Book Review: Autumn Bones by Jacqueline Carey

ROC
424 pp.

In Autumn Bones, Daisy discovers that her nice normal boyfriend Sinclair Palmer is not quite as normal as advertised. Sinclair turns out to be related to a powerful judge back in Jamaica who is less than pleased with her son’s bus tour business and choice in girlfriends. This would be ordinary family drama–even with Daisy being hellspawn–if not for the part where Sinclair’s family are also obeah sorcerers and not at all shy about using magic to get their way. (When Sinclair’s twin sister Emmeline decides to strong arm her way into convincing Daisy to help her “convince” Sinclair to go back home, it does not go well for anyone concerned.)

Book Review: The Queen of the Dead: Silence by Michelle Sagara

DAW
289 pp.

The Queen of the Dead: Silence ended up giving me a lot of nostalgia for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, even though Silence is almost nothing at all like Buffy the Vampire Slayer except for the entire “group of kids and one of them is extremely special with special powers,” thing. In this case, our main protagonist is a girl named Emma who is mourning the death of her boyfriend Nathan. She makes a habit of visiting his grave at night and one night she encounters Eric, a new student at her school and a very strange old woman.

Book Review: Written in Red by Anne Bishop

ROC
433 pp.

Written in Red manages to make supernatural predators that are actually predators. This is not something I ever thought I’d say about a fantasy novel by Anne Bishop. This is because even when Bishop is trying to write “dark” she is also writing “fluffy.” It should be noted that while I would normally fully support dark fiction that also has silly and humorous moments, Bishop does not have the knack for pulling it off. (But she tries, oh my god how she tries.)

Book Review: Angel Town by Lilith Saintcrow

Orbit
325 pp.

After the end of Heaven’s Spite I had no intention of reading Angel Town, the last book in the Jill Kismet series. Yet somehow, I ended up doing it anyway, though it was a long, hard slog through dark urban fantasy nihilism. (I am not very fond of the “The Good Guys never break the rules, while The Bad Guys break them with impunity,” paradigm, which appears to be a theme of this book. That and, Jill Kismet has Issues, Most of them Centered on Her Epic Internalized Misogyny.)

Book Review: Eight Million Gods, by Wen Spencer

BAEN
355 pp.

Eight Million Gods has a slightly manga-plot feel to it, only partly because it takes place in Japan. (And it is also not because the cover features a pink haired character in a crop top sailor suit. Maybe.) Our Heroine is a writer named Nikki, who has spent most of her adult life on the run from her mother, who keeps sticking her institutions. Nikki has OCD, which tends to manifest as a compulsion to write. Her favorite genre is horror, and she has a loyal following of fans who are more than willing to help her escape her mother’s clutches.

Book Review: Box Office Poison, by Phillipa Bornikov

TOR
316 pp.

Box Office Poison is a slight departure from the urban fantasy/paranormal romance cocktail of first person narrative, female character in some kind of criminal justice field, supernatural romantic interest with possible triangle. (It is also apparently the second book in a series, though I only found this out from the blurbs on the back of the book.) In this case, our heroine is Linnet Ellery, a human lawyer working for a vampire law firm. The basic set up is “at some point in the past all the supernatural beings decided to come forward and reveal their hidden presence.” In this case the supernatural beings are werewolves, vampires and elves.

Book Review: Midnight Blue Light Special by Seanan McGuire

DAW
338 pp.

In Midnight Blue Light Special, Verity is still working part time at a night club, the former Fish and Strips, which has been recently rebranded as a burlesque nightclub called the Freakshow. (The new owner inherited the place from her sleazy uncle and decided some changes needed to be made.) When she isn’t dancing or bussing tables, she’s working as a journeyman cryptozoologists studying and assisting the New York cryptid population.