Review: Pale Demon

Reviewed by Jen
 

I loved this book. Loved. Loved. Loved this book. I read somewhere that this has been Kim Harrison’s favorite book in the Hollows series so far and I can see why.I left feeling exhilarated –like absolutely anything could happen next. That is no small feat for the 9th book in a series; it would be so easy to let things to get stale.

Where do I begin? Well, begrudgingly, I can say I wasn’t in love with the beginning of the book. As advertised, Rachel is taking a road trip from Cincinnati to San Francisco. She is going to the annual witches council meeting to get her shunning removed. Instead of her planned flight with Jenks… She ends up driving, in a car that’s getting increasingly crowded… with an elf, a pixy, a vampire and two other witches. Rachel is struggling to stay alive as the council tries to get her before she reaches her destination. To complicate matters more, she is babysitting Trent, who is on a mysterious elf quest. And along the way, we meet a genetically engineered day-walking demon, who likes to eat souls and wreak havoc. Nothing Rachel can’t handle, right?

For me, the story hit its stride once Rachel faced off with the coven in San Francisco. And frankly, that was sooner than I expected. (I thought the road trip would last the whole book, but it was really more like 1/3 of it.) Her time in the ever-after is captivating. I loved having a peek inside the demon culture. I was enthralled getting to really know Al and Newt. And holy-freaking-cow, there was one scene at Al’s place that blew me away. I think I read it four times before I could move on. I won’t spoil it, but if you’ve read the book, you know the part I’m talking about.

We have huge, huge developments surrounding what Rachel is and how she sees herself. We have (yet another) major shift in the relationship between Ivy and Rachel… one that leaves me wondering about their future. We see possibilities and (what appears to be) resolution surrounding Rachel’s relationship with Pierce. And there are colossal changes in Rachel’s feelings for Al and Trent.

So much happens over the course of this book, when I look back to the beginning it’s hard to believe it was all part of the same story. And even though we’ve “known” some of these characters since Dead Witch Walking, I feel like we’re really getting to see inside a few of them for the first time. And I love it. And I absolutely can not wait to see what happens next. I’d give it more than 5 stars if I could.

*ARC Provided by NetGalley

Click to purchase: Amazon

Pale Demon

by Kim Harrison

Release Date: February 22, 2011

Publisher: Harper Voyager