The Arrivals audiobook

I was fortunate enough to get an ARC of this at RT this year. That made me happy since I had been wanting to read it anyway. I'm so glad I did!First of all, let me say that I'm not a big wild west fan. I never have been; dusty towns and cowboy shoot-outs have never interested me. But throw in some supernatural time-travely stuff and a band of misfits, and I am in!The Arrivals tells the story of the Arrivals - people from our world that for one reason or another get transported to this place called the Wasteland. They come from different time periods, and the only thing they have in common is that they did some bad things when in this world.I won't say anything else because it needs to be read to fully understand. (Actually, I don't know that the world can be fully understood.) If you've read anything else by Melissa Marr then you know how good she is. This is an adult book, meaning there is cussing and some mild sexy times, but it is just as entertaining as her YA.

This review first appeared on www.medusaslibrary.comThe Arrivals is a fantasy western. Let's just take a moment and look at those words, shall we? A Fantasy... Western. Can you think of many other fantasy westerns? There's The Dark Tower and...Ok, so there are some steampunk westerns out there. Railsea and Iron Council have fantastical elements in a Western-ish setting. Dead Reckoning has steampunk and zombies.But I'm talking gun slingers, saloons, and magic. There isn't much of it out there, but Melissa Marr gives us just that.The book is smanbatet in the Wasteland. It's a strange world full of various forms of not-quite-humans. There are miners who have evolved to work underground. There are the bloedzuigers, who are equivalent to vampires (think the really ugly man-bat form from Bram Stoker's Dracula). There are cyanthropes, aka werewolves. Then there are the Arrivals. Arrivals are from our world. They don't know how they got to the Wasteland. They don't know if there's a way to get home. They come from all different eras starting with siblings Jack and Kitty from the 1870's and going up to the newest Arrival, Chloe who came from 2010.If an Arrival dies she might stay dead or she might wake up in six days. No one knows until it happens. The only other thing that the Arrivals have in common; they've all killed someone back in the "real" world. It might have been for a good reason, but they all have blood on their hands.Jack and Kitty believe that they have to use their strange powers to improve the Wasteland. They're in direct opposition to the mysterious Ajani. He seems interested only in personal profit. The siblings are constantly fighting Ajani for the most precious resource in the Wasteland - new Arrivals.I read this while I was on jury duty and it did a great job of keeping me from feeling like I was in a weird, perpetual waiting room. At the same time, that feeling of being trapped in a bureaucratic Purgatory probably added something to my experience with the book. We'd all done something to land ourselves in jury duty, right?Overall, I really enjoyed the book. The characters were interesting and the world building was phenomenal. The only thing I can really complain about is that the book was too short. It's not that I felt shortchanged at the end, just that I wasn't ready to leave yet. The End came about 100 pages too soon for me. I have so many questions left! I really hope that Marr plans to turn this into a new series. I'm not saying that it's bad as a standalone, because it isn't. But there's still so much I want to know.

So, this is my first Melissa Marr book, which, knowing my penchant for the young adult genre, is as surprising to me as to anyone that it'd be one of her two adult books I'd be reading first. Especially when those who know me and my reading habits would have assumed I'd already devoured her "Wicked Lovely" YA urban fantasy series for teens and young adults long ago, right? Well, even though I am aware of those books, and have them on my horribly long to-be-read list, I just haven't gotten around to them yet. But, the blurb, cover and summary for Ms. Marr's newest novel caught my eye in such a way that I just couldn't let it wait at the back of a list that is so long it could probably spin around the Earth umpteen times without pause and I'd probably grow old and die before I got around to it. I am halfway through it right now and so far my opinion is I think it's a fine novel. I am wondering if it's a standalone or if Ms. Marr's planning on writing a follow-up. I suppose once I reach the end that particular query will be answered by how many strings are tied neatly and how many are left laying frazzled around the story. So far, I have to say; So far, so good! Next I really want to read her other adult book; "Graveminder", which has been out for a while now.

I've read a lot of negative reviews about this book. They said it's a complete waste of time...I disagree. Melissa Marr always takes me to a completely different world everytime and this book is no different. Okay, it's a little dry but I was still so interested about the character development and the relationships among them. But what's up with Hector though? Where has he gone to? Or what happened to him? I couldn't believe he got away with what he did! He shoudn't really. And two thumbs up on KittyxEdgar and ChloexJack. :) I was definitely rooting for them! And I actually quite like Melody and Francis. The variety of characters in this book is really interesting but they mesh together. You know? Despite Melody's craziness or Kitty's trigger-happy attitude or Edgar's stoic personality, they all still went pretty well as a team of cowboy hunters! So excuse me when I say this, screw those who hated this book. I still felt the same love as I did for Melissa's other books. The Arrivals is no different. It still captured my heart.

Chloe walks into a bar, blowing 5 years of sobriety and the next thing she knows she finds herself waking up in a completely unfamiliar world. Where she fell asleep in the year 2013, she finds herself in something that can be only compared to the old west of American history. Here she meets a group of people from all times and places who have arrived at different times. There's Kitty and Jack Reed, a brother & sister from the actual wild west; Edgar, a prohibition bootlegger; Francis, a one-time hippy; Melody, a mentally unstable housewife from the 1950's; and Hector, a former carnival artist. None of them know why or how they've arrived there other or how they'll make it home, if they ever do. But they've banned together to fight to survive against the creatures and the people that populate this strange new world filled with monsters, some of whom are the human kind.The Arrivals once again showed the talent that Melissa Marr has in world creation. She managed to make you feel like you were actually there. She didn't just create a world but managed to populate it with a variety of creatures, of both the human and nonhuman variety. The citizens of the towns managed to show the instinctual mistrust that many of us have of anyone that's different and how much different can you be than someone that's appeared out of nowhere dressed in the various time periods? I love the characters, even the ones that are evil. I particularly loved Garuda and enjoyed the scenes between him and Kitty. I enjoyed that unlike so many fantasy genre novels, there was no one that was completely evil (okay, Ajani came pretty close. He was seriously slimy) or completely good. They all have flaws. I loved the relationships between all of the Arrivals and the way they had each other's backs, especially Kitty and Edgar, and of course Kitty and Jack, all while they gave each other crap. They were like a real family. I really loved watching the relationship between Chloe and Jack evolve. All in all, it was interesting seeing Melissa Marr's foray into writing an adult novel but I really enjoyed it.https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006...

This was so different than anything I have read by Melissa Marr. I really enjoyed it. I liked Jack and Chloe. I also loved the side characters. It was a weird awesome world. I would recommend it.

Brilliant. Would love a second book to this!

The Arrivals by Melissa Marr has an interesting, quirky, and entertaining premise that almost sounds like a bad joke gone horrible awry: Delivery: A twenty-something woman walks into a bar blowing five years of sobriety after catching her fiancé screwing her boss in her own bed... Punch Line: Said woman wakes up in a distant and desolate and desert dystopian world called The Wastelands that is as harsh and merciless to its inhabitants and new arrivals as the name suggests. And let’s not forget the horse size canines with a distinct taste for all things flesh or the bloedzuigers who are the equivalent to what we refer to as vampires but much more primal and vicious than we could ever imagine or than the movies and TV could ever depict. Of course, the 1800’s western gambler brother and saloon girl sister team, a 1920’s Prohibition gangster thug, a 1950’s housewife with mental issues, a 1970’s hippie that has enjoys his medicinal and recreational herbs a great dealt, and a 1980’s tattooed carnie with an affinity for knives were not exactly the nurturing companions to wake up to in this strange world either, but fate is funny when it comes to sins and atonement or so the leader of this group, Jack, believes. And we certainly cannot forget Jacks’ nemesis, the British megalomaniac with godhood on his brain, insanity in his eyes, and a wealth of power and influence to obtain all he desires in the Wastelands with the exception Katherine, Jack’s sister and the only magic worker in their group, and she has no intention of joining Ajani and his people no matter what he offers her. With all these personalities and conflicts, new arrival Chloe will have to decide fast where her loyalties lie even if she has only been in the Wastelands for a couple of days: stay with the ragtag group of killers that include the sexy cowboy she can’t seem to stop thinking about or go with the power-hungry group of strangers that live comfortably even if it is at the expense of native Wastelanders and any other people who get in their way. More importantly, she will also have to consider the one thing both Jack and Ajani’s groups have in common with one another: all the Arrivals have killed someone in the world and time period they came from. I have to say, I liked this story overall even though there were some confusing moments in the story and some questions that remained unanswered in the end. One of the most confusing aspects in this book was the alternating point of views of the main characters. I enjoyed Jack and Chloe’s point of views and I could tolerate Kitty’s even with her temperamental issues, but Ajani’s was odd and it also felt too underdeveloped. I felt like there was something missing and even though I understood the man was unstable and a bit on the insane side, I felt like I never really found out exactly what it was he was after besides power and I just could not connect with him even though his villainy made sense to the story. I did enjoy the humor, the action, the mystery, and the backdrop of the story though, and the characters were very well written and developed throughout the book. I particularly liked the addition of the bloedzuigers and how their motivations and personalities came into play. Garuda was quite interesting and I liked the dynamic of his “pack” and enjoyed the “etiquette” he practiced when dealing with Jack or Kitty. Ms. Marr did leave the ending open for possibly future books in this world, but she also made this book a standalone which I appreciated as no author seems to write just one novel.All in all, The Arrivals was a fun, interesting, and unique book that I would recommend to fans of the author or fans of Paranormal/Urban Fantasy genres. I give this book a high 3 ½ stars in the end.

This has to be one of the most original stories I have read in years. If you are not drawn in by the cover, or by the fact that this is by Melissa Marr (I loved Graveminder), then I don't know how to sell it to you. Is is SciFi? I say yes. Is it fantasy? Also yes. Is it a Western? Meh, not really. I tore into this in a blaze and right away I made the guess that they were all characters in a video game. That made the most sense to me. Whether I was right or not, I'll never tell. Here's what I will say: this is completely original. It's fast paced. It has elements I've never come across before, and some that I thought I knew but that appear in a different form here. It's not a beach read, and it will not appeal to anyone who wants a story handed to them in a tight package with a tiny bow. And all of that is OKAY by me. I appreciated that the romance was not the driving force in the story. What I had some trouble with was 1. the world building-it's not complete and what we are given isn't satisfying at all. We see one tiny sliver of the Wasteland, and it's the one created by the "arrivals" not the natives, so it's not even the real Wasteland. 2. Characterization- everyone is really only a single layer. Jack and Kitty are fleshed out a bit more than the others, but not by much. No one seems to evolve beyond the time period they came from. 3. The villain- he's nuts, but beyond that who is he and what does he want? Why does he want Kitty so badly when he can do what she does already? It feels a little incomplete. 4. Repetition- there is a ton of repetition. Page after page about how much Jack trusts Garuda, about about how he is the leader of the group. I could have used a lot less repetition about stuff we already know (I should have counted how many time the phrase "Garuda is on Jacks' short list of people he trusts" showed up) and more time on stuff we don't- like why we should even care about Chloe and where do the goods come from in the stores? How do people survive in the Wasteland, what kind of history did this world have?, and what other creatures roam the desert at night? So, overall, a good read. I wonder if it will be a series and if more will be fleshed out later. I recommend it to people who are looking for something "different" to read. As I am still waiting for a sequel to Graveminder, we may have a bit of a wait, but I would read about the group again.A cover note: I had it in my mind for the first 100 pages that Edgar was supposed to be a Charlie Chaplin type, because he does not look like a gangster on the cover- I would have given him a fedora and a tommy gun, not a Victorian dandy-ish cane. Also, Chloe never wears a dress, and Kitty's never described as wearing that full of a skirt. A bustle would have been more appropriate. I do LOVE the graphics!

Die Geschwister Jack und Kitty leben in Wasteland und das schon seit einer Weile. Sie wissen leider überhaupt nicht warum sie hier sind, geschweigenden wie sie hier hingekommen sind. Eins ist aber aber sicher, sie sind nicht mehr auf der Erde, denn hier im Wasteland gibt es Lindwürmer, Dämonen und noch einiges anderes, was es auf der Erde nicht gibt. Und wie es scheint, sind sie auch noch unsterblich, zumindest fast. Sie alter nicht, werden nicht krank und wachen wieder auf, nachdem sie tot waren. Nur wer nach 6 Tagen nicht aufwacht, bleibt wirklich tot. Außer ihnen leben hier noch anderen Menschen, die alle das gleiche Schicksal teilen. Sie versuchen das beste aus der Situation zu machen, was nicht immer einfach ist.Ich muss gestehen, dass ich anfangs überhaupt keine Ahnung hatte was mich hier erwarten wird. Zuerst habe ich auch gar nicht durchgeblickt, so ungewöhnlich ist das ganze. Die Autorin rückt erst nach und nach mit Informationen heraus, was ich sehr verwirrend fand. Ich wollte fast schon abbrechen, war aber einfach zu neugierig.Hauptfiguren sind die beiden Geschwister Jackson (Jack) und Katherine (Kitty), die schon eine ganze Weile im Wasteland leben und sich mit dem ganzen arrangiert haben. Immer wenn jemand aus ihrer Gruppe stirbt, gibt es einen Neuzugang, der dann irgendwo im Wasteland auftaucht, wie z. B. Chloe, der letzte Neuzugang. Zwischen ihr und Jack entwickeln sich Gefühle und die Liebesgeschichte spielt eine wichtige Rolle in der Handlung. Aber auch das Liebesleben von Kitty nimmt einen gewissen Teil in der Handlung ein. In erster Linie erleben wir hier, wie sich die beiden mit ihren Freunden in Wasteland zurecht finden. Natürlich gibt es einen Gegner, dessen Ziele erst am Ende deutlich werden.Das ganze Konzept fand ich insgesamt sehr interessant, auch wenn es anfangs sehr verwirrend war. Ganz ausgeschöpft wurde diese Idee für mich aber nicht, denn manchmal fand ich die Handlung etwas zäh.Positiv zu erwähnen ist, dass es sich hier tatsächlich um einen Einteiler handelt, am Ende werden alle Fragen beantwortet. Von mir gibt es 8 von 10 Punkten.

"Ich bin Chloe, und das ist eine sehr lebhafte Halluzination"Klappentext:Feuerspuckende Lindwürmer, von Dämonen besessene Mönche und weitaus schrecklichere Wesen lauern in der ewigen Wüste Wasteland. Hier ist Chloe gestrandet, ohne zu wissen, wie sie dorthin kam. Um zu überleben, schließt sich die junge Frau den Arrivals an, einer Gruppe kämpferischer Menschen, die unsterblich zu sein scheinen: Niemand von ihnen altert, ihre Wunden heilen in kürzester Zeit, und wenn sie sterben, wachen sie nach sechs Tagen wieder auf. Kann Chloe ihnen vertrauen? Ist sie eine von ihnen? Und warum will ihr Anführer Jack sie um jeden Preis auf seine Seite ziehen? Gefangen in einer fremden Welt, muss Chloe nicht nur um ihr Leben kämpfen, sondern auch um eine unsterbliche Liebe.Meinung:Vor einigen Jahren waren es unter anderem Melissa Marrs Bücher, welche mich endgültig in die Welt der Fantasy zogen. Seitdem ist einige Zeit vergangen, dennoch muss ich sagen, dass mir der Schreibstil der Autorin immer noch ziemlich gut gefällt. Ich kam ganz flott in die Geschichte rein - ähnlich schnell wie Chloe, die plötzlich in einer ganz anderen Welt aufwachte, nachdem sie die Nacht zuvor einen Alkoholrückfall hatte.Das Grundkonzept ist nichts Neues: Hauptcharakter Chloe landet in fremder Welt und verknallt sich in den ersten Typen, der ihr über den Weg läuft: Jack. In dieser Welt ist natürlich nicht alles Friede, Freude, Eierkuchen und schon warten die ersten Bewährungsproben auf Chloe. Nach und nach erfährt sie mehr über ihre neue Umgebung, die merkwürdigen Monster und Wesen, und ihre Gefährten. Diese nennen sich die Arrivals und wenn sie sterben, dann meistens nicht endgültig. Der Anführer dieser Arrivals ist Jackson "Jack" Reed. Zusammen mit seiner Schwester Katherine "Kitty" Reed und weiteren Unsterblichen kämpfen die beiden gegen ihren Widersacher Ajani. Doch sie müssen auf der Hut sein, denn niemand weiß, wann ein Tod endgültig ist und wann nicht. Das einzige was sie wissen ist, dass wenn jemand nicht von den Toten wiederkehrt, kommt ein neuer Arrival in ihre Welt. Chloe muss sich also sehr schnell zurechtfinden und das merkt man selbst an der Länge (Kürze?) des Buches. Gut 100 Seiten mehr hätten der Handlung und der Entfaltung der Liebesgeschichte zwischen Jack und Chloe wirklich gut getan. Ansonsten habe ich nicht viel zu meckern. Ein paar Ungereimtheiten bezüglich des Konzeptes, dass ein Arrival sterben muss, damit ein Neuer kommen kann, habe ich zwar, aber ich möchte an dieser Stelle nicht spoilern. Das Buch ist nicht perfekt, aber ich hatte trotzdem eine Menge Spaß! Gerade die Truppe der Arrivals ist ein total lustiger Haufen – es wehte einen Hauch von Suicide Squad durch die kahle Wüste– und das hat mir am besten gefallen!

This was a great mystery, kind of slightly dystopian, romance book. I never could really guess what the ending could be which made me want to keep reading to find out what more I would learn. I am happy that I read this and will recommend this to anyone who like to read because this covers so many genres.The different relationships (ie. brother/sister, romantic, enemies) and how they affect the decisions that are made by the Arrivals. The ending is an example of how decisions are affected by the relationships. I am happy that the romantic relationships are not perfect, they all have their flaws and are not easy in any stretch of the imagination. Friendships and allies are not always known and not always to be trusted. Who can you truly trust, even yourself when their are unknown substances ingested, in an unknown world that leave so many questions unanswered?

I really wanted to hate this book. I read quite a few bad reviews. But i actually found most everything about this book enjoyable. I thought the setting was cool and the melting pot of people from different times in history was fairly unique. The characters were a little rough around the edges but overall good enough. The spaghetti western feel may have turned some readers off but I loved it. I did have one or two issues with the book however. They are supposed to be in a land filled with demons and monsters but less than a hand full were talked about. Lastly there seemed to be a huge plot hole at the end unless I am missing something. It was explained that a sacrifice of someone from earth was needed to bring someone new to the wasteland. So how did the number of wastelanders increase if the antagonist didn't have anyone to sacrifice to pull another human through the wormhole?

This is an exceptional tale, taking place in a world with similarities to our own, though very few. The world itself really comes alive, as do the characters. You're right there with them, experiencing what they do. Definitely another book I simply couldn't put down! It's not usually the type of story I'd find myself getting into, but the way it was written it was impossible not to! I love the way everything is wrapped up in the end, the interesting species that are in this story are absolutely fascinating! I love the way the author's creative mind works to bring so many different concepts to life every time she writes!

Really interesting book. So kitty and jack live in the wasteland which is another world that they got dragged to and time has no effect. Over the years more arrivals appear and it is their job to introduce them to the wasteland and all the creatures in it. When Chloe arrives everything is rushed and they don't have the normal amount of time to get her adjusted so they get some help from the bloedzigers., which are basically vampires. I really liked this book as it was very interesting and I was excited to see what would happen. I would definitely read it again and I would love to read a sequel even though the ending summed everything up. 5 stars for sure.