My heart broke for Cian. The poor kid struggled for every crumb that he could get. I don't think that the gang rapes were necessary to the story except that Vaughan awoke Cian's fire. Steve deserved exactly what he got. There were some nice surprises in the story but a terrible amount of violent destruction. ( )

This story is all over the place. Cian is not only messed up, but easily manipulated by the people around him, easily used and abused and he doesn't learn anything from the experience. While I feel bad for him, his actions at the end come across as a teenager acting out without thought and there are no consequences for him either.

There are a number of elements drawn from a wide variety of sources: the microbes developed to eat oil spills which are unstoppable, except by fire (a theme I think was better used in the book Ill Wind by Kevin J. Anderson & Doug Beason), fairies who want to destroy the modern world with the microbes (I don't get how destroying the fossil fuels and plastics stop the usage of iron though), even the bit about Cian's mother bringing him forward in time for the plan (kind of echoing Bran Davies' life path from The Dark is Rising sequence). Yet, all of these elements seem to be hanging together by a fine filament, barely a thread of plot. The basic idea is good, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

The worst part of this story is the horrific abuse Cian's put through by almost all the adult men in his life, with the exception of his dad who's dying from cancer. There are a few decent people in the story, including his friend Reece, but they're thin on the ground and almost every adult male Cian encounters seems to see him only as a possible asset in their schemes to make money by turning him into a whore. This is such a bad message about men that I don't know where to start.

All in all, this story felt rushed, with little plot, and no sense that Cian and Reece, who turns out to be a dragon shifter, have a genuine future.

First and foremost - HEED the WARNINGS!

Second - Vaughn, Julian and Stephen got off too easily. There should have been more suffering for them.