I am back with another book review, today it is The Voodoo Killings by Kristi Charish. Thanks to Penguin Random House Canada for sending me an ARC of this book for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.
Well, what do I even say about this book? For starters, it wasn't my favourite. I thought it was fun at the beginning, but I just found that the supernatural elements were too much and I wasn't a fan. That being said, I still finished the book.
I think that there is a specific group of readers who would enjoy this book. If you liked City of Bones by Cassandra Clare and the Mortal Instruments series, you may like this one, although I only read City of Bones and no others in the series so I can't be 100% sure. Or if you liked The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon, I got a lot of similar vibes from this one. Urban fantasy, secret underground world, outlawed job description, kind of crazy but still loveable old man mentor, that sort of thing.
But you see, for me personally, I didn't love either of those books. I don't know, maybe I just like my fantasy a little bit higher. I enjoyed the setting of Seattle, but I think that the urban fantasy aspect just rubbed me the wrong way.
Character wise, I enjoyed them. I felt like the main character Kincaid was a good, solid character. She definitely held her own and didn't need anyone to help her. I loved her relationship with Nate, he was so hilarious and I think their friendship was very sweet, even when they were occasionally a little frosty with one another, they were always loyal.
Cameron, the zombie was a weird character for me. Everything was told from Kincaid's perspective, so we never really got what he was thinking inside. I feel like I don't really know him as a character, because there's so much of his life that he doesn't remember, and some of the things we learn about aren't super important. A lot of his actions were also affected because of him being a zombie, you didn't know if his emotions and reactions were from his personality or came on because he was a zombie.
I feel like there were a lot of different storylines going on at once, and we only got to see a couple of them end. I suppose that's where the sequel comes in, but I just felt a little let down.
I do have to stress though, these opinions are coming from someone who doesn't read books about zombies, and doesn't love urban fantasy. So take these comments with a grain of salt, because I have heard some great things about this book.
The ending as good, although it was a little cliff-hangery. It didn't kill me, but the author sets up the ending for a sequel. Unfortunately, because I didn't love the book, the ending didn't really have the same punch as it would have if I enjoyed the book more.
Ok, this is starting to sound very negative. Let me break it down and you can decide for yourself. Basically, if you like zombies and/or urban fantasy, go for it. If you don't love these things, by all means, still read it, but these elements are so integral to the story, you will be seeing them a lot.