The Article below was published in Vol. 136, Issue 4 of the Lake Forest College Stentor on December 4, 2020.
By Lauren Gantt ’21
A&E Editor
With over 50 published works under her belt ranging from novels to short stories, Jennifer
L. Armentrout is widely known in the online reading sphere. Most notably, Armentrout is known for her multiple addictive young adult paranormal books.
Having read many of Armentrout’s books over the years while aiming for the eventual goal of reading every one of her books, I realized I had yet to read her first completed series. So I pulled the books off my shelf and sat down to read.
The Covenant series began publishing in May 2011 and consists of five books and two novellas: Half-Blood, Pure, Deity, Apollyon, and Sentinel (with Daimon taking place before the first and Elixir after the third). There was an additional four-book spin-off series called Titan that is also complete. But what is it actually about?
Per Goodreads: “The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi pure bloods have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals—well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures.
“Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1: Relationships between pures and halves are forbidden. Unfortunately, she’s crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn’t her biggest problem—staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is.
“If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck.”
Going into this series, I got serious Percy Jackson meets Vampire Academy vibes. While the first book was your typical young adult paranormal book (though since it came out right around the beginning of that era it’s not surprising), the rest of the books are where this series stands out.
Alex is a very headstrong and fiery main character. She stands up for what she believes in but she also makes mistakes. A trap I often see authors fall into when writing main characters in action-heavy series is making them badasses and masters of fighting right off the bat. One of my favorite things about Alex is that she’s not. She’s definitely more badass than your average human, but nowhere near the level of everyone else in the novel. We see her training, we see her struggling to become better, we see all of that and more. I love it when characters grow on the page. She also had a strong character voice that allowed me to really connect with her. I truly believe that the reason why I enjoyed this series so much was because of Alex.
There are a plethora of side characters throughout the entire series that brings an extra level of depth. Some of these characters worm their way into your heart and others you just want to stab with a sword, but they all make the story move forward and increase the tension.
The story itself is engaging and exciting. Throughout the entire series, there were consistently twists and turns, high-action scenes, and emotional growth. Just when I thought I knew what was true, everything got tossed up in the air again. While the characters are what made me connect with the series, the plot was what kept me reading until two or three in the morning.
While this isn’t my favorite of Armentrout’s series (that goes to A Wicked Trilogy), I did love it. Having read books from all across her different publishing years, I can definitely see how Armentrout has grown and improved as an author. I am incredibly excited to continue on with the spin-off series to this one and continue diving into her other books along the way.
