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A review by cspoe
Hexbreaker by Jordan L. Hawk
5.0
This book, simply put, is incredible. The 13th Hex was a marvelous introduction to this alternate, turn of the century, New York City, but Hexbreaker is where Jordan L. Hawk forever stakes a claim in the paranormal genre.
The world-building is phenomenal. Hawk is a master at blending fact with unrivaled imagination. Their attention to historical detail: the wintry streets in the Lower East Side, clothing, legitimate businesses of the time and political beliefs of citizens, all the way to the consolidation that created the New York City we know today, each is handled with such care as to paint a vivid landscape of the time, while not bogging down the reader in an unwarranted history lesson. Add to this, the creation of the Metropolitan Witch Police and their combative relationship with the regular police force, as well as the complex structure of animal familiars and where they exist in society, you've got one extremely powerful piece of storytelling.
Tom Halloran is a man with a serious past. A bad past. One full of regret, pain, and horror. And yet, Tom's mantra, passed down by his father, is to take care of those who need it. He's a beat cop who refuses to take bribes, doesn't get confessions via beatings, and in general is known by other coppers as Saint Tom. And I adore Tom. He is such a fascinating character, so believable, so relatable. Tom Halloran is an example of how to construct a three-dimensional lead that readers will fall in love with.
Cicero, a cat familiar, is on a mission to find his close friend Isaac, a familiar who has gone missing upon leaving the MWP. Unfortunately, the only way his chief will let him investigate the disappearance, linked to a gruesome death of another acquaintance who attacked a man like a rabid beast before he was thrown from a window in self-defense, is to team up with the rough, brick wall of an Irishman: Tom Halloran. Because a pawnbroker on Tom's beat brutally attacked and killed his wife in the same, animalistic manner. So there must be a link, right? But with the consolidation approaching at the New Year, no one but a beat cop and an unbonded familiar can be spared.
The relationship between Tom and Cicero is masterful writing. From enemies to friends to soulmates... Each man brings with him a considerable past full of hangups, worries, fears, in combination with intricate societal pressures, such as being a gay man in the late 1800s, being Irish or Italian, an honest cop in a brotherhood Roosevelt was still cleaning up, and a familiar seen as a tool instead of an equal. But despite these roadblocks, their romance is one I return to time and again, because it's just so beautiful.
There is so much in this book. And yet it is never a chore. Never tiresome or tedious. This is the sort of book all authors want to be able to write. The suspenseful plot will grip your heart, make you gasp, and fall in love.
The world-building is phenomenal. Hawk is a master at blending fact with unrivaled imagination. Their attention to historical detail: the wintry streets in the Lower East Side, clothing, legitimate businesses of the time and political beliefs of citizens, all the way to the consolidation that created the New York City we know today, each is handled with such care as to paint a vivid landscape of the time, while not bogging down the reader in an unwarranted history lesson. Add to this, the creation of the Metropolitan Witch Police and their combative relationship with the regular police force, as well as the complex structure of animal familiars and where they exist in society, you've got one extremely powerful piece of storytelling.
Tom Halloran is a man with a serious past. A bad past. One full of regret, pain, and horror. And yet, Tom's mantra, passed down by his father, is to take care of those who need it. He's a beat cop who refuses to take bribes, doesn't get confessions via beatings, and in general is known by other coppers as Saint Tom. And I adore Tom. He is such a fascinating character, so believable, so relatable. Tom Halloran is an example of how to construct a three-dimensional lead that readers will fall in love with.
Cicero, a cat familiar, is on a mission to find his close friend Isaac, a familiar who has gone missing upon leaving the MWP. Unfortunately, the only way his chief will let him investigate the disappearance, linked to a gruesome death of another acquaintance who attacked a man like a rabid beast before he was thrown from a window in self-defense, is to team up with the rough, brick wall of an Irishman: Tom Halloran. Because a pawnbroker on Tom's beat brutally attacked and killed his wife in the same, animalistic manner. So there must be a link, right? But with the consolidation approaching at the New Year, no one but a beat cop and an unbonded familiar can be spared.
The relationship between Tom and Cicero is masterful writing. From enemies to friends to soulmates... Each man brings with him a considerable past full of hangups, worries, fears, in combination with intricate societal pressures, such as being a gay man in the late 1800s, being Irish or Italian, an honest cop in a brotherhood Roosevelt was still cleaning up, and a familiar seen as a tool instead of an equal. But despite these roadblocks, their romance is one I return to time and again, because it's just so beautiful.
There is so much in this book. And yet it is never a chore. Never tiresome or tedious. This is the sort of book all authors want to be able to write. The suspenseful plot will grip your heart, make you gasp, and fall in love.