Book Nook

[cathepsut]

The Scent of Shadows by Vicki Pettersson
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

*a little spoilery*

I didn't like it and I'm trying to figure out why. It has all the usual ingredients of Urban Fantasy. Strong heroine has something pivotal happening to her, turns into Superwoman and proceeds to kick some ass, with some porn thrown in.

It lacks the usual critters, there are no vampires, werewolves, other shifters or witches of any kind. It's good against evil or rather light against dark. Here is where she started to loose me. What are the evil dudes actually doing that makes them so evil? There is mentioning of some criminal activity, but it's just run-of-the-mill kidnapping and burglary (I think, it's all fading rapidly from memory--this could actually have been fun if she had elaborated on it). Surely for that you do not need to be an evil hell spawn.

Where do the bad and good guys come from, why are they fighting each other... Somehow it all seems so purposeless. Even the superbad Tulpa, evil boss of the dark, was just meh.

And in every town are 12 warriors for the Light and 12 for the Dark forces... Really? Isn't that a bit silly and overly contrived? Oh, and the moment where I rolled my eyes and started the speed-reading to get through this quicker: Comic books as manuals on how it all works.

I just thought the premise of the book and the plot were silly, sorry. Other people thought this book was great, so don't let me stop you...