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The Arrivals
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The Arrivals is the second novel for adults by internationally bestselling author Melissa Marr.
Chloe walks into a bar and blows five years of sobriety. When she wakes, she finds herself in an unfamiliar world, The Wasteland. She discovers people from all times and places have also arrived there: Kitty and Jack, a brother and sister from the Wild West; Edgar, a prohibition ...more
Chloe walks into a bar and blows five years of sobriety. When she wakes, she finds herself in an unfamiliar world, The Wasteland. She discovers people from all times and places have also arrived there: Kitty and Jack, a brother and sister from the Wild West; Edgar, a prohibition ...more
Hardcover, 274 pages
Published
July 2nd 2013
by William Morrow
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3.5 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum http://bibliosanctum.blogspot.com/201...
This book was a bit quirky and slightly odd at times, but for me it was like a breath of fresh air. It's different from the stuff I usually pick up, and ultimately it may have been a little too bizarre for my tastes, but I certainly don't regret reading it. When it comes to originality and interesting ideas, this book gets massive points.
My love for speculative fiction, especially when other genres are infused with a par ...more
This book was a bit quirky and slightly odd at times, but for me it was like a breath of fresh air. It's different from the stuff I usually pick up, and ultimately it may have been a little too bizarre for my tastes, but I certainly don't regret reading it. When it comes to originality and interesting ideas, this book gets massive points.
My love for speculative fiction, especially when other genres are infused with a par ...more

Possible DNF. Very brief review to come.
I cannot recall a damn thing that is memorable about this book. I can't even begin to tell you what the plot is because it is so forgettable and dull.
It is a spaghetti western that's the equivalent of riding in a bus full of tourists to Las Vegas and looking at the scenery outside the window (hint: there's nothing there but desert shrubs). ...more
I cannot recall a damn thing that is memorable about this book. I can't even begin to tell you what the plot is because it is so forgettable and dull.
It is a spaghetti western that's the equivalent of riding in a bus full of tourists to Las Vegas and looking at the scenery outside the window (hint: there's nothing there but desert shrubs). ...more

This was not very good.
My first instinct is to say that it felt unfinished but when I think about it for a moment longer I realize that it felt un-started and undeveloped, too. It was annoying.
The Arrivals is one of these books that drops you into a world without any explanation, and you go from there. This is a device that authors use with varying degrees of success. Sometimes it's exciting to feel a little lost, and then exhilarating when you begin to make discoveries about this world and how ...more
My first instinct is to say that it felt unfinished but when I think about it for a moment longer I realize that it felt un-started and undeveloped, too. It was annoying.
The Arrivals is one of these books that drops you into a world without any explanation, and you go from there. This is a device that authors use with varying degrees of success. Sometimes it's exciting to feel a little lost, and then exhilarating when you begin to make discoveries about this world and how ...more

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 call ...more
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 call ...more

I wish I could give a full review, however I didn't even finish the book. I was only about 50 pages away from the end...and yet I have absolutely no interest in finishing it. I have no investment in the characters, I have no investment in the plot. I'm not one for western settings, but surprisingly I did enjoy this one in particular. However, I found the plot to be slow moving, the characters mostly unlikeable, although not 2-dimensional.
Perhaps for me it is Miss Marr's writing that I can't cop ...more
Perhaps for me it is Miss Marr's writing that I can't cop ...more

The Arrivals takes place in the Wasteland, an alien desert environment with towns and characters strongly reminiscent of a classic western. The Arrivals themselves are people from our world that end up in the Wasteland. Each Arrival is from a different time, ranging from the Old West to the present day, making the novel filled with a very unique cast of characters. Kitty and Jack lead the group of Arrivals, taking odd jobs from the regions governor to earn some cash. One of The Arrival's strange
...more

*Genre* Western, Fantasy, Paranormal, Adult
*Rating* 3-3.5
*First Thoughts*
The synopsis of this book is kind of misleading in that it makes it sound as though Chloe is the main character and thus the story teller of The Arrivals. Which, in fact, is not true at all. I would say that Jack and his sister Katherine (Kitty) are the main protagonists, with the secondary characters being Edgar, Francis, Melody, Hector, and then Chloe who just happens to be the last Arrival added to the motley crew that h ...more
*Rating* 3-3.5
*First Thoughts*
The synopsis of this book is kind of misleading in that it makes it sound as though Chloe is the main character and thus the story teller of The Arrivals. Which, in fact, is not true at all. I would say that Jack and his sister Katherine (Kitty) are the main protagonists, with the secondary characters being Edgar, Francis, Melody, Hector, and then Chloe who just happens to be the last Arrival added to the motley crew that h ...more

I was excited about this book. The premise sounded super interesting and I thought it'd be fun to get into a Western swing of things. But the book just felt entirely too flat to me. Usually I'll finish a book pretty quickly, but i had to force myself to keep reading this one. I didn't care about any of the characters, and the plot itself seemed distant most of the book. Basically the bad guy is bad and we must kill him. Character relationships were lacking throughout, and both romances felt cont
...more

This book has a great world and pretty interesting characters, but where the hell was the story? The premise is GREAT - a recovering alcoholic wakes up in a Wild West style world (that has dragons and vampires and other monsters) and meets a band of other ‘arrivals’ including a carni, a mobster from the prohibition period, a hippie, and an unhinged 50’s housewife. This could have been great but unfortunately it was SO short. This is a very short stand alone book. It either needed to be much much
...more

This review first appeared on www.medusaslibrary.com
The 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, bu ...more
The 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, bu ...more

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
...more

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
...more

The Good: The premise was awesome. What a perfectly unique idea. People, ripped from their own time periods, brought together in this unfamiliar land having no idea how or why. The execution of the characters themselves was spectacular. You'd think that the supernatural angles would be overkill on top of a solid science fiction base, but you'd be wrong in this case. They meshed well and caused a majority of the novel to go in directions you could never see coming.
The Bad: Westerns aren't my thin ...more
The Bad: Westerns aren't my thin ...more

I've been reading this book for more than 2 months, and I honestly wish I DNF'ed it at page 50. It was so short and I was more than halfway through so I couldn't justify it, but this was a real struggle. It had more cons than pros but the cover's nice. Never again.
...more

I was entertained, but this wasn't a very exciting read. Mostly, people just went along with whatever happened, and then end wasn't very dramatic. Just a calm, strange read.
...more

Just OK for what it is. The writing is OK, the pacing is OK, the characters are OK.
...more


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
...more

This was very weird., which isn't bad so much as not what I expected (or maybe wanted right now). I went in thinking it was going to be just portal fantasy, but the Wasteland that the Arrivals found themselves was a lot for me. I'd compare this to Down Among the Sticks and Bones + Wild West, but it just didn't work for me.
...more

OMG this book is amazing!!!! I seriously could not get enough!!!! For the first time in a long time I lost sleep, I just couldn’t stop thinking about the story and the characters even when I tried to force myself to. I don’t want to spoil anything but this book is well written, and a truly addicting story. I enjoyed every page and can’t wait to read more by this author. So much love!!!!!!!

2.5 stars
This was pretty boring. It dropped you in at the deep end, it was slow, and the whole thing just dragged, and dragged. Bored.
This was pretty boring. It dropped you in at the deep end, it was slow, and the whole thing just dragged, and dragged. Bored.

I received this ARC while at the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention. I was in no way compensated for this review.
I was most happy to receive and ARC of Melissa Marr's next adult release, The Arrivals, while at RT. Although the story seemed odd, I was willing to try it out. And it was definitely a bit odd. Even after finishing I am still left wondering the why of everything. I feel stupid for having missed why these people were brought to the Wasteland. It's not that the storytelling wasn't goo ...more
I was most happy to receive and ARC of Melissa Marr's next adult release, The Arrivals, while at RT. Although the story seemed odd, I was willing to try it out. And it was definitely a bit odd. Even after finishing I am still left wondering the why of everything. I feel stupid for having missed why these people were brought to the Wasteland. It's not that the storytelling wasn't goo ...more

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 ...more
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 ...more

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 wil ...more
Here's what I wil ...more

For such an intriguing premised, the execution fell flat. I'll give it 3 generous stars just for the concept.
The story: A group of people, the Arrivals, each from a different point in history, now live on a barren world, fighting against one great evil and helping the rest of the wastelanders survive.
As far as characters, we have Jack and Kitty, brother and sister from the old West, Edgar from Chicago's mob, and Chloe, from today.
All gives us a Farscape-esque universe of strange aliens, evil to ...more
The story: A group of people, the Arrivals, each from a different point in history, now live on a barren world, fighting against one great evil and helping the rest of the wastelanders survive.
As far as characters, we have Jack and Kitty, brother and sister from the old West, Edgar from Chicago's mob, and Chloe, from today.
All gives us a Farscape-esque universe of strange aliens, evil to ...more
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Madison Mega-Mara...: The Arrivals by Melissa Marr | 4 | 4 | Aug 15, 2013 08:29PM |
Melissa Marr is a former university literature instructor who writes fiction for adults, teens, and children. She is best known for the Wicked Lovely series for teens, the Graveminder for adults, and her debut picturebook Bunny Roo, I Love You.
Her books have been translated into twenty-eight languages and been bestsellers internationally as well as domestically (NY Times, Los Angeles Times, USA T ...more
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3 trivia questions
More quizzes & trivia...
“The woman held out a hand to Chloe. “Name’s Kitty.”
“This is a very vivid hallucination,” Chloe told her.
“And that’s Jack… short for jackass,” Kitty continued as if Chloe hadn’t spoken.”
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“This is a very vivid hallucination,” Chloe told her.
“And that’s Jack… short for jackass,” Kitty continued as if Chloe hadn’t spoken.”
“An armed fool could be more dangerous than an experienced shooter.”
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