Review of Dead Witch Walking (The Hollows #1) by Kim Harrison

Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison
Genres & themes: Adult, urban fantasy, witches, vampires, fairies, magic, friendship, trust, mystery.
Received: borrowed
My rating:  3.5 of 5 shadowed stars

SYNOPSIS:

All the creatures of the night gather in “the Hollows” of Cincinnati, to hide, to prowl, to party … and to feed.

Vampires rule the darkness in a predator-eat-predator world rife with dangers beyond imagining — and it’s Rachel Morgan’s job to keep that world civilized.

A bounty hunter and witch with serious sex appeal and an attitude, she’ll bring ’em back alive, dead … or undead.

REVIEW:
My head tells me 3 stars, but my heart says 4. Which makes an average of 3.5 (but you knew that already.)

WOW.

Yes, that is the reaction I had after starting Dead Witch Walking (great title by the way.) I was so surprised while discovering every ‘creature’ this book contains. There are witches, vampires, trolls (apparently,) fairies, PIXIES… PIXIES guys. There are PIXIES. Plus, one of them is an important character of the story! I’m talking about this one:

(On the left, we have Ivy (vampire) and on the right…wait for it…RACHEL (witch!)! And, in between, cute little pixie Jenks.)

So, the world building was an A, for me, in the UF genre. The Fever series used to be in the lead, on the very very top, for the world building but The Hollows definitely took its position. (Sorry dear.)

Rachel wasn’t the best female lead ever. I prefer MacKayla Lane way better than her, but she sure has her charm. I just thought she was really acting stupidly and recklessly at some times. Like when she transformed herself in a mink and didn’t plan a way of turning back immediately if being caught. Maybe she just couldn’t but it annoyed me still. That brings another small issue I had with this book…

It’s slow. It was actually my first time, as I remember, reading an UF book that slow. The ones I usually read are fast-paced or have lots of action, events happening or mysteries to be solved. Yeah, I did lose interest when she was a mink. BUT, it’s the only time I did lose interest, because I just couldn’t before with the world building being so amazing. I don’t really like shape shifters. I don’t find anything interesting in reading a book with a person transforming herself into an animal. Although, that’s very personal so maybe it won’t be a bother for you as much as it was for me.

I know I criticize this book more than I should, but I did like it a lot and I will read the sequels very soon for sure. It had few SMALL flaws though. Another one of them is it not having many IMPORTANT sexy, hot, charming and irresistible male characters. There are some random ones but they don’t really last. I heard though that this book is actually not the best in the series so I look very forward to seeing how it’ll go and especially some development (please) in Rachel’s character.

The writing was fabulous and just utterly perfect and surprisingly better than I expected. I read every book in Kim Harrison’s trilogy for YA (Madison Avery) and it didn’t quite work for me. I mean, it was interesting (the main subject) but the characters weren’t as much developed and ‘alive’ as I hoped. Also, in the Madison Avery series, slowness was very (too much) present and this time frustratingly slow. I don’t recommend that series if you have a big TBR pile. Was just OK. I do, however, recommend Death Witch Walking with sparkly eyes (and a big smile.)

View all my reviews on Goodreads.

Image source: http://valliantcreations.deviantart.com/art/Rachel-Morgan-Fan-Art-99707031