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vikingwolf's review against another edition
This was a book that I really loved the sound of and really wanted to like but there were just too many issues with it for me to enjoy it. For me it started off in a confused manner, unable to decide whether it was an urban fantasy novel with a CSI twist or a crime novel with a hint of paranormal. I bought it as urban fantasy but felt it ended up as a crime novel which I do not enjoy.
Next we have to talk about the techical jargon. Yes I get that the author is very clever and intelligent, and knows all these forensic and scientific words, but that does not mean that you must use every one of them in a single novel! Where the author is trying to show that they know their stuff, it just comes across as 'hey I'm smarter than you so I'll show that off to make you feel small and dumb'. Don't get me wrong, I doubt that was the author intention but it felt like that to me every time I had to stop and sigh over another incomprehensible sentence. There are only so many times I will reach for a dictionary before I get bored with it. When I read I want to be entertained, not spend all my time looking up words. There was a complete overdose of jargon in this book and it really put me off. I know a few people who are not into science who had the same reaction. It's impossible to get into a story if it keeps getting hijacked by confusing jargon.
Another down side of all the techical stuff is that it led to my old nemesis, the info dump. The whole first part of the book is totally bogged down in world building info dumps and descriptions. It just got too much when mixed with all the science stuff I had already struggled to digest. The developing plot was lost in this frenzy of information and there was no build up of tension or real excitement. If you stripped the sciene and info dumps away, perhaps a good story would have been uncovered but it was just impossible to tell!
Even the characters were ruined by these two flaws. Every character seemed to be spouting jargon at every opportunity like an uber intelligent Blue Peter presenter, describing everything they were doing in minute detail for children to copy at home. Only this was a lot more complex than scissors and stickyback plastic!
And can someone please come up with a new original name for their supernatural character instead of Lucian??? I've lost count of how many urban fantasy novels have Lucian or something very similar. It is annoying and frustrating you can't get authors being creative enough to use different names! There are plenty million to choose from after all.
Overall, pretty disappointed and won't be reading the rest of the series.
Next we have to talk about the techical jargon. Yes I get that the author is very clever and intelligent, and knows all these forensic and scientific words, but that does not mean that you must use every one of them in a single novel! Where the author is trying to show that they know their stuff, it just comes across as 'hey I'm smarter than you so I'll show that off to make you feel small and dumb'. Don't get me wrong, I doubt that was the author intention but it felt like that to me every time I had to stop and sigh over another incomprehensible sentence. There are only so many times I will reach for a dictionary before I get bored with it. When I read I want to be entertained, not spend all my time looking up words. There was a complete overdose of jargon in this book and it really put me off. I know a few people who are not into science who had the same reaction. It's impossible to get into a story if it keeps getting hijacked by confusing jargon.
Another down side of all the techical stuff is that it led to my old nemesis, the info dump. The whole first part of the book is totally bogged down in world building info dumps and descriptions. It just got too much when mixed with all the science stuff I had already struggled to digest. The developing plot was lost in this frenzy of information and there was no build up of tension or real excitement. If you stripped the sciene and info dumps away, perhaps a good story would have been uncovered but it was just impossible to tell!
Even the characters were ruined by these two flaws. Every character seemed to be spouting jargon at every opportunity like an uber intelligent Blue Peter presenter, describing everything they were doing in minute detail for children to copy at home. Only this was a lot more complex than scissors and stickyback plastic!
And can someone please come up with a new original name for their supernatural character instead of Lucian??? I've lost count of how many urban fantasy novels have Lucian or something very similar. It is annoying and frustrating you can't get authors being creative enough to use different names! There are plenty million to choose from after all.
Overall, pretty disappointed and won't be reading the rest of the series.
eastofthesunwestofthemoon's review against another edition
3.0
This book is a solid entry in the urban fantasy genre. I like the main characters overall, and the story was decent, but I really didn't like some of the later parts of the story - not going into it in detail because of spoilers - this is a note to remind myself not to expect as much on rereading a story.
git_r_read's review against another edition
5.0
This book moved fast! Grabbed on and didn't let go. I liked Tess, the main character. She is definitely dealing with a lot on her plate. She is investigating a murder and trying to do a good job of it as there is a child involved. Tess wants to protect her, but gets removed from the case just as she's making headway. She knows she's been a bit of a screw-up, but she wants to do better.
I really didn't like her main boss. Demeaning Tess at every turn. I'd be hard-pressed to work for him. Her immediate supervisor and the folks Tess works with make up for it for the most part. She's obviously proven herself to them.
There's still quite a lot to learn about Tess and the people in her life. I look forward to finding more about them all.
Definite recommend.
I really didn't like her main boss. Demeaning Tess at every turn. I'd be hard-pressed to work for him. Her immediate supervisor and the folks Tess works with make up for it for the most part. She's obviously proven herself to them.
There's still quite a lot to learn about Tess and the people in her life. I look forward to finding more about them all.
Definite recommend.
veronica87's review against another edition
3.0
Overall not bad for a first book. It's like CSI:Vancouver but with a supernatural twist. It had some nice touches of humor especially between Tess, our heroine, and Derrick, her BFF. I also found Lucian interesting and would like to know more about him. There are no love triangles in sight either so that's always a plus.
andreatufekcic's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
3.0
I went into this wanting to like it, but it had some flaws I couldn’t overlook. The biggest issue was with the pacing, and the speed at which it revealed information. It was a combination of dumping too much exposition on you about the magic system (still not sufficient explained to my eye) and not revealing enough about major character beats. It wasn’t as distinctive as I wanted it to be, not as magical, not as queer, entirely too Canadian. Readable, would probably be great if you needed a trade paperback to read while on a plane, but just kinda meh. A book that lacked salt.
meliaraastair's review against another edition
4.0
Tess, an Occult Special Investigator, Level 1 is at a very clean scene with a dead vampire. Barely any clues to follow. On top of that, she's got to keep her nose down and go by the book on this one - she's way too old to still be a Level 1, so it's either a promotion or getting let go - and her boss seems to have it out for her. It doesn't help that Meg, the girl tangled up in all of this, reminds Tess too much of her past.
There were definitely some confusing plot points in this, a few times when I was a little unsure of the timeline, and a few character relationships that didn't quite make sense. There's a lot of backstory I still don't understand - and in some ways, felt like I was reading book two of the series where I should have already known certain things that I still don't. I'm hoping they get this cleared up in later books because there are several more in this series. Overall though, it was an enjoyable read. There are some great characters (Tess's best friend is a great character), a great magical world set up here. This book reminded me of a cross between the Harry Dresden novels and CSI, which was an enjoyable cross!
I'll go 8 of 10 overall and 4 of 5 for readability. There was a lot of CSI-esqe terminology, but it didn't seem to bog down the story line for me. I managed to read this in a few hours last night, and I've already started the second one! If you like CSI or crime novels and you are a fan of urban fantasy, I'd suggest you check this book out!
For more reviews, check out bedroopedbookworms.wordpress.com!
There were definitely some confusing plot points in this, a few times when I was a little unsure of the timeline, and a few character relationships that didn't quite make sense. There's a lot of backstory I still don't understand - and in some ways, felt like I was reading book two of the series where I should have already known certain things that I still don't. I'm hoping they get this cleared up in later books because there are several more in this series. Overall though, it was an enjoyable read. There are some great characters (Tess's best friend is a great character), a great magical world set up here. This book reminded me of a cross between the Harry Dresden novels and CSI, which was an enjoyable cross!
I'll go 8 of 10 overall and 4 of 5 for readability. There was a lot of CSI-esqe terminology, but it didn't seem to bog down the story line for me. I managed to read this in a few hours last night, and I've already started the second one! If you like CSI or crime novels and you are a fan of urban fantasy, I'd suggest you check this book out!
For more reviews, check out bedroopedbookworms.wordpress.com!
hippolyta's review against another edition
2.0
I was impressed by the details of forensic investigation mixed with mystical forensic investigation, but the story and the characters never gripped me at all. Easily forgettable, regrettably.
veronica87's review
3.0
Overall not bad for a first book. It's like CSI:Vancouver but with a supernatural twist. It had some nice touches of humor especially between Tess, our heroine, and Derrick, her BFF. I also found Lucian interesting and would like to know more about him. There are no love triangles in sight either so that's always a plus.
tanaise's review
4.0
I'm on a Paranormal CSI kick lately--this is the second of 3 in my library stack. I'm going to rate this slightly below the Hannah Jayne one, but still quality. There's a lot of mini-infodumps in the story, which isn't a bad thing--they're all about forensics, largely, so it's interesting and relevant, even while being a bit of an aside, but they're not all in the right places. A comment about looking at someone through an SEM is more useful *after* it's mentioned that SEM is scanning electron microscope, as is explained on the next page. Still, it was decent overall.