With a werewolf gang moving into the area and starting a
war with the local werecats, a new supernatural drug hitting the streets that
makes people preternaturally strong and nearly immune to pain and injury,
several disappearing vampires and a new werecougar who really needs Jazz to
show her the ropes – everything seems to be happening at once for Jazz. It’s overwhelming,
it’s non-stop and it threatens the supernatural in the city from several angles
Not least because of supernaturally-aware government
agents showing up – and news of the supernatural finally being leaked to the
world at large
This book has an immensely fast paced, action packed
storyline. It pulls in all the characters we’ve seen before and faces off
against threats from all sides that hit so many of them personally.
It has some really well written fight scenes, just
designed to get the blood pumping with excitement - which is hard to do in print and few
authors manage to pull it off. We have an involved, complicated and
multi-faceted investigation without dead zones, without it being too linear,
without it being simplistic or obscure. We also have multiple storylines, each
with complex, real threads, each of which demand Jazz’s attention, each of which
are vitally important and show how overwhelmed she is – but at the same time
they all manage to come together excellently.
And through it all we have Jazz, with her awesome (and predominantly female) friends, intelligent and skilled without unnecessary “chosen one” elements. A keen sense of duty that is really sold (even if she does go over the top, it’s really well portrayed as I mentioned in my review of Hollow Eyes –her sense of duty is her sense of responsibility, her sense of professionalism and her way of proving herself.
It also continues with its diversity, with Jazz having 2
lesbian friends (albeit in more background roles since the earlier books but
they’re still awesome with some excellent unique skills on Rachel’s part – and there’s
some mention of homophobia Rachel faces from her family), being half-Chinese
herself and having Japanese, Latino, Native American and Black characters all
as important connections, friends and actors in the supernatural world and
close to Jazz. We do have some elements that continue the shakiness – like the prevalence
of Latino gang members (but they’re not demonised for it or presented as having
just one aspect to their personalities) and an evil-voodoo practitioner (but we
also have a voodoo practitioner who isn’t evil as well) but in general the main
problem is simply having so many characters and not the time and the space to
give them all screen time – especially since this book was very narrow to Jazz
even while it involved everyone.
That’s a recipe for a lot of awesome. But there’s an
issue. A big one
There’s a lot that happens that isn’t explored to the
degree I’d expect it to – or doesn’t have the same kind of impact I’d expect it
to. This is going to be hard to write about without spoiling so I’m going to do
a lot of dancing around the subjects.
