Hoping For More: Spectacle by Rachel Vincent

Title: Spectacle
Author: Rachel Vincent
Series: Menagerie #2
Genre: Fantasy
Page Count: 392 Pages
Published: May 30th 2017 by Harlequin MIRA
Rating: 5/5

In this riveting sequel to New York Times bestselling author Rachel Vincent's acclaimed novel Menagerie, Delilah Marlow will discover that there is no crueler cage than the confines of the human mind…

When their coup of Metzger's Menagerie is discovered, Delilah and her fellow cryptids find their newly won freedom brutally stripped away as they are sold into The Savage Spectacle, a private collection of "exotic wildlife." Specializing in ruthless cryptid cage matches, safari-style creature hunts and living party favors, the Spectacle's owner, Willem Vandekamp, caters to the forbidden fetishes of the wealthy and powerful. At the Spectacle, any wish can be granted—for the right price.

But Vandekamp's closely guarded client list isn't the only secret being kept at the Spectacle. Beneath the beauty and brutality of life in the collection lie much darker truths, and no one is more determined than Delilah to strip the masks from the human monsters and drag all dark things into the light.

My Review:

I couldn't put this book down.

Delilah and the group of cryptids from Menagerie aren't free for long and this time their captor is wealthier and more intelligent than Metzger was. In a high-tech facility catering to the whims of the rich and powerful, they face a harsher reality and escape seems impossible.

I have read some reviews harping on how much this book resembled the first but personally, I found it much like the Hunger Games trilogy, where the similarities shone a light on a new set of issues and gave answers to some of my what if questions from the first book.

Spectacle was darker than Menagerie, but Rachel found a way to have a lot of the more trigger-sensitive scenes happen "off-camera." Although our characters suffer through many heart-wrenching ordeals before the final page.

Menagerie for me dealt with a society willing to overlook captivity so that they could satiate their curiosity and it explored the rights and wrongs of the treatment of captive creatures. Spectacle sunk deeper into those issues by exposing some of human nature's darker side. The average person would want innocent entertainment and parlor tricks, but when money strips away a person's consequences, the vile and those of broken conscience seek darker, crueler ways to get their thrills.

There was a definite arc to this one, the second half kept picking up speed until I could barely turn the pages fast enough. October is too far away for Fury!