The ramblings of a bibliophile.
So I maybe shouldn’t have read this novella right before going to bed. Alone. Normally urban fantasy tales don’t really bother me right before bed. Because, well, they’re so obviously make believe. But, this one involves a dead woman who was sexually attacked right before being killed off. That hit a little too close to home… and made it a little difficult to get to sleep (even with my giant dog sleeping across my feet).
I started reading Witchling the other week, but since I was reading it off the back of Etched in Silver, I felt like I was kind of missing a huge chunk of the storyline. And then I found out that Earthbound actually explains how Camille and her sisters end up on Earth. Half an hour reading later, and everything I felt was missing makes so much more sense!!!
Many of the stories that feature that fae feature characters with some level of power, or at least the court fae. So I kind of loved the fact that this story featured a house sprite. One that is still powerful in her own right, but of a completely different stature and power than the stories which I am used to.
I have had a slight obsession (alright, maybe not so slight) with the Mexican tradition of Day of the Dead since I wrote an anthropology paper on it in my Undergrad at University. So reading a story that featured this time of year and festival made me kind of deliriously happy. Alright, stupid happy – I read this story from beginning to end twice in a row to get my fix. And then watched Coco. But that’s a whole other story…
I laughed so damn hard throughout this story. It’s rare to find a story that features a ghoul instead of werewolves and vampires and the sass with which the storyline is delivered were brilliant.
Title: The HarvestAuthor: Vicki PetterssonSeries: Signs of the Zodiac #1.5In: Holidays Are Hell (Kim Harrison, Lynsay Sands, Marjorie M. Liu & Vicki Pettersson)Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)My Bookshelves: Christmas, Dark fantasy, Shapeshifters, Urban fantasyPace: FastFormat: NovellaPublisher: Harper FictionYear: 20075th sentence, 74th page: At the Tulpa’s nod, Zoe tried for a lighter tone. Zoe’s granddaughter…
I loved the prose in this. It was jumpy and a little all over the place. Quite sharp and to the point. And not really the kind of prose I would have expected from a novella in a paranormal romance collection. It wasn’t really that heavy on the romance either, that was just kind of slotted in. Which I appreciated immensely. After all, what I like about this series (the novella that I have already read anyway) is the darkness of it and the intensity.
This was a twisted, funny and kind of problematic story. One thing after another goes wrong. Again and again and again. Which is, quite frankly, hilarious. And also painful. The man makes one wrong decision after another.
I can’t imagine Gin as being retired, even after only reading one of her novels. Everything in Spider’s Bite is incredibly high adrenalin and a fight to the death (literally), so although the idea of retirement is nice, it’s hard to imagine the actual decision / action.
This story was so good! I always love stories with a kick ass lead. Especially in those cases where the female is completely independent and has a tragic past. It’s a trope, but it’s one that I absolutely adore. And can never quite seem to get enough of. And Gin is no different. She has a horrible, and slightly mysterious past. She has built herself up to take care of herself and runs around the entire time kicking ass and taking names.
