Jennifer Estep's Spider's Revenge is the fifth book in the Elemental Assassin series. 17 years ago, Mab Monroe broke into Gin Blanco's house. She murdered Gin's older sister and mother before proceeding to torture her by melting a silverstone rune into her hand. She was thrown from her happy life into one of starvation and poverty before being taken in by the assassin Fletcher Lane. After years of training and developing her ice and stone elemental magic, she is ready to take on the Queen of Ashland and do whatever it takes to put the sadist six feet under.
It has been wonderful seeing Gin develop over the past few books. From day one, everyone knew Gin was tough. Her patience, calculating intelligence, and ruthlessness made her a talented assassin, but not even her violent nature could hide her heart of gold and protective tendencies. As she meet and helps others, they eventually begin to see the kindness in her and flock to her side. Unfortunately, she refuses to acknowledge her expanding friend group, fearing that they will all stomp on her feelings like Donovan Caine or face the same fate as her mother due to her actions. This all makes for a person who is reticent to accept help and tries to face fierce opponents like Mab Monroe on her own. Of course, this brings her into direct conflict the newfound friends that genuinely want to help her despite any consequences. Eventually she realizes how deep her friends care about her and agrees to let them help her. Spider’s Revenge meets all the expectations set by its predecessors. Like in all the books before it, Jennifer Estep drops Gin straight into the action, beginning in the middle of an assassination attempt. From there, the book only speeds up gaining intensity as the book develops before culminating in a satisfying finale.
One of the ways it differs from the previous installment s is the clear goal from page one. Most Elemental Assassin books start off with some sort of fight, before moving on to someone with a sob story. From there, the book spends time villainizing and dehumanizing the main antagonist, while Gin scopes out her opponent and prepares to kill him/her. Spider’s Revenge doesn’t need to do that. We already know Gin’s sob story, (although Jennifer Estep insists on repeating it multiple times) and the series has been dehumanizing Mab Monroe since book one. Mab knows the Spider is coming; now it is time for Gin to take her out. The lack of exposition allows for more fight scenes and more excitement.
Another difference between this book and the previous ones is the use of a “Three Trials” format. As the name suggests, Gin gets three tries to kill Mab and, as expected, there are times when she fails. In most books, Gin has never really failed and always found a way to come out on top. In Spider’s Revenge, she fails in some oddly uncharacteristic ways, but each time, she comes back stronger and fiercer than ever.
Of course, a book by Jennifer Estep cannot be complete without her signature repetition. Once again, Jennifer Estep feels the need to remind everyone about Gin’s past (at least 15 times), mention Gin’s emotional trouble with accepting Owen (4 at minimum), and mention how may silverstone knives she has(this has to have been mentioned once a page).
Other aspects of her writing mitigate some of this repetition. For example, the dialogue between characters is an absolute treat, and Gin’s dark sense of humor can add some levity. As usual, the characters were wonderful and their interactions added some fun to a book about revenge and murder. Characters like Owen, Finn, and Jojo remained static, but lovable while characters like Bria went through huge characters changes.
Despite any small changes, a lot of the series’ signature elements remain. If you didn’t like the previous books you won’t like this one (though if you hate it, and this read this far, you need to reexamine your priorities). If you loved the series, you will love this book. If you have been holding onto hope that Jennifer Estep will rectify her ways and not repeat things over and over like a person smashing a spider with a brick repeatedly until you are wondering if you can get a concussion from reading, you will not find salvation in this book.
I give this 367 page book 4 stars.
Elemental Assassin
In this world. humans share society with elementals. dwarves, giant, and vampires. Elementals have control over one of the four elements: Ice, Stone, Air or Fire. Some have power over offshoots like water, metal, and electricity. Vampires suck blood, giants are distinguished by their strength and height while dwarves are known for their lack of it.