Karissa E. (ophelia99) reviewed on 1/20/2010 + 2527 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

This is the seventh book in the Kitty Norville series by Carrier Vaughn and it was a great addition to the series.

In this book Kitty gets invited to participate in a reality TV show. Her and a bunch of other paranormal celebrities are supposed to spend a week at a house out in the middle of nowhere. With them will be a skeptic; they are supposed to convince the skeptic that paranormal creatures exist. Of course things start going terribly wrong when people start turning up dead. It is up to Kitty and her housemates to figure out what is going on before everyone is killed!

I was worried that this story line would be a bit cheesy for Kitty, but it really worked. I loved learning more about a lot of the paranormal celebrities that Kitty has interviewed on her radio show or talked about, but never really got to know. Then of course Odysseus Grant shows up and he is a whole lot of mysterious and interesting. The subtext that goes on between Odysseus and Anastatia (a very old vampire) is intriguing and leads this book to a whole new level and potentially a whole new story arc.

The book was fast-paced and super easy to read. Vaughn's writing style is just so readable and personable; reading the book is such a fun pleasure. There were some very well done action scenes but not until later in the story. It takes a while to set up the story but Vaughn does a good job of making the setup suspenseful. The really strong feature of this novel is the characterization, there are some awesome characters in this book. Kitty especially has grown even more comfortable in her role as a leader and really steps it up in certain scenes of this book...knowing where Kitty started, it makes me proud of her :-)

Given the horror house theme of this book I was happy that it wasn't too scary. It is definitely suspenseful and creepy just not crazy scary (I am too much of a wimp to read really scary books). The story arc that is developing longer term, that deals with the vampires' "long game", is fascinating. I was so happy that we got to spend more time with Grant...he is just super intriguing to me and my favorite character. Grant gets a chance to show his human side in this book as well as demonstrate some somewhat disturbing magician's skills.

The only bad thing about this book was that it was over too soon. I can't wait to read the next book! I am also looking forward to checking out Vaughn's new young adult book "Voice of Dragons".

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