard for Poppy to reconcile the idea of the Queen who treated her so kindly being a part of something so horrible. Even more so when Casteel reveals some of what he experienced when he was her prisoner.
Michaela: I don’t think he can expect Poppy to forgive his lies even if she does believe in his feelings for her. It’s an unfair and unreasonable expectation. Many of Casteel’s actions in these last few chapters were all very cowardly, and he’s clearly putting on a facade now for his followers but it rubs me the wrong way. Something about his drastic change in personality between the night he was Hawke and the morning when he’s revealed as Casteel, it makes me uneasy. Especially just declaring he’s going to marry her at the very end of the book. I don’t feel like I trust him at all anymore despite knowing his feelings for Poppy were indeed real, actions speak pretty loud for me. And then him blocking Poppy’s powers, oooooooo that pissed me off so so bad, that was the last straw for me. The AUDACITY of this man.
I did greatly appreciate seeing through Poppy’s eyes and thoughts as she realizes the truth of the Ascended. If you have never had a feeling of realization like that, this was pretty spot on to my experiences with religion. It was a very shocking and fast realization for Poppy and usually pretty slow in real life but it was very accurate. Essentially she was programmed to think only one way and to constantly invent excuses for behaviors, and lean back on the history she was taught and the version of the gods she was told to believe in.
I was so ready for that lore drop though. Finally all my theories get an actual answer! The creation of the vampry (Ascended) was so interesting. I am particularly interested in Kieran’s comment of the gods creating the wolven in their image, while the Ascended have always said that they themselves were created in the gods’ image. Also, Casteel said “our gods, who’d long since gone to sleep”....pardon? Is this some poetic shiz or are we talking truths, because I am intrigued. I think the mystery of the lore and creatures of this world are so cool so far and I think that’s my favorite part of the story. I love a good twist on a classic thing, and this is such a neat twist on the classic vampire. Not a sparkle in sight!
Jacilyn: My favorite thing about this universe as a whole, both the From Blood and Ash series and the Flesh and Fire prequel series, is the lore. It has so much depth, so many layers to it, and we continue learning as the series continues. Even in the most recent FBAA book, there were new revelations. The gods, in particular, are very very interesting - they are indeed asleep, in a way, which we’ll learn more about in the next book. I also really enjoy that unique combination of werewolves, zombies, and vampires we have going on. Both the vampry and the Atlantians have similarities to vampires, the Craven are like a cross between vampires and zombies, and the wolven are clearly inspired by werewolves. Those three creatures are a part of the story, but JLA doesn’t write them in the typical way so it doesn’t feel boring or overdone.
Poppy almost being killed, with Mr. Tulis being the one to strike the would-be fatal blow, always hits like a punch to the gut. When Poppy whispers that she was glad she didn’t see him and his family at the Rite, it breaks my heart for her. It’s not fair that so many of these Descenters place all the blame on Poppy - but honestly I think that’s part of the vampry’s manipulation of Poppy. The royals portray Poppy as a divine being, blessed by the gods in a similar way as they say they are - a cornerstone of the kingdom and their way of life. The regular folk see her as a representation of the Ascended, and don’t see that the Maiden has very little power in this world at all. Mr. Tulis is angry that Poppy didn’t try to intervene on his behalf when they came to speak to the Duke and Duchess, but he doesn’t know what happens to her behind closed doors. This whole kingdom is being gaslit by the very people who are the source of everything they fear.
Michaela: Mr. Tulis being there to hurt Poppy at the end was really disappointing. He’s been gaslit from one side by the Ascended and radicalized on the other by people like Jericho. I don’t even really believe that Jericho wanted Poppy dead for any other reason besides revenge for her getting the better of him more than once. He dragged all those people along to their deaths just because of his own pride.
I enjoyed this story and world a lot in this book. But there were some things that I was not a fan of. First of all, I think the POC representation in this book was a miss. I am a white person, so if there’s anything in a book that I find questionable that I don’t have a voice in, I like to look up reviews and discussions by people who are being affected. That being said, I did find quite a few POC reviewers, content creators, etc. who were also disappointed in and/or uncomfortable with the representation in this book. I think this book could have used a little bit of editing help when it came to diversity and also sexual assault, as I saw many people also upset at Hawke lying about being Casteel while having sex with the main character.
Now the rest of the things I wasn’t a fan of weren’t necessary bad things, they just weren’t up my street. I am not a fan of non consensual acts of biting, especially in cases where blood is being consumed. Blood consumption is a given in vampire fantasy and it does not bother me, what does bother me is when non consensual biting is being shown as okay or sexy. If the partner consents to it, sure go for it, but I’m not here for excusing it because someone is ‘mated to’, ‘in love with’ or other such excuses. I just don’t like it, it makes me uncomfortable and it's definitely something I would have a problem with if that continues in the series besides this isolated incident with Casteel and Poppy in the woods. Which to be fair, it was addressed and he apologized but it definitely felt a little glossed over to me to get back to them doing banty flirting. Going along with this was Casteel’s blood causing an arousal effect in Poppy’s body…I know it’s potentially meant to come off as a spicy thing but to me it’s icky and it feels very unnecessary.
All of those things are something I would give a content warning for if someone ever asked me about the book. Again, the blood related story things aren’t bad but they aren’t my thing and tend to make me uncomfortable. In all I did enjoy this story and I think I’m going to try reading the next book in the series at some point. Based on the last section of this book I can see the writing going in a direction I like or a direction that isn’t my thing as a reader. So I’ll just have to see.
Jacilyn: Well friends, that is it for our time with From Blood and Ash. Thank you so much for joining us, and we’ll see you next time for our new book!
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