When Finn inherits a western-themed theme park it is an
opportunity for the gang to actually have a holiday – certainly necessary for
Gin who is extra stressed trying to find out the truth behind the Circle
Of course, this was a resort owned by Finn’s mother and
Circle member and generally not a pleasant person – and the Circle is fully
involved in the resort – inevitably the Spider has to take care of business.
Two books ago I said that
I was concerned with this series of books becoming very very repetitive. We
had the same pattern coming up over and over again and it was starting to feel
dull even if it was also extremely fun.
Last book helped reassure me and this book well and truly
sealed my hope this is going somewhere new.
Sure, we still has Gin, the Assassin, killing bad people
who really needs to be stabbed in the head. But previously this had a repeated
pattern: a big bad would appear, they would attack Gin, she’d be terribly beaten.
She’d then limp back to Jojo, be healed, make a plan and promptly murderise the
big bad.
But this book doesn’t have a big bad per se. We have a
powerful, dangerous woman who is dangerous for reasons beyond having big shiny
dangerous magic (which is a really nice change from the rest of the books – we’d
have dangerous women but they’d usually be dangerous because of shiny magic,
not combat skills like Gin). But she’s not the big bad. She’s not the main
focus. She is there – but the main enemy is Tucker. And not as a dangerous
threat, but as a representative of the mysterious and sinister Circle. The tone
of book has changed a lot. We don’t have a single big bad like Mab Monroe, nor
do we have random killers of the week – we have a mysterious shadowy cabal that
needs investigating, discovering and manoeuvred around.
Along the way we have good ongoing issues with Finn and
his mother- but they’re touched on but not gone into too much depth because we
already did that in the short story
And we have some nice digging up of Gin’s mother Eira.
Ok, it is a little convenient that Gin can repeatedly dream up herself some
history and relevant information, but it I do like to see the information and
relationship explored. Especially since this book series seems to absolutely
love skewering people who have been put on a pedestal (or… maybe more
accurately it should be said mothers have been knocked off their pedestals
because Fletcher is still pretty much balanced happily on his).
Of course the plot itself is Gin running around being
kind of awesome, occasionally meeting crusty locals, having lots of action, and
Gin generally being a crafty and scary scary lady. I also really like that she’s
using her magic – yes, her actual magic. How many books do we see her running
around with knives and seeming to forget that she actually have magic? So, no,
we’re not going all shadowy cabal and investigating, there’s still plenty of
Gin running around with knives and magic, being lethal and awesome and fun and
action packed
Alas, she didn’t cook much this book – and my does this
series make some delicious sounding food. Also, while this story takes part
outside of Ashland, she does take several of her friends with her but hey are
relatively low key. Bria, Finn, Silvio, Phillip, Owen, Lorelei are all there
but they don’t really get involved in the plot much. This is the first book in
my memory where we focus so completely on Gin without her friends being
involved much other than vaguely there backup to support or victims to be
rescued
That doesn’t leave much scope for inclusion. Silvio is
latino and, after several books of completely forgetting, we finally remember
he’s gay (in a one line reference that only comes up because Silvio is dropping
his life to jump to Gin’s attention. Also, a running joke that he’s always
typing and working whenever Gin calls any hour of the day or night doesn’t help
this trope). Rosalyn and Xavier, the Black characters in this series don’t make
an appearance. We do get a new Black character Ira who is a lot of fun,
crotchety, a dwarf, tough, determined, fiercely loyal to the park which is his
baby. I like him – but he’s pretty much going to be a one book character.
I really do like the new lease of life this series has
managed. There have been several times in the series when I’ve though it’s
reached the end of the line; a story arc has ended and it seemed a bit at a
loss. But then we get the resurgence – we get a whole new plot line, a whole
new lease of life taking these awesome characters and this excellent world and
breathing a whole new direction and drive into it. With this book, this series
has done it again, reborn, redriven and I’m reengaged and excited again
