The Outlaw Demon Wails | ||||||||
Kim Harrison | ||||||||
Narrated by Gigi Bermingham, unabridged | ||||||||
HarperAudio, 16 hours, 30 minutes | ||||||||
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A review by Jennifer McCann
This is a book of revelations. Rachel, in trying to defend her loved ones, discovers a long held family secret, with
mind blowing consequences. Under pressure to defend herself, she is forced to join forces with Trent, her long time nemesis,
to track down the original DNA of Algaliarept to stop him from claiming her and taking her to the Ever-after as his slave
for eternity. As a direct result, Rachel discovers the hidden truth behind the origins of the demons, elves and the witches
and what has caused the war that has raged between them since time out of memory.
In The Outlaw Demon Wails, Ms. Harrison makes great leaps and strides in the story of Rachel Morgan. She
answers some long-held questions since the beginning of the series and throws out enough new and interesting plotlines
to keep this highly entertaining series going for a long time. In this book, she really set things rolling. In
past books, some of the stories were more place holders and didn't really move things
along. But The Outlaw Demon Wails delivers.
This portion of the story deals less with Rachel's eternally doomed love life and got on with the meat of the
story. Ivy and Rachel's relationship is less the focus of this book. Though Rachel's relationships play a large part, it's
not all there is.
Kisten's murder is on the back burner but not forgotten. Hopefully, this will be one of the plotlines that will get more
play in future novels. Ms. Harrison brings back David, Rachel's werewolf pack leader, and Marshal, "Marshman" from pervious
novels but they don't play a very big part in the story this time. Mostly they clutter up the landscape.
A new master of the city is introduced but also is not much involved in this story. He functions more as an explanation
of Ivy's whereabouts and changes in some of her behavior.
Gigi Bermingham does a fair job vocally portraying the characters. Her previous credits include stints on
Days of Our Lives, Third Rock from the Sun and Judging Amy. She sometimes
doesn't get the comedic timing that Rachel's voice has and her sarcasm doesn't ring true. In parts of the story, Ms.
Bermingham seems to be phoning in the performance. And her portrayal of Jenks is especially painful. When Jenks,
as voiced by Ms. Bermingham, is conversational, the performance is tolerable. But when he becomes excited or
stressed, the tone becomes so shrill that dogs six blocks over are howling. The reading could have been better.
In spite of concerns over the narration, all in all this was a very entertaining and fast paced story that makes
one look forward to continue with the series in general. With the new plotlines waiting in the wings and watching
to see how the surprise ending plays out, Rachel Morgan's life is going to become very interesting indeed.
A belly dancing, dyslexic wife and mother who in her spare time works as a library clerk. A full and rich life is lead through the books she listens to and/or reads. Dyslexics Untie! |
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