For a long time the European vampires have been threatening
to come to New Orleans and challenge Leo, the master of the city. There have
been plots brewing for decades – and now the time has come
With a wave of impossible Revenants, deadly magic and
ancient vampires pursuing vendettas and plots, they have arrived, and Jane must
run from attack to attack and unravel some extremely convoluted, ancient plots,
drawing on all her resources to try and stem the tide.
This book is action packed – completely and
overwhelmingly action packed. To a degree that I don’t even get when Jane actually
gets to sleep. The European vampires are here and there’s some really long
running plots happening, with lots of manipulations that have been put in place
decades ago because this is how vampires plot. When you live for centuries, it’s
standard to make plans that may span centuries.
And because they span centuries, they call upon
characters and concepts and storylines that have appeared throughout the
series, including the blood magic of the Damors and the different vampire
families and prominent characters and antagonists. On top of that we have
magical items that come not just from the main book series but also from some
of the short stories. We have vampire enemies that have been referred to and
being part of the metaplot for a very long time
We also have Jane’s developing powers and how they’ve
been skewed both by Beast borrowing DNA she finds interesting and, of course,
the angel Hayyel and his own special brand of magic – which in turn is linked
to the Anzu and the Aranciel which have also appeared in other books
Basically, unless you have an incredibly good memory or
have recently had a re-read of the entire series? This book takes a lot of work
to follow. Especially since very little is actually explained in great detail
as Jane and her crew run from battle to battle with rising Revenants and
vampires attacks and strange lightning magic and time acting up and powerful,
dangerous euro-vampires and kidnapping. It’s full of action and its awesome
action and exciting and powerful and contains a lot of excellent fighting and
confusion and investigating and more battling. We have this overlaid with Jane’s
ongoing moral quandary over who she is, especially as she continues to be put
in a position where she has to kill humans, not just vampires and her continued
concern as to exactly where her moral compass is. There’s a really awesome
moment with Hayyel in this in which she definitely doesn’t just take his
reassurance for it.
So it’s a very good, very action packed read with some
really good personal focus on Jane – but my gods it is easy for you to get lost
and forget chunks and think things like “Adrianna? Wait, she was a thing? Do I remember
her? Should I?” and occasionally getting lost between the duelling vampire
plots. At the same time that does kind of set the tone of the book – after all
this level of chaos and confusion is how Jane – and we – are supposed to feel
when confronted by decades old duelling vampire plots.
A few books ago, this series finally addressed its
complete lack of meaningful LGBT inclusion by handwaving pretty much every vampire
as bisexual. Despite
very little of that being shown in previous books and even now it’s only
something that is mentioned: even in his book when Leo is actually in a bed
with his two lovers, Kate is clearly in the middle (mentioned very carefully in
case we think Leo actually touched another man). On top of this, their
bisexuality seems to be linked to how Jane sees vampires as sexually debauched
hedonists. But more than this referred-to-but-never-actually-seen
representation, there’s the way Jane refers to that male lover: Grégoire. It’s
demeaning, belittling and shaming – lots of references like “boy toy”. (And the
fact he is very young and repeatedly raped also is a major part of this
character). She never refers to Kate or any women Leo has slept with in those
terms. There’s a strong whiff of homophobia about the entire portrayal.
Jane is Cherokee and her ethnicity is clearly depicted
not just as part of her woo-woo but also her culture as she repeatedly speaks
to Aggie One-Feather and her mother for advice and ceremonies and support. She
thinks frequently about her history, her family and it’s a very harsh
remembrance, there’s absolutely no attempt to shy away from the genocide Native
Americans face. Compared to nearly every Native American portrayal I’ve seen in
this genre, this is much more deep and nuanced. Of course, given the state of
the rest of the genre, this isn’t exactly a high bar to cross over. I would
like to see Jane speak to Aggie at times when she’s not seeking a ritual or
ceremony as it does feel close to her being a Native American being somewhat
closely linked to woo-woo
Her colleagues and surrogate family are the Younger
brothers, both mixed-race Black men and very very different from each other
(one an army ranger with lots of discipline and fighting skills, the other a
computer nerd of similar brilliant skill – but also skill in general
organisation). The relationship between the three of them is probably the
closes there is there – even between Jane and Bruiser, her love interest. Her
closest family is definitely the Younger brothers, beyond anything else, and it’s
purely platonic and still very much based on love and respect. It’s an
excellent female/male friend relationship, perhaps the best I’ve seen in the
genre (again, not the highest bar to leap over here). Edmund and Brute are also
integrating nicely and really well with this relationship without disrupting
the awesomeness that is already there.
Jane’s relationship with Bruiser also doesn’t annoy me as
much the one with Ricky did. Her love of Bruiser doesn’t consume everything
else, they both remain professional – and if he’s protective and possessive of
her, it’s no more so than her protective possessiveness of him. It’s a balanced
relationship lacking power dynamics
There are some skilled and intelligent women in this book
– like Katie and Darcy along with Aggie and her mother and Jodie. But they’re
really really rarely referred to and are really peripheral to Jane’s life. They’re
side characters, they appear briefly, they’re not hugely involved and Kate is a
very fraught character when it comes to a whole lot of dubious decisions and
trust issues. Basically, there are few women who are meaningful part of Jane’s
life. The closest is Aggie – but she only visits Aggie and she’s very
peripheral to the rest of her life. Contrast that to Eli, Alex, Leo, Bruiser,
Edmund, Gee, Leo’s entire security team – there’s a lot of men in Jane’s life. Constantly
in Jane’s life – and
not a whole lot of women. Even Molly has become a much less constant character.
We do have some good references to the trauma many of
these characters have faced. Both Jane and Eli have experienced things that
have left them with PTSD. It’s not something we spend a lot of time on, but it’s
there, it’s respected, it’s understood and treated well. But it is something of
a single brief moment and reference.
In all this is a very enjoyable book to read. It’s
exciting, it’s action paced, it’s full of intrigue and twists with a whole lot
of Jane and her excellent family. We have a lot of racial inclusion and a New
Orleans that isn’t white washed and we have a lot of really good and unique
world building. It draws heavily on the whole series so you definitely need to
be focused and maybe a re-read is necessary – it’s not an easy read and it can
be confusing. But other than that it’s an excellent read and a great addition
to this whole series.
