For some reason that I don’t remember when I added this book to my TBR I expected to be enchanted by it. I was disappointed to discover that the opposite is closer to truth: I was so unenchanted with it I felt no compulsion to actually finish it (other than the fact that I always try to finish a book I started). I’m thinking it’s the characters.

My God, I really can’t say I liked the characters. Although the basic idea of having a trio of powerful sisters but with less than perfect powers was great, the way the author chose to write them was a bit lacking. Let’s take for example Delilah, the Werecat. The author wanted her to be the kind, softhearted one, plus the one that involuntarily turns into a cat when she’s nervous. How did she (the author) choose to show this to the reader? By having Delilah turn into a cat while assisting to a minor conflict between her sisters (a very minor one so her reaction seemed way overrated). Yet, later on, she manages to hold her own against things truly frightening, making the first event seem even more gratuitous. As for the softhearted part, the author wrote Delilah to be softhearted bordering on stupid: she wanted to release one of their enemies (that was nicely tied up because she was that dangerous) because “she has to be getting cramps” after being tied up for so long. Enough said.

The other characters weren’t any better. Chase somehow kept getting on my nerves, especially when he kept getting freaked out by the otherworldly creatures he ran into. I can understand why he might have been scared by some of them, of course, but he acted like he was seeing the impossible each and everytime, and one would expect a guy working for an otherwordly intelligence agency to be a bit more “in the know” than that. Not to mention he spends most of the time being afraid at anything he sees yet he turns out to be a martial art master — how plausible is that. Trillian, Camille’s irresistible lover, was annoying as hell from my point of view: so possessive and so arrogant it made me want to smack him every time he showed up. As for Camille herself she might have been okay but for her somewhat flighty mind: approximately half her thoughts (which is a lot given that she’s the narrator) were about sex. Now I do understand that she’s half Fae and as such she has a veracious sexual appetite but there’s only so many times I care to hear about how sexy Trillian is and how he makes Camille feel. Oh, and speaking of sexual appetite, as a sidenote: in the whole book there is only one male character that doesn’t try to have sex with Camille or at least touch her ass. One. And he was somewhat insane. I get it, Camille’s hot. But really?? Not even a dragon can resist her???

The dragon part was cool though. The dragon I did like (although it didn’t make that much sense to have it involved in their conflict in the first place but who cares). Especially when it came to its very own Saint George. And I have also liked Morio, the fox demon born and bred in Japan, the good guy in the story. He added an exotic touch to the book and I would have liked to see his character develop a little more with time. Menolly is interesting also, as the newbie vampire trying to get social, but she too appears too little for the reader to actually start caring for her.

Speaking of things I like, I’ve also liked most of the writing. The author has done a great job imagining the fantasy world she did, a world with creatures so varied that nothing seemed to be outside the realm of possibility, a world where magic intermingles to our daily, mundane life. A world where one can reach another realm by crossing through a portal guarded by one of the Hags of Fate (quite an irreverent name, isn’t it). Where faeries are among us and humans reactions to them vary wildly, from loving them and enlisting in their fan clubs, to considering them a threat to morality and trying to force them to go home, by picketing their premises. I only cringed a little at the fact that the author has chosen to make the otherwordly creatures to look down on one particular race. And look at the coincidence, that race was black-skinned. So unoriginal.

An idea I found interesting:

In Otherworld the land was so linked to the inhabitants that it felt like a community. Even in the dark woods, there existed a sense of comprehension and understanding. Earthside, a great chasm divided the forest from the people, underscoring the sense of distrust that I felt from the majority of humans that I met. They didn’t trust the wild, they feared the primal, and went out of their way to tame everything within reach. It was as if the wild places were at war with humanity.

As a last complaint, while reading I sometimes had the same problem I did when reading Inkheart: there is no actual limitation to what the main character can do so there’s no actual challenge as anything can be done. Case in point: Camille is looking for a guy named Tom Lane, and I imagine her thought process to be something like this “Where do I find him, where do I find him? Ooooh, look, there’s some magic! Ooooh, look, there’s a minor earth elemental (yes, just like that)! I’ll just ask him where Tom Lane is”. It seemed too easy, too much of a cop out, and I, as reader, felt cheated. I’d have preferred for Camille to find Tom Lane in a phone book.

What I liked most: The fluffy and cuddly gargoyle baby (with a name that fits it perfectly too, Maggie) that goes mooph mooph. The very idea of a baby gargoyle being fluffy as opposite to our current image about them (they’re the very opposite of cuddly since they’re made of stone).

What I liked least: The tone of the book overall: to me it seemed like it was trying too hard to sound hip and cool, and failed to be so. I got used to it after a while but it really grated on my nerves at first. The very reason why I am not planning to try the sequels any time soon.

Recommend it to? Everyone who likes urban fantasy. It’s definitely not my cup of tea but it does have some interesting parts, and there are people out there who liked it a lot more than I did, so if you’re a fan of the genre do give it a try.


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