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145 of 152 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's Pay Day in a Big Way for Our Girl of the Hollows!, February 26, 2008
Over the course of five Hollows novels, Harrison has teased and alluded to readers about Rachel Morgan's true heritage. Is she really a witch? What did Trent's father exactly do to her DNA? Why does Ceri never let on about what she knows regarding Rachel's unusual talent in kindling demon magic? How is it related to Trent's research for the elf race? Why do demons gravitate towards her as if they have an ulterior motive? Why? Because they do!
Finally, Harrison lets the cat out of the bag in a big way...but she doesn't give it to us all in one big enchilada. The entire meat of the book is a lead in to what we have been waiting for but we stop a few times, glean more along the way.
Two main aspects to this latest tale that stand out significantly are: 1)there is more of a presence and focus on family ties both from Rachel's true family and her urban Hollows one i.e., Rachel's mom has a very dark secret related to Rachel's father, Keasley is revealed, Quen is in dire trouble, Rynn Cormel, the charismatic new Cincy vampire master makes an appearance, Ivy and Rachel come to an agreement of sorts with their blood balance, David the Were appears more nurturing, the addition of Marshal (the witch from Mackinaw Island) provides a potential new love interest, and Ceri...well she's got a bun in the oven from an unlikely source and 2) Rachel's true heritage.
It even gets more complicated and spicier as the search for Kisten's killer ensues, Trent asks Rachel to go on a mission to the Ever-After so that she can retrieve a piece of ancient Elven DNA-that might be able to repair the damage that the demons wrought in the last war. Couple this with Al on a nightly release when some mysterious person keeps summoning him from his jail in the Ever-After-even Minias is hard pressed to catch him. All in all, it's not just a bad day for Rachel but a bad week-Halloween week no less.
Readers get the big payoff and a glimpse into one possible direction that Harrison might be taking the series-one that is freaking irresistible! I felt like giggling and skipping around in a circle chanting a mantra: "We're going to the Ever After- We're going to the Ever After" like it's a really neat school field trip. Well hell...it is! My permission slip is signed and I'm ready to go!
After staying up nearly all night to finish reading (got the book early), and a triple espresso in the shower to wake me up, it was well worth every minute. Worth savoring and re-reading!
Kudos Harrison, did it again!-Laughter in One Word: `mouse burger", and the dialogue between Jenks and Bis was so freaking funny I laffed so hard and loud, that I probably woke my neighbors! (c)Nicola Mattos
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39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
She'll Do Anything To Save The Ones She Loves, February 28, 2008
There's no doubt about it. Harrison has done it again and raised the stakes ever higher with her latest and greatest Hallows book. It's hard to believe this is only book six; it feels like Rachel's character has been with us forever and she only gets more "real" as the series continues. As surely as Rachel twists curses to get herself out of yet another sore spot, Harrison is twisting readers into an absolute fit of excitement with her wicked way with words.
The Outlaw Demon Wails wastes no time and swings into the demon action with the very first chapter. With a trio of sneezes from Rachel, Al's back in crushed green velvet and as ready to wreak havoc as ever. It's October and as the Hallows and Cincinatti residents prepare for the week-long Halloween festivities, Rachel is once again fending off Al's rigorously murderous attentions. Someone is letting him lose from his ever-after jail cell and Rachel has to find out who has it in for her enough to do so. The list of possibilities is long, to say the least. And suddenly, not only is Rachel in danger, but everyone she loves and cares about are too. With guilt and heartache weighing heavily on her with Kisten's demise, not to mention more than one shocking family secret, Rachel is mentally and physically tired. And when a desperate witch just can't take anymore, she'll do anything to save those she loves.
I'd been hearing that at one time this was to be the end of the series, and therefore we'd be seeing a lot of the subplots wrapped up with this installment (even though Harrison's contract has now been extended--which hey, is awesome!). Frankly, I don't agree that that many of them were really wrapped up enough to truly put away. Rather, it read more as if a new chapter had opened in many of them and they'd become even bigger an issue than they were previously. For example, Rachel's lineage has always been of keen interest, what with her surviving a deadly childhood witch illness, one that kills many a witch in infancy. Within this particular subject we have two subplots that intertwine: what Trent's father really did to her in that Make-a-Wish camp and who exactly her father is, a man that had passed on some time ago, a character that we really didn't know much about till this installment. We get oodles `o info on both of these, yet it's such a huge impact that we'll certainly be feeling the effects of them and possibly more info in the books to come. Rachel and Ivy's blood lust marathon...what can I say but that they seem to come to an understanding, finally, of where each stands in this particular relationship. I was especially pleased with Ivy this time, as she finally seems to take a step back and really look at Rachel in regards to the blood lust. I felt she actually listened this time. I do not think it's over, as the new master vamp has made a rather bold claim, but for now, it's come to a much more pleasing, not to mention manageable, point. Ceri's role is as important as ever, and there is a bump of a twist where she and another important character are concerned that ties directly into the main plot of the book. Jenks, as per usual, gets some of the best lines and a very surprising yet wonderful surprise was Rachel's mother. Up till now, her role in this part of Rachel's life has been almost nil, but I have to say that, next to Rachel, she may well have become my second most favorite character. This was a turning point in the series, and that fact is demonstrated in the way Harrison delves back into past installments to bring a lot of info to light and reveal some rather shocking incidents, as well as by incorporating a line that I really didn't think Rachel would ever cross. The following installment will be interesting to say the least, as in a gut wrenching, adrenaline inducing thrill ride, as this one was in spades. There's no need to comment on Harrison's writing/plotting/character development skills other than she has it down solid. As always, I'm feening for the next book and don't know how I'll ever wait another year.
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31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Outlaw demons and witchy wonders, February 27, 2008
Kim Harrison ended her last book with a shocking twist: the death of Kisten, Rachel Morgan's vampire boyfriend.
And the repercussions of that climactic twist are felt all over "The Outlaw Demon Wails," a glorious follow-up that continues twisting (or is it spindling?) the plot all over. Harrison weaves together a half dozen vital storues into an even more tightly-written, shocking novel -- where we get lots and lots of new revelations and answered questions.
Rachel and her mother are shopping for Halloween costumes and talismans when the demon Al appears, destroys the shop, and nearly kills Rachel. Somebody is summoning him out of demon prison, and setting him after Rachel -- and her personal patch of holy ground is getting a big cramped, due to an increasingly bloodlusting Ivy and Jenks' massive family moving in.
And as Rachel struggle to cope with these problems, she learns that Ceri is pregnant -- and to keep her baby and the elf race healthy, they need a sample of ancient elf tissue from the ever-after. Though Rachel initially refuses, she finds that this elf drama is somehow connected to the terrible secrets of her past -- and a journey to the ever-after might help her defeat Al. But it might also open a Pandora's box of secrets about Rachel's own future...
Rachel's parentage. Her father's horrible death. Her memory loss after Kistan's death. Her friendship with Ivy. The true nature of the witches, elves and demons. Not to mention her future love life.
Yes, all these plot threads get dealt with in an utterly satisfactory way. And unlike many of her urban fantasy contemporaries, Kim Harrison weaves them into a solid, thrilling plot with a good balance of characters, action and humour. And she can keep the storyline twisting right up to the end -- literally. She introduces two massive twists toward the end that have enormous repercussions for Rachel.
It must be admitted that the plot sags in the middle of the book, when Al and the elf problem seem to get derailed in favour of Rachel's love life/social life problems. But Harrison picks up the slack quickly, and she hasn't lost her knack for tightly written, wry descriptions ("Hence the general weirdness of elves eating hot dogs in my backyard") and snappy, entertainingly self-deprecating dialogue ("Fried eggs!").
And there's plenty of quirky situations that help lighten the rather dark mood -- such as a very apologetic gargoyle crashing into Rachel's church. Jenks and his equally troublesome family provide loads of comic relief as well -- gotta love them pixies.
And Harrison's feisty heroine goes through some painful growth, learns more about her family and her true nature, and has some old wounds reopened. In a sense, this is Rachel's "grief book" -- she spends a great deal of time thinking about the loss of her father and Kisten, and freaking out when she starts remembering how they died. Fortunately Harrison avoids letting her heroine become "emo" -- note the hilarious scene where she's ashamed to admit that she's perused a vampire sex book.
But as Rachel deals with her grief and love for Kisten, Harrison delicately introduces a potential love interest. She doesn't spin anything more than chemistry yet, but it's a person who could become something to her in future.
Other characters get fleshed out as well -- we get to see underneath Trent's coolly slimy exterior to some of his hidden feelings, Ivy's vampiric nature, and even Al gets some new dimensions. And even among the peripheral characters, Harrison's quirky sense of humour is present -- just consider the vampire-sex-manual-writing ex-Presidential vampire master.
Kim Harrison's "The Outlaw Demon Wails" has a slowdown in the middle, but revs up fast for a twisty-turny, revelation-filled finale. Urban fantasy as it ought to be.
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