Customer Reviews

Unholy Ghosts (Downside Ghosts, Book 1)

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I wanted this book for quite some time now. I read Stacia's Megan Chase books last summer and I knew the moment I finished book 2, Demon Inside, I wanted the Downside books. Stacia's writing is so captivating I knew she could make me read anything, or nearly anything.

Unholy Ghosts is a really dark urban fantasy and I was a bit unsettled at the start. I like UF most of the times but I don't like these overly dark and brooding books because I always feel down after finishing them. It was totally different in this case. Yes, Unholy Ghosts is a dark book but it worked around my prejudices and sneaked into my heart.

In 1997 the whole world changed. Earth was overrun with ghosts and nearly didn't survive this attack. They were saved by the Church of Truth but they are paying for that now. The old religions died and the new and only one is a religion without believe, there is only Fact and Truth. It is a hopeless world because there is no place left for hope without something to believe in. Their new religion is based on the Truth and they practice it every day with magical rites like banishing and warding spells. Most of the magic is only allowed for church employees and one of those is our heroine Chess Putnam.

Chess is a broken woman with many flaws, one of them being a drug addict of the worst kind. I would have never thought that I could feel much for this type of heroine but again Ms. Kane proved me wrong. Chess had a rough life- she can't remember her parents and was brought up by the social system of her time. You can imagine that this was not a lovely experience. She lived though hell more times than anyone on earth should and she is still here. She is strong in her own way even if she is weak concerning the drugs.

Chess lives in the Downside, a district of Triumph city and probably the worst part, too. It's full of pimps,drug dealers and aggressive gangs. I was highly confused with the way these people spoke at first but after reading a few pages I got a hold of the slang and finally understood what they meant. That could be a problem with me being a German and English only being a secondary language for me. I never heard English slang in real life but nevertheless I got it, probably a bit later than most of the other readers though. It's one of these things that makes this book special to me: the voices of the characters and the way they speak are so individual you know immediately who speaks.

One other character I just have to mention is Terrible. He's the hired muscle of one of the drug lords and he is one kind of character I would have never thought I could like. At first he seems to be not much more than a bulk of muscle-mass who knows how to crush your bones but nothing more. But over time you a get a glimpse into his mind and life and I was captivated. I admit: I'm a total Terrible fan girl now and I really want to see more of him in the next books.

I loved how throughout Ms. Kane build her world. At the start of each chapter we get a few lines out of the "common" literature of that time, be at an expert of a religious book or out of a life guide. These snippets made the world so much more real for me and I savored each one of them.

The pace of the book was wonderful and the story gripped me ASAP and didn't let me go till the last word. I loved how Ms. Kane shows us that looks are deceiving and we should never judge a person just with taking one glance at him or her. A highly recommended read not only for Urban Fantasy lovers, but for anyone who likes a good story.

Review courtesy of [...]

I had serious reservations about UNHOLY GHOSTS after I learned that the main character was a junkie. I feared she would be such a pathetic do-absolutely-anything-for-my-next-high kind of character that she would be completely unlikeable. I was wrong on both accounts.

Had the man in front of her not already been dead, Chess probably would have tried to kill him. Damned ghosts. A year and a half she'd gone without having to deal with one--the best Debunking record in the Church. -Opening from UNHOLY GHOSTS

Yes, ghost hunter/witch Chess Putnam has a serious drug problem that only escalates throughout UNHOLY GHOSTS, but pathetic is the last thing I'd call her. Jaded, broken, determined, and relentless, but never pathetic. And if I had to live in the desolate slum of Downside, ruled over by a totalitarian non-religious Church government full of beings who can literally rip the soul from your body, I'd probably escape to drugs too.

And I have to say the romance elements caught me (and Chess) totally by surprise. I didn't expect anything sweet in a world like this and yet that's exactly how I'd describe it...in a violent, junkie kind of way. I mean how does a drug lord's thug named Terrible endear himself so much that I was rooting for him by the end of the book? I don't know but there it is. I'm definitely eager to see what happens between them in Unholy Magic.

Any series that is described as "a cross between Ghostbusters and Escape From New York" is going to get my attention, big time. Of course that also means said series is going to have a lot to live up to. And in one of the wonderfully rare cases, UNHOLY GHOSTS does exactly that. It's cool and twisted, just the way I like my urban fantasy. The second Chess Putnam book, Unholy Magic comes out on July 6, 2010, and then City of Ghosts just three weeks later on July 27th.

Sexual Content: References to sex. References to rape. References to molestation. A scene of sensuality. A semi graphic sex scene.

Imagine a world without gods. There is no god. There is only the Fact and the Truth of the Church of the Real Truth - an organization that has ruled the world absolutely since they were able to stop the murderous ghosts from killing all of humanity. Chess Putnam is a Debunker for the Church; she travels around disproving citizens made-up claims of hauntings, or banishing the ghosts if they're real.

Chess has a secret though - a big drug problem which has gotten her in deep with her dealer, Bump. And now he's calling in his debt. All she has to do is banish some nasty ghosts from an abandoned airstrip for him and they'll be settled straight up. Simple.

Or maybe not. Because what Chess thinks will be a simple debunking soon becomes mired in black magic, human sacrifice, corruption within the Church, attraction to Bump's top enforcer, and a sexy rival drug lord vying for Chess' loyalty and time. Will Chess be able to banish the demonic ghost, protect the Church that she loves, keep her balance between two sexy men and not reveal her addiction?

I guess I'm going to just get the drug thing out of the way. I didn't like it. I see drug use, the way it was portrayed in Unholy Ghosts, as a weakness. While I like characters that are not perfect, making them more like the rest of us I like to see something along with it, additional depth. Chess can't function without her drugs. In the beginning chapter she starts getting the shakes until she can swallow her `Cepts' and get that sweet relief flowing through her system. This continues throughout the book, and not just with that single drug but many different drugs.

And just what are Cepts? At one time in the book they're referred back to as speed, but at other times it seems like they're something different. Perhaps I misunderstood in my reading, but often she referred to letting up off the speed and yet the drug I saw her take most was the Cepts. Not a huge point, but it's been bugging me with the confusion.

Not only can Chess not function without the drugs, everything she does is to gain more drugs. She agrees to Bump's deal so that she can continue to get drugs. She agrees, by lack of response and a sort of physical arrangement, to help a rival drug lord in order to get free drugs. She continues to work for the Church, hoping to get a case she can debunk and thus get a bonus so she can spend a few days in the smoke room. Okay, truth be told, Chess truly believes in the Church. She follows them (mostly) and believes in them....almost blindly.

Honestly, the drug use wasn't what bugged me most. I didn't like it, but I do look forward to seeing growth - even if I haven't seen any in that particular area at this point in time.

I felt no sense of empathy, or compassion on Chess' part. No real sense of right and wrong. She loves the Church, which she feels saved her. She's loyal to it. And yet she disregards the very base of one of their tenets - which is that she is to represent all that is right and holy in the world. Clearly the drugs she has to hide from the Church would go head-on against that. To me that's a conflict that's never really examined or thought about. She goes so far as to asking another character to clean her apartment of them if she should die, before the Church gets there. Moral ambiguity can be interesting, but I don't feel that this was fleshed out enough. Granted it is the first book in the series of three planned (at this time) so perhaps it will be better explored later.

I did see a very little bit of growth as a character comes to mean something to Chess, she cares about him and his safety, but it seems almost an after thought. And it doesn't stop her from doing what she wants to do - which is to run off to get high. I see most of her relationships by the end of the book to be mostly measured in this light - what they can do for her.

My biggest problem with Chess is the lack of growth and depth added to the lack of explanation for why she is the way she is and does what she does. If I could have had some understanding of why she chooses drugs, or why she chooses to have no close connections with other people, then maybe I could have empathized myself with her. But she gave me nothing to work with. Chess came across as an unrepentant drug addict that had no real care for anything other than what she needed and wanted. Whatever that happened to be at the moment.

Onto the good stuff.

I didn't hate Chess - despite what you may think from the above. I think there's a great deal going on underneath that we didn't see in Unholy Ghosts, and that is what I'd truly love to read more about. Or maybe I just hope there is. Seeing her gain personal relationships and begin to think beyond what she had is definitely a change for her. I'm interested in seeing how those things affect her going forward and what reactions they cause.

The world that Stacia Kane has built is fascinating, fully fleshed out, and intriguing. I like how she built the Church of the Real Truth, and it's `rules' for living life. I actually hate the Church quite a lot, because I'd never want to live in such a society. Their way is The Way. There is only Truth. Right and wrong are based on the facts of truth and determined by the Church. They bid people to watch their family, friends and neighbors for signs of them committing crimes which they can then be punished for by the Church. For only through debasement can redemption and forgiveness come. Blegh. What a society. And yet they apparently care nothing for those less fortunate that live in areas like Downside.

The magic and the ghosts, their history and use, was interesting and well thought out. I liked how many different aspects of the world we experienced in the short time we were with Chess. Possession. Blood, earth, spirit and dream magic. Objects that require sacrifice to use. Others that will bring about wanted results - from protective to very dangerous. I especially loved the Hand of Glory - because it's one of my favorite occult objects in stories.

I admit, the character I enjoyed the most was Terrible - Bump's top enforcer. He had a depth to him that I didn't see in a lot of the other characters. He had interests outside of his job, educated himself on things that intrigued him, even without the benefit of a public education, and he surprised me more than once - not something easy to do I have to say. I found him to have an unselfish sort of sweetness and protectiveness which only served to add to his appeal. There also seemed to be a bit of insecurity there that I'd love to see further explored. All in all, I'd definitely love to see more of Terrible.

Ms. Kane touches on a lot of hot button topics and doesn't pull her punches in Unholy Ghosts. She pushes boundaries, and shows a different side of the world than we usually see - even in our urban fantasy. Obviously the book made me think and brought out some strong responses in me. The pacing was superb, the plot interesting and it was a good introduction to the world without having information just dumped on me. I especially loved the little quotes at the beginning of each chapter. The mystery didn't really intrigue me as much as the details and intricacy of the world, the spirit world and the tools used for magic.

Unholy Ghosts was a rollercoaster of a ride that I read in a three hour flight. It was vivid and set in a beautifully dark world. I'm very glad I read it and experienced it for myself and I will probably be picking up at least the next novel in the series, Unholy Magic (with City of Ghosts to follow that). I'd love to see Chess pull herself out of the life she's created for herself and become something more. I want to see the growth. I would like to see what happens to the Church, and to Chess and definitely to Terrible.

"Unholy Ghosts' by Stacia Kane has been on my wish list for sometime so I was very eager to dig in when I received this book. I love a good, gritty, Urban Fantasy book more than most. Kane has certainly provided this in "Unholy Ghosts". I was amazed by her ability to create a unique and dangerous new world for her characters. It was a gutsy move creating a world where God's existence has proved to be a farce and the only truth the Church recognizes is that there are ghosts surrounding us and only the Church has the power to keep them at bay. This works rather well and I was completely invested into this novel. I loved the mysteries, the runes, the ghost busting, etc. The intense scenes couldn't have been better written. But...I had a couple of things that just bothered me. The first wasn't so big a deal but I hated the way some of the character's spoke in some completely weird dialect, skipping worlds, and mispronouncing others...it was just weird for me. I have read reviews where readers just hate the slang in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, and it has always amazed me that people were bothered by something that didn't faze me in the least. Well I understand now, because it drove me up the wall. Some of the characters spoke this way and some didn't. I couldn't truly figure out what this was supposed to signify. Was it just the rough characters? Whatever the answer, I didn't care for it. Then my second, and actually larger, thing that bothers me....which is Chess's drug addiction. I hated this! I hate how she would pop pills right in the midst of an important showdown, any time she had to deal with something she had to be high. And she never once thought about trying to get clean. She actually thought aloud about how she wouldn't ever give up her pills. It just painted an unsympathetic picture in my mind. I enjoyed the story so much, that I actually found myself really liking her for a few pages and she would all of a sudden stop the action and pop some more pills. I liked this story and that's the worst part. Because if the drug addiction would have been handled better, or even not at all, I would have LOVED this story.

I avoided this series for a while, despite all the raving reviews, because the protagonist is a drug addict. I knew, also from the raving reviews, that Stacia Kane doesn't half-ass this plot choice: Chess' drug addiction is one of her defining features as a character and it is a crucial element in many, many plot points. I figured (and I was right) that a good author who does a good job with a drug addiction plotline will write really dark books. Maybe too dark for my tastes.

I finally decided to give the book a try & I have to admit that for the first half of UNHOLY GHOSTS I wasn't sure whether or not I was enjoying myself. Because, yes, excellent, believable characters, excellent worldbuilding, excellent atmosphere, exciting plotting...but I was drowning in Chess' fear and anxiety, wincing every time she popped a pill. A couple of times I had to put my kindle down and sort of walk around in a circle to shake off the dread I'd feel while reading, and then I'd snatch the book back up and keep going because I *needed* to know what happened next.

I read all three currently available books in the series (Unholy Ghosts (Downside Ghosts, Book 1), Unholy Magic (Downside Ghosts, Book 2), and City of Ghosts (Downside Ghosts, Book 3)) back to back, and I'm just going to post one review for all three. I'm sticking it here, with the first in the series, in case there's anyone else like me out there who's been a little bit wary about picking up this series. Let me tell you: it is worth it. So very, very worth it. Like I said, for the first half of the first book I was ambivalent; and then, somewhere around there, I stopped looking back. I fell in love.

Yes, Chess is an addict, and I sincerely hope that she kicks her habit at some point - it doesn't get any easier to read about her pill popping as the series goes on. The opposite, if anything. But she is one awesome heroine, smart, brave, humble, fragile, prickly and flawed but deep down she's got a heart of gold. And somehow or other Terrible has become my new favorite urban fantasy love interest. He's a drug dealer's enforcer, unabashedly violent, built like a mack truck, with a heart as soft as oatmeal. Doesn't sound realistic? Well then double the kudos to Stacia Kane, who makes him so very real.

Everything about this series is just fantastic. Every book is jam-packed with heart-in-the-throat moments, action, suspense, creepy atmosphere, romance. I read a LOT of urban fantasy and there are only a handful of other series that have grabbed me like this one - Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels series, Karen Marie Moning's FEVER series. I can't wait for the next book to come out.

Dark. Gritty. Raw. Intense. All these words and more describe Unholy Ghosts. Imagine a world where all gods have been debunked and religion is virtually outlawed, and all you have in this life is just the knowledge of where you go when you die. The unknown of dying is gone, leaving not much to look forward to. This is the reality for all those in this bleak future world created by Stacia Kane making the unsavory life of drugs is a common place for most in this reality, especially Chess.

This is a very dark story with no-holds barred, it gets deep down gritty, and takes you deep into world of drugs and magic. It's written in such a way that you understand why Chess has chosen to use drugs as her avenue of escape from the realities of her life. I found myself understanding and sympathizing with her, even though I've never had an addiction like hers. I had some trepidation about reading this book at first because I wasn't sure how I would enjoy a book that involved drug use but I'm so glad I took a chance and looked beyond the drug use in the story.

Unholy Ghosts is the BEST novel I have read this year and with pun intended, I'm jonesing for the next book in series now because the written and characters are addictive. I even enjoyed the dialect of the lower class citizens on the streets. There's also a very persuasive love triangle, that left me feeling unsure of who I wanted Chess to be with. If you get the chance, I recommend you read this book but prepared for a dark and compelling read ahead of you.

The four stars are strictly for the book. I would give the narrator in this case-- my first experience with Bahni Turpin-- 3.5 stars. The narration started a bit flat and didn't gather more than competency until some of the Downside characters were introduced. Turpin did a good job with the Downside patois, which could have been a killer with an incompetent narrator.

I also apologize for this being a bit disjointed.

Onto the text:

This book is urban fantasy and not romance. Anyone expecting it to be shoved into the genre romance paradigm will probably be disappointed. The world building is interesting. Ms Kane did a very good job in delivering a world that might be described as an Atheocracy. There must be a civil authority unrelated to the Church of Truth, but it doesn't enter into this book. The underworld, called the Downside, essentially governs itself with characters owing allegiance to one drug lord or another. Religion is not the opiate of the masses, opium is the opiate of the masses.

As for Chess, she is a well realized character. She's not a saint by any means, but she is also not impossible to empathize with as she tries to cope with the hand she has been dealt.

The next two books (Unholy Magic (Downside Ghosts, Book 2) and City of Ghosts (Downside Ghosts, Book 3)) are already out and I've bought them, but I don't intend to give them a listen right away. This book stands on its own and if I read too many books in a series in a row I tend to start noting (and being annoyed by) repeated tropes.

Finally, if this turns into an endless emotional triangle series I'm gone like a shot. I wasn't really concerned until I visited Ms Kane's web site during the course of writing this review and saw people were advocating t-shirts to show which male character they were campaigning. While merchandizing can be another revenue stream for an author, I don't want to feel like fan response is driving the author rather than the needs of the narrative. Janet Evanovich, I'm looking at you.

ETA: I guessed the lesser villain at first appearance so I believe there may be some truth in drugs blunting your mental acuity.

Wow, this was a great book! And unexpectedly so..

Suppose that sometime in the 1990s, the dead came back and the ghosts killed three-fourths of the worlds population. The government could do nothing, the military could do nothing, and the ghosts had no respect for the holy places or rites of any religion. *Almost* any religion. A small, fringe cult called "The Church of the Truth" had been predicting such a thing for years, and had worked at codifying the rules of magic. When the time came, the Church was ready, and after a hellish week ("Haunted Week") they were able to banish the ghosts to the "City of Eternity".

Flash forward 20 years, and the Church of the Truth has replaced the discredited governments and religions, serving as both. They stay in power through their demonstrated ability to control the ghosts, and the threat that anyone trying to overthrow the Church risks releasing the ghosts again.

Chess Putnam is a Church witch and "debunker". Since the Church accepts responsibility for controlling ghosts, it pays a penalty for any which escape (or were never caught in the first wave) and which take to haunting. Since the penalty is fairly substantial, many people try to fake hauntings to collect from the Church. Chess's job is to "debunk" such fake hauntings, or, for the few that prove real, to banish the ghost involved.

Chess, an orphan like very many after Haunted Week, is the product of a hellish upbringing in a series of foster homes where the best she suffered was neglect and the worst was sexual abuse from multiple foster parents of both genders. Passing the tests for Church training could have been her ticket out, but she has many issues, self-esteem and other that have led her to the life of a functioning drug addict.

The plot is kicked into motion, when the drug lord, Bump, to whom Chess owes a good bit of money, plans to add to his supply sources by landing planes at an old disused municipal airport. Unfortunately, it seems to be haunted, and he will clear Chess's debt if she either debunks the haunting or banishes the ghosts.

This book was a total surprise to me. My previous experience with Stacia Kane was with her _Personal Demons_ series of books. I considered the first lackluster and romance-y and the second I could not recall a day after finishing it. In point of fact, I was not planning to read a Kane book again, and it was pretty much chance that I read this one. I was in a book-buying mood and already had half a dozen in my arms. The endorsements looked promising, and I read the back cover before really noticing who it was by. Even after buying it, it was not near the top of my stack, but I needed a pocket sized book to carry with me, and it was sitting on top of several trade-paperback sized ones.

This book is so much better than _Personal Demons_ and follow-up that it's hard to believe the same author wrote it. It has the same third person point of view, unusual in Urban Fantasy as those do, but the similarities end there. While I never warmed to the Megan Chase character in the PD books, and never really bought that she (or Kane) knew anything about therapy, Chess is an absolutely fantastic character. Drug-addled but determined, she runs the race through her unbelievably screwed-up personal life and to the end-goal of banishing a very dangerous ghost and maybe stopping a revolution fueled only by sheer force of will (and plenty of "speed").

In a book of this sort you expect that at some point, the heroine will shake herself up, get clean, and *then* solve her larger problems, but Chess *enjoys* her addictions so much that that never even occurs to her. (She even stops in terrifying escape through underground tunnels to pick up a bag of drugs from an old corpse, enthused when she finds drugs now banned even from medical use). In fact, it seems that everybody she deals with outside the Church is an addict of one sort or another, including an old WWII vet who apparently stayed so high all the time that he forgot to die. During her episodes of paranoia or babbling, you want to grab her and shake some sense into her, but somehow she stays endearing all the same.

The main secondary character, "Terrible", the drug lord's enforcer is a real find too, a man who is more than what he seems, and perhaps sees more in Chess than she thinks is there.

I was left wanting much more when I finished this book, as Kane has left a lot of the world to be explored, as well as any resolution to the tangled web of Chess's life.

For one thing, since Chess lives outside the Church housing by choice, what we see of the world is skewed by her lowlife environment, so it's hard to say exactly what the world situation is. We know that there are still optometrists and they still go to conventions, but it would seem that a large part of society lives outside the norms of 21st century civilization. How large a part remains to be seen.

For another, there is the Church. As portrayed in this first book, it's an ambiguous institution. We know its members and hierarchy are human with various petty weaknesses as well as strengths, but as a whole it's enigmatic. Generally in a story like this, (and especially since it does seem to be trying to control access to history to some extent) you would expect it to be corrupt to the core, but if there is any indication of this we have yet to see it.

For a third, there is the Ghosts and the City of Eternity. Why did ghosts suddenly turn lethal after millenia? What do they want? What do they tell to Church liasers?

All reviews are subjective, and to me a Five-Star rating is how much I *enjoyed* the book -- It doesn't imply perfection (or there could only be one Five Star book ever in that case..). There are a few minor flaws in _Unholy Ghosts_ that I'll just note in passing.

It's a little unconvincing that people would abandon their old religions just because they couldn't protect them from the ghosts. In particular, it's hard to imagine Jews giving up Judaism just because it didn't stop Bad Things from happening to them. It may be that some of what we are told is "Church of the Truth" spin, but otherwise it doesn't totally convince.

While the street patois used by Chess's demi-monde friends and enemies is well done, and interesting, it's hard to explain where it came from given the relatively short period of time from our society to theirs.

Finally, it's hard to believe how many drugs Chess does without wrecking her body in fundamental ways. I don't know any drug addicts, but I have a hard time believing *anyone* could keep it together as well as she does (which, granted, is not always *that* well), and still have all her teeth, work a sometimes demanding job and still be considered attractive. It's just something you have to buy into to make the book work, and for me it was well worth it.

Did you enjoy Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey or Spellbent by Lucy A. Snyder? Then UNHOLY GHOSTS might be your thing. It's a mixture between a near future dystopia and a dark urban fantasy and the main character is an anti-heroine.

Chess banishes ghosts for the Church. If they knew about her little hobby ... well, Chess doesn't want to think about it. Drugs are a widespread problem, but not one tolerated in a church official. Neither does she want to think about what would happen if she didn't follow the orders of her drug dealer. He wants her to banish the ghosts on the closed airport to expand his smuggling operation. Others have an interest in the airport as well and soon Chess is threatened from all sides.

UNHOLY GHOSTS is well written, but I had a problem with the heroine. In order to enjoy a novel I don't have to like the main character, but I want to empathize with her or feel otherwise attracted. Chess fails in that respect. She's an egoist, an user, an unrepentant drug addict, who pops pain killers like they were candy. She doesn't say no to weed or speed either. While Chess would love to spend her life in a drug induced haze, she is functional and she doesn't even think about turning her life around. The only moment I empathized with her was, when she fell in love against her will. A beautiful, well educated heroine and an uneducated, ugly love interest are a rare commodity and I enjoyed reading about their budding relationship. Chess slowly discovers that there's more to the ugly thug and learns to trust him, even though she fights it and hurts him in the process.
I might not have liked the heroine, but she's well written and her actions are believable. After all she's the result of her environment. The world has never fully recovered from the apocalypse caused by ghosts. A secret society was able to banish them and took over the world in the process, but the ghosts threaten to break trough the barrier time and time again. This causes an atmosphere of fear and hopelessness. Poverty, unemployment and drug abuse are a huge problem.
The plot has some surprising twists - I'd have never guessed the antagonist. Since I didn't like the heroine, I wasn't as invested in her fate as I could have been, though.

Stacia Kane knows how to write a great story and I can't give it less than four stars. It's my bad luck I didn't like the heroine. The subsequent novels (Unholy Magic, City of Ghosts) will be published one moth apart.

'Unholy Ghosts' was easily the best and most surprising novel I've read in years. I'm not gushing because I'm some airhead groupie. If not for one of the marvelous reviews linked to the book I would never have given it a try. I thought it might be a mishmash of drugs, depression and a 'Downside' I didn't want to read. After reading the review, I bought it with no real expectations other than I might like the characters. 'Unholy Ghosts' with Chess and Terrible smashing their way through 'Downside' rocked me and I don't rock easily. Those two characters easily surpass any pair I've run across in decades. The mix of supernatural ingredients and human spirit quelling a dark world without hope is simply spellbinding.