Kat and Bones have a very happy life having found a sense
of normality and peace – but not so much for Tate and the other members of her
team. Working under the devious new director, Madigan, they all seem to have
disappeared mysteriously. Obviously Kat and Bones can’t let that slide –
especially since it’s clear that Madigan is hiding something that the Vampire
and Ghoul nations will need to know about
When they find the full extent of what he was doing, not
only is it horrific but it has horrendous potential consequences should the
results be known. And not cleaned up
But cleaning it up means the death of a child who has
already suffered so much – Kat must find a way to prevent disaster striking
them all, and living with the aftermath
This book has a moment of utter guilty pleasure epic for
me in the middle which had good and bad points. On the good – while I like
character development and nuanced plot lines, sometimes it’s fun to read about
pure mayhem, well written, glorious, bloodthirsty chaos! Especially in this
genre where the actual sheer destructive power of vampires is surprisingly often
muted. It’s an abstract, or buried under mustiness, or fear of humans finding
out or something. There’s usually an urge to keep the mayhem off screen or have
it in bouts followed by lots of guilt.
This? Not so much. This was a pack of vampires against a
human opponent who had effectively declared war. Destruction, mayhem and a
whole lot of “you REALLY shouldn’t have done that” follow and it was epic, it
was exciting, it was glorious, it was carnage and the bodies piled high and I
should have been so very disapproving as the red shirts piled up in glorious
bloody heaps – but I wasn’t. Because they’re vampires and someone has screwed
with them and if you’re going to screw with super powerful creatures then you
should expect to have your arm ripped off and you to be beaten to death with
the soggy end.
It was epic and I loved it. It was a great and glorious
ending
In the middle of the book.
It kind of took me a long time to get back into the story
after that. I had had my grand finale. I had had Kat and Bones establishing their
Happily Ever After – and it did it really well. The book opened with Kat thinking
how perfect her life was, how she loved her husband, how she loved her friends
and how she had, over the course of the series, completely resolved all of her
self-hatred issues (which has been a fun and complex journey to follow). With
the big glorious slaughter with Kat, Bones and just a few of her allies
slaughtering their enemies with ease and glee, it established that Kat’s happy
life was also secure because they were all far too powerful to be messed with
any more. It was a great ending.
But the book kept going. Part of that is I get the sense
that Kat’s HEA was somehow unsatisfactory – especially since a child was then
inserted to “complete” Kat and Bones’s family and I’m not sure how happy I am
with that. Kat and Bones had an epic HEA, I’m not sure why it would be broken
without the addiction of a child figure to make it more real.
Not that I didn’t like the storyline of finding and protecting
Katie. In fact, it was an excellent contrast to the slaughter they had just
unleashed. There we got to see how ruthless, how dangerous they could be when
it came down to protecting themselves against outside threats. Anyone who
threatens them, anyone involved in actions against them, will be slaughtered –
brutally and epically. However, the other side is not only do they spare the innocent
but they’re not willing to see an innocent killed just because it would be convenient
to preventing the vampire/ghoul world being shattered by tension again. They’re
ruthless, but they’re just, they’re harsh, but they have limits.
And I think that contrast would have been far better served and far better done without Kat having a super special reason to care for Katie and this freaky forced relationship that I just didn’t really buy. And “didn’t really buy” unfortunately holds for a lot of the story – Bones pulls a trick we’ve seen him do before but it works because he’s decided to keep a load of his growing powers secret from Kat for… reasons. And Denise is an awful, terrible character – not because of her personality, but her power set is world breaking. She’s too powerful. She’s too useful. She just wanders in and FIXES things, she’s a friendly Deus Ex to help the author out of a tricky spot.
In terms of the female characters, we had the problem of
Bones lying to Kat, again, putting her through emotional hell all on the excuse
of “your reaction has to be authentic.” I’ve seen this used time and again in
urban Fantasy and no matter how bad an actor the woman is, when it comes down
to it, it’s an excuse to push her out of the decision making process since she
doesn’t realise what the plan is. We also have Bones and Spade both being uber
protective to their respective wives, pulling little strops when they think
they may be taking risks.
On the opposite side we have the fact that Kat and Denise were very clear that they were their risks to take and we have the fact that the book basically focused on what Kat wanted and was determined to see happen. I also liked the subversion of Ian playing homme fatale.
Marie Laveau is a character that has been used a lot in fiction lately, but as far as portrayals go, this was one of the better ones. She was highly respected and titled, she was powerful but not evil and both compassionate and wise while still feared for her epic abilities. Strong without being angry and evil – it was a nice contrast. She was a decent character and a force to be reckoned with along with Mencheres, another POC who brings a lot of might and wisdom to the table. They both do have special woo-woo which is something of a trope – but then, everyone including Kat and Denise and Vlad all have special woo-woo as well. Several members of Kat’s team are also POC though they only had minor roles.
There is a moment when Kat makes a terrible comparison
to slavery – the kind of appropriation we’ve seen a lot in Urban Fantasy and
hate. And Marie Laveau turns round and says how very not right that is and
how Kat has absolutely no right to make such a comparison. Which is excellent –
a character being corrected for their actions works. But she kind of just
repeats it and Marie lets it go – she backs off a little but keeps the theme
going. It’s like it’s close – but misses making it work because the correction
would stick or be repeated if it was a true challenge Kat respected.
We had a thankfully brief cameo appearance from her
deeply stereotyped
Black Gay friend who quickly left the scene, alas that concludes the GBLT
inclusion.
In the end, I think the first half – taking down the
human enemy so decisively was generally pretty excellent with a couple of
flaws. The second half, the search for Katie, was a decent overall story in
outline, but in detail was held together a little with writer
chewing-gum-and-duct-tape (Deus Ex Machina). I also think Vlad was inserted
just because it was the last book and he needed to be there.
This book concludes Kat and Bones’s story – though, I
suspect, not the world since there have been numerous spin offs. I’m never
happy when a series ends, especially a series I enjoyed. I am one of those who
would love the series to keep on going and going and going forever more; but I
have to praise Jeanine Frost’s decision here, it’s time. Not because the story
was weak or lacking or the characters hollow, but because they have succeeded.
They have created a life and a power for themselves and while the story could
probably be dragged out more by pulling up more threats, it would be hard to create
a new story that wasn’t convoluted, didn’t break the world or didn’t travel
again over old ground. This book neatly ended the series – it was time and I
give a lot of kudos to an author who can recognise that.
To be honest, while I liked this book a lot in places
(big epic fight scenes of epicness) I also found a lot tiresome and not very
well crafted, so my fang rating is a bit shaky. I’ve gone with 3 Fangs, but for
accuracy I would have said it had moments of 4 Fangs while most of it grounded
at a 2.5 Fangs or even a 2 Fangs. Moments of brilliance but a lot of holes.
