Camilla was a lawyer before she died.
Now, after signing a piece of paper without properly
reading it (yes, she knows – but in her defence she was highly traumatised),
she is Karma. A personification of the Universe’s sense of justice and comeuppance.
And she’s not happy about it, she didn’t want this and she’s hoping that maybe
she’ll be able to duck out of it once her trial period is up
In the meantime, she’d like to find her killer – and
bring all kinds of Karmic punishment down on him.
Camilla is now Karma, her job is to make sure people get
what’s coming to them (which always seems to be bad – at least in the few
occasions we saw her do her job before she got sidetracked). She works for an
agency full of beings that handle these nitty gritty supernatural forces –
including the biggies like fate and luck but even more mundane and slightly
weird and esoteric elements. Like one of her colleagues sends out black cat
omens, we have 3 kids running around ready to jinx people if they don’t knock
on wood. Luck is teamed with Murphy who imposes his infamous law.
Camilla is a reluctant Karma but does draw out several
interesting conflicts from it – she has, after all, just died and the grief she
shows for her loved ones she has left behind really shows. I really like how
well written her clinging to her old life is, her affections, the evolution of
her grief and how that relates to the true nature of her relationship as the
revelations grow.
Camilla also has some good conflict as Karma – there’s
the obvious one, of course, in bringing about wrongdoer’s comeuppance she
realises she has to hurt people – even kill them. She is, in effect, the
Universe’s assassin. But there’s even the nature of avenging wrongs when
perhaps they should be stopping them
While the world is interesting and the concept pretty
unique, I do feel the world building is still very unfinished. We have a lot of
talk about “the universe” but no real definition of what that is – but I can
live with an unknowable force guiding the actions even if those actions make no
sense whatsoever. What does bother me more is not really understanding the core
of the plot. There’s these shadowy people guided by something else entirely who
are doing nefarious things against the firm – and I don’t even have a shred of
explanation as to their actual motivations or even what they are or how they
can exist. And then there’s another group of secretive supernatural beings who
may have been ex-employee’s of the universe’s group and they’re opposing
shadowy group 1 – and I don’t know their motivations, how they exist, what they
can do… The problem is most of the plot, especially towards the end of the
book, relates to how Camilla interacts
with these two groups.
I also think, as the first book in a series, it rather
missed the opportunity to build on the context and establish both the agency
and the characters inside it – we needed to see more of Camilla being Karma,
more of Luck and Murphy and the rest doing their thing.
I also have a minor quibble on tone – and it is minor. I
can’t decide if this book wants to be fun and a little whacky (and some of Camilla’s
fellow co-workers certainly point towards the whacky) or whether it wasn’t to
be serious and introspective (because the whackiness doesn’t really last and we
spend a lot of time on Camilla’s reasonable grief, loss and her life). Still,
the humour is pretty hilarious and it’d be a huge loss if this wasn’t in the
book
There are some problematic issues that I can’t swallow as
well – firstly Camilla and Fate seem to be running towards a romance and it’s
skeevy in the extreme. There’s lots of him being a complete and utter arsehole,
bullying her, intimidating her, trying to scary her, even making her colleagues
ostracise her at work and generally filling out every abusive checklist – but
then we get minute moments of softness or other acts that mean he’s not being
cast as a villain – but a rather classic “he’s an arsehole with a heart of
gold” melting.
Sexy times happens – which brings me to Cupid. He appears
very very very briefly and apparently has an office prank of using his powers
to make colleagues have sex with each other – and yes, Camilla falls prey to
this. To exacerbate this magical rape, Camilla and Fate both seem to view it as
an irritating office prank in terms of severity – like he’s repeatedly hiding
their favourite mugs or switching the coffee machine to decaf. Cupid himself
may be the only LGBT inclusion – he’s not listed as gay or bi, but he gropes
Fate during his little rape prank – needless to say, this is appalling representation.
I cannot think of any POC characters and while she has female co-workers they’re
very minor points in Camilla’s life
Camilla herself is an interesting character. She’s not
only capable, but she is fiercely aware of the fact. She was a lawyer, she was
a damn good lawyer – she knows she was a damn good lawyer and it gave her a
hefty set of skills that, again, she is confident in. She is good at what she
does and manages not to have false modesty while not being arrogant either. The
only shakiness is I don’t think that skill necessarily was displayed all that
well, even if we were told about it.
Camilla is a great character though, she has vast
potential and hits just the right tone even if she is so extremely out of her depth.
She has lines she doesn’t want to cross, she has strengths and weaknesses and
she is a very human character. She is trying to do what she thinks she must do,
she is not willing to jump into a new, unwelcome role without any reluctance,
she isn’t a servant but nor is she a completely incoherent rebel. I like her.
She’s a great fit for this world and the story that is developing
This whole book struck me overwhelmingly with potential.
The concept, the shadowy forces that have been hinted at, the conflicts that
are brewing, the confusion, the mystery and the characters all pull me in
demanding to know more. I’m intrigued. I’m interested. I’m invested. This book
makes me eager for book 2 while, at the same time, wishing there was just a bit
more of book 1.
