Book Review: Dead to Me, by Anton Strout
Jan. 6th, 2010 07:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccastareyesI really didn't like this book. I don't know if it was my taste or it was just bad, but I was skimming just to get through the darn thing so I wouldn't have to carry it on the plane with me -- I should have just left it in Florida in hopes my step-mother would enjoy it more, but I figured I could hock it online for something better*.
So, the premise. Simon is a psychometrist who joined the local Paranormal Investigations Division because it beat being a small time con-man. There's Odd Shit happening -- ghosts acting funny, a woman being murdered and showing up without any sort of idea why -- and the local Forces of Darkness are entering the government… legitimately.
Part of my problem is that the book never did explain why the 'cultists' were so bad until they started killing people, and even then, it just made them like the Mob. By which I mean, the Mob does some nasty stuff, but they aren't captial-E Evil. Heck, they even note that while they raise the undead, they make sure to keep them from eating humans unsupervised. By the time we start asserting that they are destroying souls of ghosts -- and there's no metaphysical background work to assert how the forces of Good know this -- I already have lost interest. It's almost like they could have used organized crime here, and I wouldn't have noticed. Like the author wanted a Good versus Evil conflict but didn't do the background work to make it seem realistic in New York City.
To be honest, I liked Jane -- a small-town woman who became a Office Worker for Evil, then switched sides after botching her first field mission -- a lot more than anyone else, and might have enjoyed the series more if she was the protagonist.
Overall, the book just felt shallow. I read a lot of urban fantasy, so maybe I'm burnt out, but it didn't feel like this added anything to the genre, or even 'different enough to entertain'.
--
* This is the same mentality to lead me to take home the romance novel Mom brought for the beach, and was going to leave in her hotel room… 18 months later, and it's sitting on top of my bookshelf, still waiting for someone to want it. I should just donate it to the library to sell or something.
So, the premise. Simon is a psychometrist who joined the local Paranormal Investigations Division because it beat being a small time con-man. There's Odd Shit happening -- ghosts acting funny, a woman being murdered and showing up without any sort of idea why -- and the local Forces of Darkness are entering the government… legitimately.
Part of my problem is that the book never did explain why the 'cultists' were so bad until they started killing people, and even then, it just made them like the Mob. By which I mean, the Mob does some nasty stuff, but they aren't captial-E Evil. Heck, they even note that while they raise the undead, they make sure to keep them from eating humans unsupervised. By the time we start asserting that they are destroying souls of ghosts -- and there's no metaphysical background work to assert how the forces of Good know this -- I already have lost interest. It's almost like they could have used organized crime here, and I wouldn't have noticed. Like the author wanted a Good versus Evil conflict but didn't do the background work to make it seem realistic in New York City.
To be honest, I liked Jane -- a small-town woman who became a Office Worker for Evil, then switched sides after botching her first field mission -- a lot more than anyone else, and might have enjoyed the series more if she was the protagonist.
Overall, the book just felt shallow. I read a lot of urban fantasy, so maybe I'm burnt out, but it didn't feel like this added anything to the genre, or even 'different enough to entertain'.
--
* This is the same mentality to lead me to take home the romance novel Mom brought for the beach, and was going to leave in her hotel room… 18 months later, and it's sitting on top of my bookshelf, still waiting for someone to want it. I should just donate it to the library to sell or something.
