Three Days to Dead [Mass Market Paperback]

I love the ideas behind the book, but in practise it falls short. Evy says repeatedly that the other two members of her Triad were her family, and yet at the beginning of the book in particular, there is very little from Evy in the way of grief. And there is the potential for a good sub-plot with two personalities in one body, but there isn't nearly enough to make it work. The male leads in the book fall flat too and they're all pretty similar. There just isn't enough to really get your teeth in to personality wise with the characters. And though I wanted Evy to succeed, I wasn't really pushing for her, willing her on like many other protagonists.

There is also far too much going on. There are many, many different species of creature in this book, and it gets a bit tricky trying to keep all the different creatures and their alliances straight. The story jumps from one thing to another with little explanation and trying to keep all of it in order and remember it all isn't easy either. And whilst the world building was pretty good, the overall tone wasn't as dark and gritty as it could have been, leaving a slightly lighter tone than it really needed.

Knowing that there is a time constraint is one thing, but the pressure of it didn't really come across well in this. There were times when you felt Evy had all the time in the world to do whatever it was needed doing. There were a couple decent twists but nothing out of the blue, but the ending was reasonable anyway, even if a few things were left open ended.

However, despite all it's flaws, I liked this book. Yes it's not as good as it could be, but I still think it's a reasonable read and one I'll pass along to friends. Evy has some good moments, and there are points where things are explained enough and the characters show real emotion you can relate to, there's just not enough of it to truly bring the characters to life. But sometimes it's nice to read a reasonable book that's not going to leave you hanging for more or make you wish you hadn't bothered with it.

4 and 1/2 stars. Loved this. Loved the writing style. Meding likes to use short, punchy sentences. Just enough to tell you exactly what's happening without any flowery, over-the-top descriptions. That's one thing I really hate is overly descriptive writers. Your character walks into a room and they feel the need to describe every single item in there down to what colour the skirting board is painted. Who cares? I am so glad to find Meding does none of this. She's all about describing the essentials, a.k.a. the ACTION, which this book is completely packed with. It's almost non-stop. There was not one slow part to the story.

I also loved the world building. I like books with lots of different supes and races interacting. I think my favourite in this instance might just be Smedge, the bridge troll. Loved him. The way his dialogue was written I couldn't help but hear the voice of Ludo from the Labyrinth every time he spoke. "Sarah, fwiend". I liked the idea of the Triads of Hunters working to police the Dregs (non-humans) as well. Whilst it's obviously not the first book to ever feature a vampire hunter, it certainly felt like a new and imaginative slant on it.

The characters were very vivid and real, and even amongst the action-packed, race against time plot line, there was still time to grow really attached to some of the cast. So much so that I may have had a little something in my eye at a couple of points whilst reading it. Or it could have been a trick of the light. I'll never tell.

Overall this is a great urban fantasy debut. The only slight negative (and it is teeny tiny) is that because of the premise of girl-wakes-up-in-new-body-with-three-days-to-live, a lot of stuff had to be told to us in flashbacks which sort of caused the romantic element to fall a little bit flat as the relationship didn't develop in a linear fashion...that probably doesn't make any sense unless you've read it, but you'll see what I mean when you do. And you absolutely should!

'Three Days to Dead' has a unique premise, interesting plot, and is technically proficient, however, it lacks the emotion and detail that would make it exceptional.

Evy Stone is a hunter, a member of an elite and secret branch of the police force that enforces order over the "dregs". When she is resurrected in someone else's body, the clock begins ticking to recover her memories, find her killer, and prevent a catastrophic alliance between vampires and goblins. Unlike several other reviewers, I don't think the knowledge that she will somehow survive the book, despite the stated three-day limit on her life, ruins the book in any way. Lets face it; basic common sense tells you that the protagonist of any series is going to survive, no matter how imminent and deadly the danger might seem. The interesting and more important part is exactly how she will survive, and building suspense over that is something Meding accomplishes.

The characters in 'Three Days' are unique. Wyat Truman, Evy's handler/supervisor when she was a hunter, is not the ultra-alpha hero, the genius who has it all under control, or the lover who's affections border on stalking. He seems a fairly normal person with special skills. Evy herself is not perfect; she doesn't find everything to be smooth sailing in her new body, she has serious emotional problems dealing with her returned memories, and she makes several bad decisions which result in harm to innocents that she does not just easily brush aside. The secondary characters are also not typical; the vampires are not all evil, some of the prettiest denizens of the non-human world are fairly useless, and some of the ugliest and most disgusting are the most entertaining. Although the characters were interesting, that is not enough to carry the book. More world development and background information would have been beneficial to make them really come to life.

Meding's writing is technically proficient, which is more than can be said for many new writers in the exploding urban fantasy market; there are no typos, spelling errors, poor grammar, or annoying and cutesy phrases replacing curses, such as "turn you" or "go bite something". Unfortunately her writing lacks the emotion and pacing that would make this an excellent book. One of the most mysterious skills of an excellent writer is their ability to select specific words to not just state an emotion, but make the reader feel it, to not just portray a fight scene, but make the reader believe they should be ducking and dodging along with the main character. Whether Meding will develop this skill in future works remains to be seen, but I have my fingers crossed.