Moonshine

I really love the characters in this book and Thurman's interpretation of classic fantasy/horror creatures. While it's not that unique in the urban fantasy genre, the tweaked elements (vampires actually have an iron-deficiency disease and are born, werewolves are born and come in castes and levels, etc) make it something a little different. The second novel in the series is an improvement in writing and characterisations - no surprise as the first book is literally Thurman's first book - and the plot was also more interesting. The main criticism I have is that there are a lot of explainer lines, as if the reader didn't read the first book. I can't believe someone would just pick up the second book and need the first one explained so much, but it adds a word count that is unnecessary, especially when reading the books in succession. I first read this book 10 years ago and this is my second reading. I don't think I enjoyed it as much this time, as a more adult reader, but I still love the world and characters Thurman has created here.

The second edition leaves me in a bit of a quandary. Do I continue this franchise or let it go. While no major improvement has happened in the writing style, the book continues to maintain the readability of the first one. In the end I will probably take a hiatus here because Rob has not been able to provide better the character build ups for her protagonists as I would have liked. Also, the humour is now repetitive and is beginning to wane. So the next book goes into my “to read” but maybe at a later time. Onwards!