Before I begin: you will need to read, before this book, two short stories written in the Hollowsverse that take place in Ivy and Rachel's pasts. Much like Cry Wolf, there is a dilemma here of how one handles the backstories that most readers of the full-on novels won't know about. You will need to read "Undead in the Garden of Good and Evil" in Dates From Hell, and "Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel" in Holidays From Hell. The author does a fairly good job of recapping the past for those who don't know when it comes to the Rachel story, but less so when it comes to Ivy's. So be forewarned.
Previous book here. Since I can't review this book without spoiling the end of the last, the rest of the review is going to have to go below the cut. I'll give it three and a half stars- it has its flaws, but the storytelling is still pretty compelling.
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It's six months after Kisten's murder, and Rachel and Ivy are still feeling traumatized and trying to figure out (and in Rachel's case, remember) who killed him. However, this plot ends up taking a back burner for most of the novel due to more urgent matters. Because even with the death of her boyfriend hanging over her, girl has got problems.
For one thing, Rachel gets enlisted in trying to track down a killer banshee...and her husband and banshee baby. The banshee baby, Holly, is particularly awkward to deal with because she has no control over whose emotions/aura she sucks down until she hits five years old. And the book starts out with Glenn getting attacked. Ivy does as well, and Rachel also gets attacked (a lot) and spends the rest of the novel dangerously low on aura/protection/life force. This is incredibly awkward when you're bound to get lessons from a demon in the ever-after weekly, with no cancellations allowed. The banshee tells Rachel that whoever she loves, she gets killed. This preys on Rachel's mind, especially since her happily-engaged brother is in town and yelling at her for her life choices.
I mentioned Rachel's backstory: well, at the age of 18, she helped out a ghost named Pierce. Apparently he's been hanging around the church for like a year, and when he says hi to her and Al spots him... he nabs the guy. Rachel seems confused as to why she wants to rescue Pierce from Al- she's pissed Al nabbed him without so much as a by-your-leave, but she also kind of has/had the hots for him. And some folks actually encourage Rachel to think of a ghost witch as a possible romantic interest...or at least, point out that he may be the template for who she likes in guys. Rachel doesn't quite think of him as a possible current fellow given the situation, but the latter, well...As for live guys, Rachel is Just Friends with another witch named Marshall, but they're slowly hovering towards more involvement. Which ah, may not be a great idea for Marshall.
I am pleased that this novel MOSTLY doesn't rehash the old "Rachel, won't you just give up your heterosexuality and fuck Ivy already?" arguments...but yes, it does come up, forcibly so, in one section. Ugh. But it gets handled in an interesting way later, when Rachel's injured and Jenks can't pick her up and Ivy can't do it without bloodlust kicking in. Rachel knows in that moment that she is thoroughly alone. And even though she says, "I've been picking myself up off the floor for twenty-six years. I'm good at it," it really stabs you to think what that sentence means to her after that experience. So much baggage lies behind it.
When it comes to the demon stuff... Well, when I saw the title of this one, I rolled my eyes quite a bit. As in, "White witch, MY ASS. At the lightest, Rachel's a dark, dark gray one by now." And this definitely is driven into Rachel's head when she gets shunned by the entire witch community, and appears to have lost a few friends/allies from it as well. She thinks that she can "get it removed," but...come on, really? Right. Rachel will take on more and more demon issues and smut, she's getting used to Al and dealing with him (somewhat, she does better in this one with less agony than usual!), and the good intentions she has sometimes need her to take the road to hell. And to some degree, she does. By the end of the novel, she seems to have mostly accepted this in herself. And well, if you're gonna take the dark road, at least you can stop being in denial about it, I think.
As for the handling of Kisten's murder, it's done at the end of the novel, and like I said, references a previous short story. To be honest, I wish the murder plot had been more wrapped in with the other plots rather than mostly being ignored in the middle. It suffers from not being wrapped in, and from the villain not exactly being someone who's a main player in the Hollows for most readers. That said, there's a lovely moment in there that I couldn't help but enjoy, and wonder about the implications for the future.
I also have to give some props to a one-off, yet fascinating moment where Rachel ends up meeting children in the hospital wing where she used to have to go as a kid. This could have come off lame, corny, cheesy given the subject matter, and yet it doesn't. You really get a sense of how this affects Rachel to see her past in front of her, and to have to explain her (demon-mark-related, not genetic engineering) survival to them.
So: I actually liked the banshee plot and how it got handled best of all. The banshees are incredibly deadly foes that are very hard to take down if you're not the IS (who does nothing for the most part), and they nearly kill or kill easily. The solution to it is both surprising and makes sense. Pierce's plot is rather enigmatic, but may have interesting implications in later books. And while I wish Kisten's murder had been featured more, it does have an interesting moment in the end.
And I do wonder how Rachel will deal with being cut off from other witches, forced to admit what she really is now.
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