Customer Reviews

Living with the Dead (Women of the Otherworld, Book 9)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Kelley Armstrong is one of my favorite authors. But "Living with the Dead" makes me wonder if her series has jumped the shark. Too many characters. Too many shifting P.O.V.S. Too much confusion all around. I like twists and turns, but I found myself working too hard to keep up for too little pay off in the end.

I liked the Robyn character and thought her plight was well written, but I didn't feel like I got to know her well enough because just when things got juicy, we were shuttled off into someone else's mind. I also missed the sensuality of the earlier novels in this series. I'll certainly try Ms. Armstrong's next story, but I hope the author returns to using only one or two POVs per story and focuses on a strong but understandable plot.

I have been a Kelley Armstrong fan for years and always finish the newest book looking forward to the next one. Her characters are interesting, quirky, and believable and her plotting is strong. While followers of her series will enjoy the book, with its focus on Hope and Karl, I wouldn't recommend it to new readers.

The multiple points of view aren't entirely successful, the villian isn't entirely believable in her own voice (this would be an instance where distance would have been a better choice) and there are too many characters who tell rather than show. Finally, while I appreciate an author who can disorient me with unexpected but entirely plausible last minute characters, it works better if keeping the reader off balance is part of the complete reading experience rather than a one-off.

This is not a bad book at all, but any of the other Women of the Otherworld books would be a better entry point for this series.

Kelley Armstrong was one of the first Urban Fantasy authors I read as an adult. Bitten made me fall in love with the characters, the world, and caused me to drool all over myself, waiting for more.

As her series has progressed different narrators have been introduced, but she's stayed mostly in the first person. Living with the Dead (Women of the Otherworld, Book 9) is the first one I can think of where it is completely third person. With multiple, multiple narrators. I normally can't stand it when the author does that, but Kelley managed a smooth transition from narrator to narrator even though they had such differing personalities.

There was Hope, my favorite half-demon, whose role was helping Robyn, the completely human, normal narrator the story focused on while being pursued by Detective Finn, a man who sees ghosts but doesn't quite know why. Of course where there's Hope there's Karl, the most fascinating werewolf second only to Clay. I've loved Karl since he helped Elena escape during Bitten while remaining unapologetic. Also joining the ranks were Colm and Adele, two clairvoyants whose relationship and family life made the guys from Deliverance look almost normal.

The negative of this barrage of voices culminated in the ending. Though the brunt of the story focused on Robyn, a story arc was created for Hope and Karl and their strained relationship. I'll admit I'm becoming a sex fiend when it comes to my books, so the fact that there wasn't any lovin' depicted did rankle a bit, but the romance Armstrong infused helped fill the hole. Hope and Karl's relationship was brought to a new level in this installment and you're allowed into Karl's heart more while secretly wanting to throw Hope against a wall and shake her while yelling, "For the love of God woman, how blind can you be??" But the back and forth between the two arcs didn't allow the reader to fully connect with any of the speakers.

Living with the Dead introduced a few new characters (Robyn and Finn) that should be interesting to explore and pushed forward the Hope/Karl arc. I'm left chewing my nails, wondering what effect this book is going to have on the Otherworld and its inhabitants, and if we'll be allowed to see it to the end.

Well ... almost, anyway. Although she doesn't quite reach the heights of her earlier work, Armstrong's latest instalment in the "Women of the Otherworld" series is much more gripping and entertaining read than its predecessor(Personal Demon), with more interesting and varied characters. As always, it's beautifully written too.

I'm not going to attempt to provide a plot summary here, at the risk of giving away too much - it's quite intricate, and it appears other reviewers have done a much better job than I could in that respect! There is less eroticism in this novel than previous novels, but a lot of action makes up for that; while I have no issue with eroticism in novels, too often it's overdone, and in my view wouldn't have fitted in too well with the plot and structure of this particular story.

This is the first of the series, if I recall correctly, in which the story is told in the third person, from a greater variety of perspectives; in the main, this narrative choice is successful, though it might have been better had the points of view been limited to three or at most four characters. I have to agree with a previous reviewer that there is a little too much telling rather than showing, but it's not excessive. The ending also felt a bit rushed, as though the book had suddenly run out of steam in the last 20-odd pages.

The new characters - such as Robyn, the very human PR agent who unwittingly becomes a murder suspect, and Finn, the copper with an unusual gift - are engaging (though Robyn's habit of making Spectacularly Stupid Decisions got a touch frustrating after a while), and I'd like to see Finn, at least, make an appearance in later novels. I also found myself warming much more to Hope and Karl this time around, although I still don't find them quite as fascinating as Elena and Clay, or Paige and Lucas, for example; Hope's perspective, to me, is the least interesting, and I just don't buy her romance with Karl at all. He does not have the depth of the other werewolf characters such as Clay or Jeremy, and I struggle to care much about either of them.

I suspect the WoTO series is probably due for a bit of a rest - certainly Hope and Karl are, being the least appealing of Armstrong's supernatural characters - as the later novels have not been quite as strong as the earlier ones. Nonetheless, Living with the Dead is definitely worth reading and highly enjoyable. For those new to the series, though, I'd strongly advise starting with Book 1 (Bitten) first, and working your way through chronologically; the books can theoretically stand alone, but make much more sense when read in order.

You know, I miss the old days of Kelley Armstrong's writing career-back when there were only one or two supernatural races involved in a storyline and a plot that didn't take a flow chart to decipher. Somewhere after "Haunted" the books started to slide just a little bit downhill (not very much) and the books, while they were still good, didn't have that kind of sparkling break neck intensity to them.

So after "Personal Demons" (my least favorite to date) I took a little break from the series. And now that I'm back-well, I'm a little confused.

"Living with the Dead" is really, really different from the other books in the series. Aside from "Personal Demons" all previous books had only one narrator, and everything the narrator, well, narrated, was in first person. Sure there were some asides in third (like the nix and its various partners in "Haunted") but what made these books so good was that they always gave you the inside perspective and nuances of the characters.

This book is not only totally in third person, it has five (yes, count them, five) different narrators-two of whom are men and four of whom have never been in the series before. It made the whole book a completely different experience. But in light of the super complicated plot I suppose it would have been very hard to have just viewpoint in this book and gave the reader any chance of understanding what was going on.

"Living with the Dead" introduces us to our first major non-supernatural character, Robyn Peltier. She's a young, extremely competent PR person currently living in LA after the recent death of her beloved husband, working for a sort of Paris Hilton wanna be named Portia Kane. She's also a good friend of Hope Adam's-but knows nothing about the supernatural side of her friend's life. This all starts to change when first Portia, and then various people Robyn are around start to be killed-leaving her the prime suspect. Now not only is she (unwisely and unintentionally) on the run from the police but from an unknown killer who seems to be able to find her wherever she goes.

Enter Hope and Karl, who want to help and quickly ascertain that something about the killings is involved with the Nast Cabal-and the main detective on the case, a man named Finn, is a necromancer of limited power who doesn't seem to even know that other supernaturals exist. And the more Robyn is tracked by the killer, the more it becomes apparent that a very rare type of supernatural is hunting her-one who will be able to find her anywhere she goes.

Add in the concerns of a massively secretive supernatural organization who all work as Paparazzi because of their special skills (clairvoyance) and Robyn's dead husband's ghosts popping up to assist Finn in his investigation and you have one complicated storyline. Our narrators include: Robyn, Hope, Finn and two clairvoyant's, Adele and Colm.

Despite the third person (which really doesn't allow for as much personality to get through) and the constant viewpoint switching this book does have a compelling plot that moves pretty fast. The only problem is that by the end the many plot lines are so tangled that it's hard to tell what's what.

Still I enjoyed reading this book and it did make for great stay up late reading. But compared to Armstrong's other books-especially the early ones-it comes off fairly lackluster. And I know series fans will be very disappointed to learn that this book contains absolutely no sex scenes-references yes, actual scenes, no.

Three point five stars.

I am a big fan of Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series. Armstrong generally writes of strong women with supernatural abilities who must hide their secrets to keep family and friends safe. Living with the Dead (Women of the Otherworld, Book 9) continues this theme but with a few important differences. Robyn, a main character, is not a supernatural and knows nothing about the supernatural world. Finn, the detective assigned to the murder cases, actually is a supernatural but doesn't know there is a community for those like him. Hope, a half-demon, and Karl, a werewolf, must try to save Robyn from the supernatural murderer without letting her in on what is really happening.

While I enjoyed Living with the Dead (Women of the Otherworld, Book 9) it was not my favorite of this series by far. It was good but not fantastic. Armstrong uses very short chapters to focus the action on different characters at different times, which is a great technique for keeping the reader a bit off balance and feeling the chaos that both Robyn and Hope are experiencing. However, it can also make for a bit of a choppy read at times. I did actually like Hope's character more in this story than I did in the last book which featured her, Personal Demon (Women of the Otherworld, Book 8).

I also don't feel that the title or the tag line "For a woman on the run from a supernatural killer, it's the one thing even more dangerous than dying... Living With The Dead" fit the story very well. It is actually the detective who sees and talks to ghosts and, after the first couple bodies, Robyn actually copes very well with the fact that people are dying as the killer tries to reach her.

I've loved Kelley Armstrong's books from Bitten but this one falls well below her standard. The multiple POVs that were a little annoying in "No Humans Involved" grew to ridiculous in this novel. I lost count and interest as we topped 5 different "voices". This novel feels like a short story being stretched into a full length novel and I wish she had left it at what might have been a very interesting short story.

The audio version of this book is another point where I wish she had stuck to tried and true methods. The reader is very distracting with her different voice attempts (horrible at men in particular) and she lost me completely when she spoke of Jamie Vegas with a Spanish pronunciation (as though it started with an 'H').

I will still read her next book and hope for a return to the kind of fun interesting read that I have come to expect from Kelley Armstrong but this one was a bust.

PR consultant Robyn Peltier has moved to Los Angeles after the shooting death of her husband. She is hired by celebutant wannabe, Portia Kane to clean up her image. Robyn doesn't get much time to do this when while at a club with Portia, Robyn discovers her shot and bleeding to death. To make matters worse, she is found standing over the body with the gun in her hand and runs.

Robyn's old High School friend, part chaos demon Hope Adams, who is in town on a "work exchange" for her paper, vows to clear her friend's name. Along with her lover, werewolf and jewel thief, Karl Marsten they discover that rather than a simple murder Robyn has stumbled into the middle of a paranormal turf war.

The detective assigned to the case is John "Finn" Findley who is a necromancer. He is one of the city's best homicide detectives thanks to the inside information the deceased ghost usually gives him. The dead bodies start piling up, and though he doesn't believe Robyn to be guilty, the evidence against her is becoming more damning.

I enjoyed this compelling installment of the Otherworld series. While unlike the other novels in this series, it uses a third person point of view and a human protagonist; Ms. Armstrong does a nice job in linking these different viewpoints. However, be forewarned, this story is complex and by no means a jumping off point for new readers. The development of Hope and Karl's relationship and the introduction of Robyn and Finn are well done. Plus, having a human POV is a refreshing change that readers can empathize with. Plus, the twist at the end makes it all worth it.

Ms. Armstrong is a singular talent in her field. Call it Urban Fantasy or Paranormal romance, but she does it well. I recommend Living With the Dead to fans of these stories. You'll be swept up in this latest, thrilling ride.

Ms. Armstrong's next book is Men of the Otherworld an anthology of four stories that she wrote for free on the net with one new one. All the proceeds from the sale of the upcoming book goes to World Literary of Canada. So, be sure to pick it up.

Reviewed at Bitten by Books Paranormal Fiction Review Site by SunandHeir

I have pre-ordered the last three books in this series without even reading the synopses, because I already know they will be great fun to read, and I haven't been disappointed yet! I plan on pre-ordering the next one, too. So if you are a reader who wants higher quality plot development and interesting characters in the novels you read, and the heavy-handed eroticism usually found in this genre to take a back seat, so as not to overshadow that actual storyline, Kelley Armstrong is the author for you. This book was as fun and intrenched in the Otherworld she has so adeptly created as the first books. I've become a real fan of all of the main characters in each of these books. I particularly like Hope Adams, the heroine in this book. By skipping around to all of the characters we've been introduced to in this series, Kelley Armstrong has found a way to keep the Otherworld "alive" for readers like me. Kelley, if you see this, please keep the Otherworld stories coming!

Living with the Dead is a story of Hope and Karl, appealing characters from early Armstrong novels. But really it's not. It's really the story of Robyn, a non-supernatural human friend of Hope's who has lost a beloved husband in a terrible incident and who is floundering.

Armstrong has an engaging writing style and I really enjoy most of her books but this one was scattered between too many voices and too many POV. Unfortunately the predominant voice in the book is that of Robyn. And I found Robyn so darn annoying I just wished someone *would* kill her. She epitomizes the "Too Stupid To Live" heroine. She makes dumb choices again and again. At first, she realizes she's being dumb and it's brought up "gee, that was a dumb thing to do." But she never fixes it. Then she goes right on to do yet another stupendously stupid act. Time and time again the people trying to help her (who she *knows* are trying to help her) tell her to stay in a certain place or do a certain thing, and time and time again she goes sallying forth anyway only to (you guessed it) get in trouble. I mean me, If I was Hope and I had a friend like that I'd have to whack her head on a table a few times to get her attention.

I won't say it was totally awful, it wasn't. There were some nice pieces. I would have been able to forgive the chaos if it wasn't for Robyn's idiocy. I didn't throw the book against the wall. But I'm glad I got it at the library and didn't pay for it.