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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A banshee - it's a scream!, 3 May 2009
If you're reading 'White Witch, Black Curse', chances are you're already a confirmed fan of Kim Harrison's 'Hollows' series, featuring witch and professional bounty hunter, Rachel Morgan. If you're not, and have just come across the book by chance, I'd advise you to put it aside until you've read the preceding six volumes, as the book contains so many references to previous events that you'll find it quite hard going without knowing the back story.
For Rachel fans, all the familiar faces are back: Ivy, still struggling with her vampiric nature; Jenks, four inches of potty-mouthed heroism; Al, always out to exploit the slightest weakness; and Trent, although he's restricted to a single, minor appearance. Added to them, there's able support from more minor characters like Glen, no longer such a secret tomato addict; Skimmer, not surprisingly full of hate and rage; and Rachel's mother, finally moving on.
With such a cast of characters, and a weight of previous events, perhaps it's not surprising that Rachel's kept as busy as ever: this time around, she has to contend with hunting down a Banshee - an aura and soul-sucking killer in the Hollows' universe; continuing to try and recover her memory and find the murderer of her vampire lover, Kisten; and dealing with demon Al, who's abducted Pierce, a ghost and former acquaintance of Rachel's from her teenage years. All of these threads are neatly resolved by the end of the book - in some cases perhaps a little too neatly: a Banshee attack conveniently prevents Rachel from pursuing Al into the Ever-After, after Pierce's abduction, and the final showdown, again conveniently, takes place somewhere that triggers her recollections of Kisten's murder. One gets the feeling that, after the exceptional revelations of 'The Outlaw Demon Wails', Harrison wants to take a breath, so to speak, and clear up remaining loose ends, all the better to move the overall Hollows arc forward. And, there are certainly enough new elements introduced to rouse readers' curiosity: ranging from Pierce - a devious character who enjoys playing with demons, but who seems to push all Rachel's buttons; intriguing hints in the quest for Ivy to keep her soul after becoming undead; and Trent's mysterious gift - a set up for the next book, if ever there was one.
So, is 'White Witch, Black Curse' worth the wait and the read? There's certainly plenty to enjoy: the dialogue is as snappy as ever, the action is well-described, and we do finally get to find out who killed Kisten. If Trent hardly figures, and Al is less of a presence than he was in the last book, well, they can't dominate every one of Rachel's adventures. I certainly found it difficult to put down, and will be keeping it on my shelf to re-read while waiting for the next one. My main gripes would be that, as I said above, some events seemed a little too convenient, and we didn't discover anything new about the nature of the Ever-After, and how Rachel's lessons as Al's student are going. I can only hope that's something lined up for the future. As Rachel says at the end of the book, `I love my life,' and all I can say, is that I love reading about it, and will continue to do so.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Still going strong but..., 30 May 2009
I enjoyed the book as I always do but like other reviewers have said I believe this is wrapping up the lose ends from the other books. If your a hollows fans don't miss out on reading this book as it answer some questions and I think Kim is setting the scene for the next book. Can't wait for the next instalment with Trent and Rachel. Still a good standard compared to other books in the genre and I think the next instalment will be back to the high standard of other books in the series.
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10 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Slight let down after Outlaw Demon Wails!, 10 Mar 2009
This book will sell because huge numbers of us have bought,read and loved the Hollows series so far.
That said this book does not match the quality of writing in the Outlaw Demon Wails( the best of the series so far IMO ).
Kim has taken on board that she doesn't need to backstory everything that has happened given that this is book 7 in the series, which is certainly less irritating for series fans, ... however her editor should have pointed out that assuming that her readers will have read all the hollows stories published in anthologies was not a good idea. The background to both the Banshee story and Pierce come from anthology stories not from the main series books. The banshee story I was familiar with but Pierce made no sense at all to me when introduced for that reason.
Plotwise the book starts off strong regarding Kistens murder and the introduction of the Banshee plot but the investigations of Kisten's murder are then dumped until what feels like a hurried reintroduction in the last few pages of the book, the Banshee plot got lost in the rest of the books relationship angst, the dumping of Marshall was poorly handled and the "shunning" was too clumsily signalled with respect to Tom towards the beginning of the book and then it was left unclear quite why Rachel reacts to it as uncharacteristically as she does, and indeed why it actually occurred at all. The total sidelining of the I.S.in this book in favour of the FIB presumably because it would have interfered with the revelation regarding Kisten's murderer again struck me as odd.
There were good ideas introduced at the end of book 6 such as Rachels apprenticship to Al and all the new informaton on the "Everafter" that are just completly skimmed over in this book and never developed. Characters such as Trent make cameo appearances which dont seem to add much to the story
Make no mistake you will still like this book if you are a Hollows fan but you probably wont love it. If you haven't read the Hollows series yet then don't buy this go and buy Dead Witch Walking the first in the series, it will be worth it!
Not every book is going to be great and Kim has an excellent track record, lets hope the storyline structure and editing are sharper in the next instalment
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