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A review by odomaf
Pooka in My Pantry by R.L. Naquin
2.0
The tone of this second book seemed to be more consistent with the Bad Things that happen in it -- as opposed to the first one that came across all light and fluffy, even though it was full of serial rape and murder.
WHAT I LIKED
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- The leprechaun mafia - I felt they were a really great set of villains
- How bad luck was made deadly - some darkly creative scenarios there
- The pooka - another good "love to hate" character
- The reaper continues to grow on me
- Lucky boogers
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE
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- I'm assuming that you've read the first book. If you haven't, you might want to stop, because this is going to be a spoiler for the first book. Zoey's best friend Sara was repeatedly raped by an incubus over many days during the last book. Because it was all supernatural-related, Sara didn't remember anything about what had happened. Zoey decides NOT TO TELL HER. This really threw me for a loop. The book's explanation is that it's better for her to go on as if nothing happened, so she wouldn't be traumatized -- but no one ever covers whether incubus sex has risk of disease or impregnation, and I kind of believe everyone should get to know if someone else has been INSIDE their body.
- This is a spoiler for this book, but I feel like it's close enough to a trigger to include it. Sara finally learns what's really going on with Zoey, and MAURICE tells Sara what happened with the incubus. We know this because Sara approaches Zoey and says "Maurice tells me I slept with an incubus." Zoey agrees/nods or something. What she DOESN'T do is correct Sara and say "Uh, no, you were raped. It was totally nonconsensual".
I was kind of horrified about how the serial rape was handled in the first book. I picked this book up because I wanted to see how the author handled it as the characters developed. I'm still pretty horrified, though I will confess I did read the third book, too, hoping against hope that this situation would be handled better. I've got a review over on that one, too.
WHAT I LIKED
-------------
- The leprechaun mafia - I felt they were a really great set of villains
- How bad luck was made deadly - some darkly creative scenarios there
- The pooka - another good "love to hate" character
- The reaper continues to grow on me
- Lucky boogers
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE
----------------
- I'm assuming that you've read the first book. If you haven't, you might want to stop, because this is going to be a spoiler for the first book. Zoey's best friend Sara was repeatedly raped by an incubus over many days during the last book. Because it was all supernatural-related, Sara didn't remember anything about what had happened. Zoey decides NOT TO TELL HER. This really threw me for a loop. The book's explanation is that it's better for her to go on as if nothing happened, so she wouldn't be traumatized -- but no one ever covers whether incubus sex has risk of disease or impregnation, and I kind of believe everyone should get to know if someone else has been INSIDE their body.
- This is a spoiler for this book, but I feel like it's close enough to a trigger to include it. Sara finally learns what's really going on with Zoey, and MAURICE tells Sara what happened with the incubus. We know this because Sara approaches Zoey and says "Maurice tells me I slept with an incubus." Zoey agrees/nods or something. What she DOESN'T do is correct Sara and say "Uh, no, you were raped. It was totally nonconsensual".
I was kind of horrified about how the serial rape was handled in the first book. I picked this book up because I wanted to see how the author handled it as the characters developed. I'm still pretty horrified, though I will confess I did read the third book, too, hoping against hope that this situation would be handled better. I've got a review over on that one, too.