Eve Levine, witch, half-demon and general supernatural
bad ass is a ghost. She jumped the gun a while
back protecting her daughter and ended up dead in an unmarked grave, now
she’s pottering about the afterlife trying to find a purpose and stalking her
daughter. Her whole life has revolved around protecting her daughter for so
long – but there’s nothing she can do but watch in her afterlife.
And the Fates are vaguely irritated with her – because she
does a very good job of being irritating. But they have a task for her and her
very very unique way of looking at things – her ruthlessness, her highly grey
moral code and her determination to get things done. And she owes them a favour
after they let Lucas
and Paige out of the afterlife.
So she has a task to hunt down a Nix – a task that has
previously been given to angels who have failed rather dismally. The Fates hope
someone with her grey moral code may have a better chance against the conniving,
dangerous and devious Nix. Of course, her angel partner believes that the Fates
have other schemes in mind
It also gives her a chance to grow and experience the
afterlife beyond the obsession with checking with Savannah – but does she embrace
her new role, especially since it comes with the ability to influence the real
world – and possibly be Savannah’s real protector – but at the same time tie
her to her mortal daughter rather than moving on with her afterlife.
Storywise, this is an extremely good mystery. Not that
they don’t know who did it – but the sheer difficulty of trying to capture the
Nix is a mystery in and of itself. She can teleport, she could be anywhere in
the world, she flips from mind to mind leaving a path of destruction in her
wake. The difficulty of finding her – let alone capturing and containing her –
is a difficult puzzle on its own.
This involves a mystery that has them jumping back and forth
around the US and Scotland, jumping to different historical murders, trying to
find an edge and constantly surprising the Fates with Eve’s fun, twisty ways of
completely leaving the Fates standing (and bemusement why they just won’t let
her kill people!) as well as heartstopping when the Nix shows she’s a dangerous
quarry to hunt and attacks Eve however she can as well – including through her
family.
The pacing’s extremely good – there were no slow periods
even when Eve was frustrated by lack of information and leads.
I love the twists, the realm jumping and all the
different murders. The flashbacks to the minds of the Nix’s different partners are
both fascinating and disturbing – this book really captures the mindset of the
murde3rers in a way that is pretty chilling to read and really well written.
There are a lot of scenes in the book that are really
well written with a lot of emotion- Eve’s
fear, her worry, her anger, the grief of the victims, the rage of the attackers
are all really well conveyed – it’s one of those books where you can feel what
is being written.
The world setting for this series always fascinates me and
this really blows it open. With the afterlife, the fates and the different
levels of hells and different realms for different beings. And nothing is
perfect – too often when dealing with the divine we have sweetness, light and
perfection – but the Fates make mistakes – and the afterlife is on many levels
a paradise but it’s not perfect either – there are flaws and people can be
unhappy and people find their own time and purpose. Even the ghosts haunting
people for vengeance can be wrong, unfair or just plain arseholes. I love the
idea that cities reflect their heydays – or what is perceived to be their
heydays – as well as the odd afterlife theme town – the world contains these
entire Disney re-enactments for the ghosts to live in. The hells we’ve seen as
well are terrifyingly imaginative without being ridiculously graphic.
Eve Levine is one of my favourite protagonists in the
series. She always makes her own rules and always had – and even as a ghost is
a constant rebel against the fates. Not a rebel for the sake of rebellion – as
we’ve seen all too often before – but a rebel who doesn’t follow rules unless
she sees how they should apply to her. She’s also one of the few characters who
has an ambiguous moral code that actually pulls it off. She’s not evil,
melodramatic and ridiculous but nor is she a saint really. She has her own
rules which she sticks with – but they’re much wider than most people’s and
she’s a big believer of the ends justifying the means. She is sexual and Kristoff does push her –
perhaps more than I’m comfortable with since she doesn’t eagerly reciprocate,
but she’s always the one in control
In all, she’s a very balanced character – and includes a
lot of elements that are really hard to pull off well – like the moral
ambiguity and the ruthlessness without becoming unrealistic or diving into the
deep end. She also grows – from being obsessed with her daughter to seeing more
of the world, l seeing Kristoff and seeing that she can and should have an
afterlife beyond Savannah – that she is more of a person (or ghost) than
Savannah’s mother. Unfortunately, she’s also captured (well steps into a prison
filled with male serial killers). She does hold her own quite well for a time
but, ultimately needs to be rescued. The problem with this is that the
Otherworld series has a long stream of Super Damsels who are constantly being
kidnapped, captured or otherwise in need of rescuing. Can we have one
protagonist who isn’t captured at some point, please?
She’s also not young in Urban Fantasy terms – approaching
40 with Kristoff, her love interest, pushing 50 – very unusual in the genre.
We have, at best, hints of inclusion. One of Kristoff’s sons
is gay and we have some exceedingly minor POC in crowd scenes but that’s about
it. Some of the other women in the book besides Eve are problematic – especially
the treatment of the nymphs but it works as it is balanced for the numerous
counter examples – from Eve herself, to Jaime to Paige.
It’s another great addition to the Otherworld series,
expands the world and the setting and introduces us to one of the most
legendary characters we’ve seen referred to over and over again – but never
actually truly seen her.
