Shiarra is free from the influence of the belt and now
can see what has happened to her life. Her hasty decisions, skewed judgement,
anger and fear has left a lot of wreckage behind, a trail of victims and even
some deaths. It’s an uncomfortable realisation
Almost as uncomfortable is finally coming to terms with the fact that Royce isn’t the bad guy and that it’s ok to let him into her life, that’s going to take some getting used to.
But now there’s a lot of fallout from the most recent
chaos with the werewolves and the only way Royce can see to keep Shiarra and
Sara safe is to get them out of New York – get them all the way across the
country in fact, to his ally in Los Angeles.
“Ally” may be a strong word, however, and it’s clear the vampires of Los Angeles have their own agenda and their own plots that they’re more than willing to rope Shiarra and Sara into. Especially since they have a zombie problem.
I have to admit that in the first chapter of this book I
nearly did damage to my tablet. Because we had another rendition of Shiarra
deciding that Royce is the source of all evil. Royce responds with patience and
understanding and helps coax her into seeing that he’s never hurt her and
reassures her that he will never cause her harm.
This is because Royce is SO VERY MUCH MORE PATIENT THAN ME! Personally? I’d open the door and invite her to take herself through it and never return. She has handed herself to him on a platter repeatedly – and he’s refrained from capturing her (and he’s powerful enough to take her at any time). He has extended repeated favours without any expectation – even though she has spat in his face in response. And, given the people she is willing to trust (murderous hate groups and cheating werewolf boyfriends), being on the suspicious list is a damn insult at this point.
Thankfully Shiarra’s endless Royce suspicion does not
last. Shiarra very quickly comes to her senses and we have a book that is very
much characterised by Shiarra’s regret. Ok, that doesn’t exactly make for a
thrilling read – it’s not fun reading someone repeatedly muse on what a bad
person they are – but it was needed. It was sorely needed to help redeem Shiarra
as a character and a protagonist to establish that her behaviour for the last
book – the last 3 books – has been badly skewed and that, yes, her actions have
cost people, her actions have hurt people and her actions have left people
dead. If anything, there was too much people reassuring her she was a good
person – but that’s only natural, none of these people are realistically going
to turn round and say “yes Shiarra, you are evil bad wrong and deserve to live
forever in shame! SHAAAME!” (It’s ok, I said it for them). So this would be an
amazing redemption of the character and a great turning point for the series
But she doesn’t learn! She talks about how ridiculous it
was of her to trust the White Hats – a hate group! A murderous hate group! A
murderous hate group that caused her to kill people – how evil! So what does
she do in LA? Let’s go see our local White Hats! Of course!
She talks about not making good decisions, not thinking
things through – but her master plan is “let’s get everyone – including the
White Hats – in one place and hope I can improvise something!” This isn’t a
plan! This isn’t thinking things through! And how can someone who spent the
better part of the book lamenting her past decisions and how they hurt and
killed people then decide that getting 3 or 4 lethal groups who despise each
other into one place and hope she comes up with a good idea when that happens.
Whyyyy, why would you do this?! Why would someone who is questioning their
decisions and their morality do this?
And she keeps making decisions based on little information and against the advice of people who should know better. Arnold says that the runes of Sara’s arms can’t be removed, Necromancer says they can – that’s it, she readjusts her entire plans and jeopardises the whole city and countless lives on his say so. Doesn’t even check with Arnold again – just adjusts the whole plan; does she even try to explain it to the White Hats she’s so wilfully sacrificing? I don’t think she does. The ridiculous thing is that, despite upsetting an entire city, she not only doesn’t consult Arnold but she doesn’t even call Royce. She can, she literally has hours kicking her heels in traffic, or alone in the safe house where she could have called Royce and told him what had happened and maybe, just maybe, got some advice about what might be happening. But she doesn’t.
Which is another theme of Shiarra – she doesn’t listen to
advice and she doesn’t ask for it. Deliver a package to dangerous vicious
weres? Sure she will. Everyone says it’s a bad idea, but Shiarra knows better!
Hey, independent faction of vampires lead by someone everyone calls crazy?
Shiarra’s on her way, unarmed and with only Sara for back up! Course she is!
The only reason this woman isn’t dead 11 times over is because she has some
damned impressive plot armour.
The plot itself is an interesting one – the layered
machinations, the plots on plots and the red herrings make for an excellent
layered mystery full of lots of unknowns – an ideal detective mystery that is
more than just a simple, linear discovery and without a vast number of
side-plots to distract things – even better, Shiarra actually displays some of
her detective skills! No special White Hat toys, no woo-woo belt; Shiarra’s
talents are valuable without supernatural enhancement. I can finally believe
her in her profession and see her as a skilled and successful private
detective. It got the pacing right – managing to keep the story and revelations
moving without ruining the whole mystery.
There’s also some excellent hooks for the next book both
with Shiarra being dragged into more plotting and her strange affliction due to
werewolf infection and ingesting vampire blood. Coupled with her apparent
willingness to learn from her past errors and actually showing her own skills
rather than the toys people have given her makes me think the next book has a
lot of potential.
We do have some inclusion – several of the White Hats are
POC, including the main White Hats we deal with; they have a much more
prominent role in this book than previously (which isn’t saying a lot). Also,
while New York seemed to be awfully white washed, this Los Angeles has a large
number of Latino background characters. We also have some gay characters – it’s
a first for the series and they are in a position of power – but their enemies
throw around a lot of anti-gay insults, they themselves are creepily sexual
towards unwilling straight guys and we are looking at some villains here. To
some degree, it’s not too far from how the straight vampire villains have been
presented – but at the same time we’ve had some straight folks who aren’t
creepy evil predators as well.
Ultimately, Shiarra is the problem with this book,
because I liked so much about it. The story and the setting I liked, the
machinations I liked the different layers and groups I liked, even the pacing
of the story and the writing I liked. There’s a whole lot about this series I
like, especially now we’ve moved away from the whole “Others are persecuted
minorities!” speeches we were getting in the first book. But, even with her
improving, I don’t like the protagonist. Her decision making is awful, she has
no concept of the consequences of her actions, she’s far too willing to cower
in fear but, above all, she does not learn. Even in this book which is all
about her facing her past mistakes, she is doing exactly the same thing that
got her into this mess in the first place.
