Reviews

My Dead Body by Charlie Huston

mdstepp1998's review against another edition

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4.0

Personally, finishing the series at five books seems like the right thing to do. Anymore and it becomes either too ridiculous (even for a story about vampyres, but how could Joe Pitt keep getting shot and cut up and still live) or stale (more story arcs like [b:Half the Blood of Brooklyn|1061262|Half the Blood of Brooklyn (Joe Pitt Casebooks, #3)|Charlie Huston|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255623495s/1061262.jpg|2564066] wouldn't be a good thing, in my opinion).

My Dead Body deviates from the theme of the previous four by being structured almost like a final journal entry of a person before death. Pitt even comes off as ready and waiting for death, which is a stark contrast to his previous headstrong survival for the sake of being with his girl Evie (now a vampyre of the Enclave Clan).

While it may not seem possible, the action scenes are even more brutal and fast paced while the dialogue surrounding the main tangential characters (Predo of the Coalition, Terry of the Society, and Amanda of the Cure Clan) is very witty and suspenseful. All of the great prose of the preceding books is still here, but on steroids at times.

The only weakness of the story is how quickly (even with the additional 50 or so pages Charlie Huston gives to the story compared to the others) Pitt runs through cleaning up all loose ends. Intriguing characters like Percy, Lament, and Chubby Freeze are handled very quickly and without regard for any previous connection the reader may have had with them. In hindsight, though, this could be chalked up to an ode to how Pitt views the people around him, but that may be a stretch.

By the end though, you should take a breathe and realize how many twists, turns, and plot results have taken place on each page. It really is quite a ride and even though many interesting characters seemed to be glossed over, the combined story arc of Predo, Terry, and Amanda is excellent and quite memorable. Compare how much occurred in the equivalent of ~1300 pages of text to how many series seem to drag on and on without consequence (I'm thinking of Robert Jordan here).

A highly recommended series for anyone looking for an intense, no holds bar crime drama with a good shot of vampyre fantasy and politics involved.

newfylady's review against another edition

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4.0

I was so sad to reach the end of this series I couldn't bring myself to take it off my "currently reading" shelf here. Joe Pitt is one of those rare characters that will stay with me long after the books are out away on the shelf

aardvarkm's review against another edition

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5.0

A perfect ending to an awesome series!

rocketiza's review against another edition

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3.0

Well that ended pretty hard.

the_old_gray_cat's review against another edition

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3.0

I was insane for the first two Joe Pitt books, obsessively stalking the sequels, but the last couple were less fabulous. This one seemed to promise to wrap up the Joe Pitt saga, and it killed off an epic number of characters, Game of Thrones style, but did not provide a satisfying end or really an end of any sort.

reasonpassion's review against another edition

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4.0

A perfect ending to a brutal and society-clobbering series. In all the hoopla around vampires and making them ugly or beautiful, snarling or sparkly, all these creations must be remembered as being derived from the human psyche. Huston reminds us of this and throws up the mirror in all its cracked and smudged glory.

creolelitbelle's review against another edition

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4.0

The last book in the series was as riveting as the entire tale of Joe Pitt. I could not put it down for a better part of the second half. the only reason it took me so long to read was due to reading other books while reading this one. If you enjoy vampire books, this series deserves a shot.

donnachadh's review

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5.0

[MP3CD audiobook format in Vinyl case.]

[Read by Scott Brick)

NOBODY LIVES FOREVER. NOT EVEN A VAMPYRE. -- Just ask Joe Pitt.

After exposing the secret source of blood for half of Manhattan's Vampyres, he's definitely a dead man walking. He's been a punching bag and a bullet magnet for every Vampyre Clan in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, not to mention a private eye, an enforcer, an exile, and a vigilante, but now he's just a target with legs.

For a year he's sloshed around the subway tunnels and sewers, tapping the veins of the lost, while above ground a Vampyre civil war threatens to drag the Clans into the sunlight once and for all. What's it gonna take to dig him up? Just the search for a missing girl who's carrying a baby that just might be the destiny of Vampyre-kind. Not that Joe cares all that much about destiny and such. What he cares about is that his ex-girl Evie wants him to take the gig. What's the risk? Another turn playing pigeon in a shooting gallery. What's the reward? Maybe one shot of his own. What's he aiming for? Nothing much. -- Just all the evil at the heart of his world.

**

From Publishers Weekly

In Huston's intense, frenetic and brutal conclusion to the pulp-inspired Joe Pitt Casebooks (after 2008's Every Last Drop), Pitt wants to hide in the sewers from the assorted vampyres he's pissed off, but his old friend, porn producer Chubby, draws him out to try to help a young woman who has been impregnated by a vampyre. Naturally, once he's on the surface, Joe is threatened, beaten and maimed by assorted enemies. Narrating grimly through the pain, he explores the origins of the vampyre-creating Vyrus while playing Manhattan's various supernatural factions against each other. Readers new to the series might find this book tough to penetrate (though Huston does mix some exposition into the story), but longtime fans will jump right in, and the fast pacing, sharp dialogue and pulp action will keep them entertained. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

''One of the most remarkable prose stylists to emerge from the noir tradition in this century.'' --Stephen King

''[Huston] creates a world that is at once supernatural and totally familiar, imaginative, and utterly convincing.'' --Philadelphia Inquirer

''Intense, frenetic . . . longtime fans will jump right in, and the fast pacing, sharp dialogue and pulp action will keep them entertained.'' --Publishers Weekly

matosapa's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

litwrite's review against another edition

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2.0

2 stars. Okay, wow. So much I want to discuss in this review. The final novel in the Joe Pitt series, where finally the over arching plot gets solved and all the various factions come together in the turf war to end all turf wars.

The series continues with its downward spiral into an overly complicated plotline and muddled characters that show no discernible reasons for their actions except 'we need to kill and/or use Joe Pitt'. Honestly I was left wondering why does everyone think this guy is so great? Aren't there any other dudes who they can use? Joe Pitt can't be the only once rogue vampire. He doesn't have any special abilities except it seems to be constantly pummelled on and then hide himself and then ally himself to yet another powerful villain who gives him a second (third, fourth, fifth) chance for some reason.

I still have no idea what really divides any of these major groups. We have the coalition, which want to maintain the status quo. Ok, I get that. I can understand why they would want to do that, it makes sense for vampyres not to want to rock the boat if they have a good thing going.

You have the 'Society', which for some reason *claim* that they want to go public and eventually reveal themselves to humans. But Terry Bird, the leader, seems to not really want to do that because he has so many opportunities to do so and constantly says 'well I want to do it later'.

Then here's the 'Hood', which honestly, don't seem to have any discernible raison d'etre except that hey, guess what - all these dudes be black dudes who are the worst gangsta stereotypes you can imagine.

The Enclave are interesting but fail again in execution. You have these monk type vampires, supposedly so uber powered and skilled that everyone is scared to tangle with them, but they don't do anything but sit around in an empty warehouse. By the end they actually all kill each other rather than actually doing any damage. Why is Evie, Joe's once girlfriend who had aids, somehow the savior of these Enclave types? Why do they listen to her? Why didn't they just kill her if she was making waves and the big boss the Count never trusted her?


Finally you have the 'Cure', lead by Amanda, that sweet girl that Joe rescued in the first novel, who is only in her early twenties, has never gone to med school, and yet somehow is capable of solving a decades old puzzle of what makes the Vampyre virus tick that the coalition had hundreds of people working on this whole time. She's sitting around splicing together genes and making whole new breeds of Vampyre all while sitting in a fortress tower under seige and threat from the Coalition. Huh? What? Who you say? Confused yet?

The noir tone just seems so out of place in this final novel which really is just a straight up action novel more than anything else. In the end, everyone seems to die except for - wait for it - Joe! And his Twu Wuv! How nice and romantic and happy and completely un-noir-like!

So many disappointing things about this final book. So many things that don't even make any sense. Why does everyone suddenly become so stupid? Why is Joe, who now only has one eye, and 7 fingers, able to kill and manipulate everyone? Why do people keep listening to him and believing him after he's double crossed them countless times?

Why choose now, of all times, to reveal that Vampyres exist by getting cops to go to the Vampyre charnelhouse to save the human chattel? Why do Joe and Evie ride off into the sunset and think somehow by leaving New York that they will escape persecution? Haven't they ever heard of the internet? Don't they think that word is going to spread? Do they think that vampyres are only found in New York?

Why did I keep reading to the end of this book?

These are the burning questions people. Questions left unanswered by this severely disappointing book.