Dead Things

Something about the book just doesn't work for me. It's short and shouldn't take an effort, but somehow it doesn't read smoothly enough.
The supporting characters are uninteresting and even though Eric is fine, right now I don't feel like forcing myself to go on with it. Maybe later. Maybe in a different mood, I mean it's not bad by any chance just... I don't know.

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UPDATE: I read it. I tried the book for a second time and now I finished the whole thing.

Eric Carter is a necromancer and pretty emo if you're asking me. After 15 years away from his home in LA he returns because of the brutal murder of his sister, Lucy, his only remaining family. He needs to find out who from his past could have done such a thing, while meeting some old friends who all feel he had abandoned them.

Look at that cover and tell me it doesn't remind you of a certain edition of the Dresden Files series. Even the premise is similar, urban fantasy with this angsty, angry young man who feels he doesn't have any roots. Even the fact supernatural powers are interested in him is Dresden-like.
What makes this not Dresden-like is the fact Eric lacks so much of the charm of Harry. This is not a funny book. He has no lightness about him, not much sarcastic, wiseass flair. Which is fine, he is a darker character from the get go, but I am just warning everyone; this isn't going to be a haha fun times. If anything, Eric is a lot more unashamed about just killing people. He goes in, does his thing, messes with the dead and it's the end of it.
In that regard, I have no idea how we can raise the stakes here. How will this get more serious? Not sure how much that will work when it's already borderline depressing in here.

In a way, I feel having big, emotionally significant deaths in the first book is a bit of a mistake when it's so short and will be part of a longer series, anyway. I don't care about Eric that much so far. That's just a fact, he is fine, but he isn't a character we spent years following. A lot of the impact of book deaths comes from us having a soft spot for either the victim or the surviving other (or both), but in this case Lucy was never a real character and Eric is just... I don't know yet?
In that sense a lot of the drama feels wasted.

Now don't get me wrong, this wasn't a bad book. It's adequate. I wind the urban fantasy genre to be very easily readable, like this one, so in that sense it's successful. It's competent. But it went in too fast, which took a lot out of its impact. I want to read more of this series, but I can't promise I am 100% on board.