Previous book here.
This is a dark, dark book. I realize the irony when I say that about a series that features a guy who's half evil fairy and is constantly killing monsters, but... really, this is dark.
After getting dosed with a spider venom that gives you amnesia, Cal wakes up on a beach in South Carolina next to a bunch of monster corpses with no idea who he is, and three different (serial killer named!) ID's in his wallet. After a few days of blindly making his way in the world, his brother Niko and friend Robin come to pick him up and remind him of who he is: yes, he's a professional monster killer, and they're looking for a fake goddess named Ammut who's going around slaughtering the supernatural community at large.
This is not to say that the book isn't about what I just said, but really, it's about amnesiac Cal trying to figure out who Original Recipe Cal is... and being totally disturbed by the blackblackblackdarkcreepyscarykiller guy he sees in a photograph. It's about amnesiac Cal having no idea about his past, and Niko feeling very conflicted about whether or not that's a good thing. It's about a more cheerful than usual Cal wondering if he actually wants to be the old Cal again, and/or if that's a necessary thing given the world he lives in. It's introspective in a sense that we don't usually have time to see in this series, in a way. You find yourself missing the old Cal and his bromance with Niko, and yet you wonder about the changes that the venom has temporarily made in his personality. Is that for the better, or worse? In the end, well...
It's a deep book and well done (indeed, the author is a tricksy narrator. I'm reminded of just how well she did at a change in voice in Nightlife, even though this is a different scenario), though I'll be honest that this is probably not the book that I'll reread most often, either. It's heavy stuff.
Four stars.
Comments