Review: Demon Song by Cat Adams

Demon Song by Cat Adams
Series: Blood Singer #3
Published by Tor Books
Published on: March 1 2011
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 383
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased

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Bodyguard Celia Graves plies her trade in a world where bloodthirsty vampires roam the night and street-corner psychics have real powers. A vamp attack turned Celia into a unique creature who finds sunlight painful and who must take all her food in liquid form—but who still retains her human heart, mind, and soul.
 
The attack also awakened a hidden part of her heritage: Celia is part Siren, able to enthrall men…and enrage women…without half-trying. Needless to say, her bodyguard business has taken off: who wouldn’t want to be protected by a sexy, extremely capable woman who is half-vampire, half-Siren princess?
 
An ancient rift between the demonic dimension and our own, sealed during the destruction of Atlantis, begins to open and threatens to loose all the demons of hell on humanity (including the one personally bent on destroying Celia). Celia’s recent hellish experiences may have given her the unique combination of abilities needed to close the rift. But to overcome a death curse that nearly guarantees her failure, she’ll need to join forces with people she no longer trusts…and put people she has come to care about directly in harm’s way.

So here’s the thing about DEMON SONG . . .

Before this rerereread, it was my favorite book in the BLOOD SINGER series (thus far). It was actually one of my favorite installments of an urban fantasy series ever.

BUT.

This time around . . . not so much.

Before I get into the specifics, I need to emphasize a qualifier or three:

1. I still feel that the basic plot line is fantastic.

Demon hell gate, Atlantis, JOHN-effing-CREED . . . Seriously, what’s not to like?

2. Escalation of the budding problem in book 2—too many important things happen off page.

And we hear about them after the fact. In passing. *frowns and squints*

3. “Fuck a duck.”

Feels nitpicky, probably is nitpicky, but I DESPISE that phrase, and Celia uses it eleventy billion times more in this installment than in the previous books.

Ugh.

SO. The bulk of my issue is all the random-yet-important details that transpire . . . somewhere else.

Maybe it’s just me, but doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose of telling a story?

For example, in SIREN SONG, Celia gives Queen Lopaka one of the HEP BIG magical Bruno knives as tribute. It was very emotional, blah blah, FEELS, but in chapter two of this book, Celia is somehow in possession of both blades again.

In this case, I think the why of how she came into possession of the second blade again is eventually explained, but in many of the other incidents there’s nothing.

There’s also weird stuff that makes no sense.

Like when Edgar needs to feed, and a Big Deal is made about Jones’ super special magical blood. Jones allows him minimal sustenance (b/c busy night ahead), then when Edgar is finished, Jones starts eating his own people food meal, blood dripping down his arm all the while . . . b/c he can’t be bothered to bandage himself up to preserve that shit? Or Edgar’s not going get annoyed at the waste? *frowns and squints AGAIN*

Then there’s the major breach of doctor/patient confidentiality when Celia’s therapist casually discusses the nature of her deceased friend’s treatment (under the care of an entirely different doctor).

Some of these things are isolated incidents, but they’re all symptoms of the same problem: SLOPPY. B/c it’s everywhere. And without the equivalent of reading beer goggles on, it greatly decreased my ability to sink into the story and just read. And YES, I know that the majority of readers don’t notice these kinds of things, but for me, it’s the difference between a decent book and a great book.

VERDICT: MEH. Somewhat recommended.

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