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A review by litwrite
My Dead Body by Charlie Huston
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.
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.