Olivia is a succubus and the enforcer for the local
supernatural council. She is the one who keeps people in line and chops off
heads that step a little too far out of line. It’s a demanding job.
A job that wasn’t made any easier by the vampires, watching
far too much modern media, decided it would be a great idea to reveal
themselves to the world. Now humanity wants to get involved in supernatural
business: Olivia is not welcoming of the idea.
But when an ever growing number of humans are being killed
by an apparent supernatural being, Olivia has to act quickly - and with mortal
authorities – to stop the killing and put an end to the backlash. If it were
all Olivia had to worry about it would be enough – but werewolf and vampire
politics are both pulling at her attention as well: one of them coming very
close to her own family.
This world setting is extremely rich and diverse and
immensely deep. There are a huge amount of different supernatural beings in
this book as well as some pretty involves structures around them. So we have
vampires, werecreatures, witches and succubae; which lots of magic and the
undead all really filling up this world. On top of that all of these creatures
don’t just exist in our world, there are political structures and positions and
hierarchies and how all of that relates to human politics in this newly
revealed supernatural world.
Each of these supernatural creatures also has their own
political structure, their own ways of running their societies and even their
own cultures which themselves are interesting to delve into – like the way the
werecreature pack works. Or the vampires and their very major elements of
consent and fidelity in their culture; I especially liked the consent issues
that are really powerfully included in their interactions, their sex lives and
their feeding. (I think this was especially vital since we have so many books
in the genre where vampires are very dubious when it comes to consent).
There’s also the individual creatures, magic and a whole
lot more – because this book doesn’t rely entirely on “here’s a vampire, you
know what vampires are” and dispense with further description; in addition to
their involved culture we have to also consider exactly what they are – this is
especially true with Succubae and their emotional manipulation abilities which
is not quite feeding and is very involved and layered while being at the heart
of who Olivia is, how she interacts with the police, the supernatural
community, her role as Executioner and the friends and co-workers she lives
with.
Speaking of, there are a lot of characters in this book all of whom seem to fill pretty important roles in the world. Several vampires, several wereanimals, her fellow succubae who live with her in the dance club, Grams who is an associate of hers, a chauffeur/witch, a police contact and a few others. All of them actually feel developed and all of them do have a sense of their own stories or a hint of them at least – even if we don’t see it they feel like more than names.
There’s a lot here and a lot of it is very very good
which has really pulled me in
But there’s too much. Or, rather, there’s too much that
has been hinted at without a lot of development that left me a little lost.
Like the two major vampires Olivia deals with – Blake and Tate; I got the two
confused a few times (which didn’t help that one of them is Olivia’s love
interest), it took me a while to sort out where they each fit in the hierarchy
and I’m still not entirely sure why they decided to follow her around for as
long as she did, especially since she’s involved in a murder investigation. I
know she’s not the human authorities and outright denies human law – but surely
dragging random sex partners with you to crime investigations is an objectively
bad idea? Speaking of human law enforcement there was Mercer who liked her then
hated her then disappeared for several chapters and seemed to be quite neutral
towards her – the book was so full that when he returned I had a “wait… and who
are you?” moment. Then there’s Grams who is connected to Olivia but I’m not
sure how – it’s somehow related to her dark and tragic past that is alluded to
and regularly causes Olivia to have little rage/grief meltdowns but I don’t
know much else. It’s also related to the kids she seems to live with who may or
may not be Succubae/Incubi. The wereanimals were also guys whose names I often
forgot (and mixed up) and it was only towards the end of the book when I
realised they were werelions and not werewolves.
I’m still not entirely sure what it means to be a succubus. I’m not sure how their council works how much scope and authority it has, whether she’s one of many executioners or not, and whether she’s defacto leader of the council or she’s just so scary no-one will disobey her which is weird because she doesn’t actually act that scary. She walks around like a colossal badass who every vampire should wet themselves when she comes near them, but when it comes to actual combat? Not so much.
I have to return again and say that I do like these
characters, I love this world and I love the potential that has been put in
there. I actually suspect the author has really really detailed notes on all
these characters and the world that is so deep and rich – but unfortunately
that has led to not realising how little of that information actually makes it
to the page. There are gaps. I can follow the story, but there are places where
I was sure I’d missed something and just really needed some gaps finished.
The story itself, therefore, is a little confused.
There’s so much happening, so many characters and such a wide world that it
takes a lot of concentration to keep up with it. But the tension of the story
is well maintained and we have a lot at stake ensuring there’s a fairly
constant sense of what is at stake… but while that is maintained the pacing
isn’t always great, I do feel there are times when Olivia seems to entirely
forget the serial killer case. I think, in part, it’s because there’s a lot of
other things going on in Olivia’s life (like Kass’s issues) but it still can be
jarring. Particularly when she takes time out to flirt with a vampire or go
dance. The writing itself is pretty tight and the story does bring everything
together and lay out both the world and characters that I really want to know
more about – the story itself showcases all this but does lose itself more than
once
Olivia is an interesting character. She has a lot of
positive points – she’s definitely confident, she’s authoritative, she’s
powerful and she’s determined. She has skills that people respects. But she
also has rage issues that border Keillie
independence and, as I’ve mentioned, her lethal demeanour is not always
backed up by her skill set. She’s also got an ill-defined tragic background
that causes a lot of self-flagellation but I know so little about it I can’t
really analyse it. So she’s a mixed character with a lot of potential.
There is a problem with Jerry
the chauffeur. He stands in for a lot of the inclusion since he is the most
prominent POC and gay man. We belatedly learn that he’s a very powerful witch
but for most of the book he is, bemusingly, Olivia’s driver. Despite only
meeting him in this book, Jerry rapidly becomes her bestest friend – not just
driver but also helping buy her wardrobe (yes, she gains a gay personal
shopper) and generally being massively loyal to an almost fawning degree after
a ridiculously short time. They go from strangers to him being a complete
sidekick and classic gay/black friend in virtually no time; it’s just so
ridiculous how completely invested in her in so little time. In theory he has a
relationship with another character but it’s kind of background and implied –
in fact, even the sexuality of that character is, as I mention below, somewhat
vaguely undefined.
There are other POC – her best friends and a major
character in one of the side plots is Kass, a Black woman, fellow succubus;
interestingly her plot line requires Olivia’s help without her being actively
victimised. She’s valued and helped – she doesn’t serve and she isn’t useless.
There are other POC among her young housemates whose position and connection
I’m still unsure about. A number of background characters – love interests of
other characters, surviving family of the serial killer victims, and general
people around her are POC.
Kass and Grams also show that Olivia does have strong
female friends. There are other women she doesn’t like but they are definitely
counter-acted by the very positive, strong comparisons. Even Mallory, a female
vampire who is at odds with Olivia in this book is also strong and heavily
respected by Olivia.
Mark, a random wereanimal is gay – well, Olivia is sure
he’s gay. She doesn’t even think he KNOWS he’s gay, but she knows his sexuality
before he does (gah, y’know I can live with a character taking time to realise
their sexuality, but having someone who is not even that close to them know
their sexuality first is annoying). I think he manages to come to her realisation
in the book because he kind of ends up in a relationship with Jerry (well he
talks to him and Olivia assumes that means they’re in a relationship.) There’s
also a “flamboyantly gay hairdresser”. Yes.
I want to know more. I want to know more about Olivia. I
want to know more about this world. I want the history to expand, I want to
know more about all these characters and creatures and everything else that
makes this whole book so rich and interesting. I’m hoping that with this book
as well we will have a much better foundation for future books in the series –
we have a foundation now we can build up a little more and fill in some of
those gaps.
