Priest, Cherie: Hellbent
Hellbent (2011)
Written by: Cherie Priest
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 336 (ARC)
Series: Book Two (Cheshire Red)
Disclaimer: This book was provided by the publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer's Program for the purpose of review.
Why I Read It: In hindsight, I actually found myself not really caring a whole lot for Bloodshot, which kicked off Priest's Cheshire Red series. It was unfortunate, because I consider Priest a favorite, but her take on vampires did nothing for me, despite the book being a fast read. However, when I saw the chance to get a free ARC of the follow-up, I figured that's fair. I could give the sequel a shot, and if it didn't work out, I was only out of time, not money. That I could swallow. So when LibraryThing granted me a review copy, I was happy to put it in the cue, just to see if I'd change my mind about the series.
The premise: ganked from BN.com: Vampire thief Raylene Pendle doesn’t need more complications in her life. Her Seattle home is already overrun by a band of misfits, including Ian Stott, a blind vampire, and Adrian deJesus, an ex-Navy SEAL/drag queen. But Raylene still can’t resist an old pal’s request: seek out and steal a bizarre set of artifacts. Also on the hunt is a brilliant but certifiably crazy sorceress determined to stomp anyone who gets in her way. But Raylene’s biggest problem is that the death of Ian’s vaunted patriarch appears to have made him the next target of some blood-sucking sociopaths. Now Raylene must snatch up the potent relics, solve a murder, and keep Ian safe -- all while fending off a psychotic sorceress. But at least she won’t be alone. A girl could do a lot worse for a partner than an ass-kicking drag queen -- right?
Spoilers, yay or nay?: Nay. The book is too new to be spoiled, so I won't. However, if you're uber paranoid, or just don't want to read ANY details, skip to "My Rating" and you'll be just fine. Everyone else, onward!
So the book wasn't very promising at the start. At the start, I was reminded of why I didn't care for Bloodshot in the first place, main reason being I hated how Raylene, as a first-person narrator, constantly breaks the "fourth wall" and talks to her audience. She's too chatty with her audience, almost treating the reader like a character who's literally at her shoulder, making comments about her actions, and that grates after a while. Hell, early on, there's a comment about giving the reader the CliffsNotes version of her life, which tells us, in a rather clunky fashion, her brief life story and what we need to know about the events of Bloodshot. Which raised my blood pressure to no end, but hey: if you haven't read Bloodshot, at least Priest is doing all she can to keep you on the same page.
So I wasn't too optimistic once I started reading. Especially since Raylene's main mission was the retrieval of magical penis bones. Yes, you read that right. Yes, there's many a joke to be made about this. And yes, this made my jaw clench over and over, because it got old, real fast.
I should note, before I forget: because I read the ARC, I'm not quoting anything, as I have no official copy to check the ARC against, and the publisher specifically requests on the ARC that I do not quote without said checking, so there are some things that bugged me, like details that should've been caught, but were maybe actually caught before the final copy, so I'm not going to mention them here. Hell, the previously mentioned CliffsNotes comment may not make the final version, and I didn't even use a direct quote!
At any rate, like I said, not too promising. But something changed, and that changed when Raylene rescues a kitten from certain doom, then the kitten does cute, kitten-y things that make me smile, and I realized I might be able to like Raylene after all.
Something else that's different with Hellbent, and not just the kitten (who's name is Pita: pain-in-the-ass. Ha!). What's different is that in Bloodshot, Raylene was basically on her own and her main motivation was to stay alive and gather wealth. Doesn't make for much of a likable character. Yet in that first book, she manages to gather a cast to her, a cast that plays a major role in her motivations in this book. Now she's not getting wealthy for wealth's sake, but to protect her personal menagerie of friends, which grows in this book. Now she does things to protect the people she cares about, whereas in the first book, I'm not sure she cared about anyone except herself, though the two orphans, Domino and Pepper, were growing on her at the time.
Being surrounded by friends, by people she cares about losing, by people she cares about protecting, really elevated her in my eyes, and I suddenly found myself invested in Raylene and her world. I also feel that Priest did a slightly better job incorporating Raylene's true age into her character. Well, maybe not her character so much as her style. There's a scene where Raylene has to get dressed up in something fancy, so she plucks out a dress from her closet that she NEVER wore but bought because she liked it, and it's totally a vintage dress from the '20s to die for. Stuff like that goes a long way: it totally makes sense that a vampire would hold on to personal items and said items would be antiques now but were just bought as STUFF at the time. I really liked that.
I also loved the ever-evolving dynamic between Adrian/Sister Rose. Honestly, I don't know WHAT I want here, because I love Raylene's dynamic with Sister Rose, but her dynamic with Adrian is equally appealing. I'm not sure if I want them to hook up or not, but this whole business about ghouls? Utterly interesting, and I'm wondering if that'll be explored further. And I do wish I could quote from this copy, because the barbs they throw out at each other are awesome, as is Raylene's reactions to said barbs.
The whole penis bones storyline was rather odd, but it involved magic and what the user of said bones was trying to do with them was odd, yes, but fascinating, especially if you have any love for SF at all, because the magic is explained in a rather science-fictional way, and that's cool. Also cool is what comes of this whole plotline, and how Raylene's actions define her as a character. She doesn't mind collateral damage, so long as it doesn't affect her and her own, and what's fascinating is we get to see her empathize with a character that normally, the hero/heroine would not be empathizing with. Again, I'm looking forward to future developments.
Really, the book wraps up in a way that tells me Priest has found her footing with this series, and the overall cast is diverse and fascinating, and I find myself more invested in the world-building and the heroine herself. This is a great thing, since I really didn't have high hopes for this second novel.
My Rating: Good Read
Considering that I consider Cherie Priest to be a favorite author of mine, it's a relief that I liked this, since I had a lot of reservations about the first book in the series. However, a few things happen in this book that help me understand the heroine from a new and different angle, and in this book, she's not acting out of self-interest, but for the benefit of others, and that in and of itself makes a world of difference. In Hellbent, Raylene actually has something to lose, which makes for a much more interesting read. The world-building is also expanded to the point that we really get to see how Raylene fits into the overall world of vampires, and all of it leads to some interesting and tenuous alliances. Hellbent officially has me hooked on the series, so I'm looking forward to seeing where Priest goes next.
Cover Commentary: At first, I wasn't too thrilled by it, but it's grown on me. It's keeping with the same design scheme as Bloodshot, and as a result, it is eye-catching. Nice and noir-looking, even if the books themselves aren't very noir.
Next up: Matriarch by Karen Traviss