The story revolves around Rachel Morgan, a witch, who in a previous book acquired a cursed artifact of great power. Several previously established plots are injected to complicate things; whenever Rachel thinks she has figured out how to negotiate between the many factions of the Hollows and another realm called the Ever After – vampires, werewolves, demons, elves, ordinary humans – to protect herself, her friends and lovers, and the status quo, you can guess that something will ruin her plan. She seems less irritating and more human by the chapter, as do many supporting characters, as she reacts to her experiences in decent emotional narrative.

The grammar issue fades over the span of the book as the peculiarities are consistent enough to be considered a colloquial voice, if not a unique one.

Author Kim Harrison also plays with the psychology of other beings. For example, vampires are not simply humans that enjoy drinking blood from time to time to be stronger and live longer, nor are werewolves simply humans that change to ferocious monsters at every full moon; vampires and werewolves have personalities that reflect the social reality of their respective conditions. Werewolves have a pack mentality, and often seem to search for the approval of strong leaders and groups to feel secure. Vampires and their human associates, as I suspected would be the case, have deep sexual issues about biting, being bitten, and the anticipation of both. This is demonstrated in an obligatory vampire-involved sex scene that amuses more than it arouses, but did not put me off the rest of the book once I was that far along.

What did threaten to put me off the book, in the early portions, was Jenks, Rachel’s garden-dwelling pixy friend. He zips around on dragonfly wings, spouting bad one-liners and would make me want to keep a flyswatter handy in his presence even if he is supposed to be too fast to hit and nearing the end of a natural eighteen-year life span. Fortunately, even the most off-putting character of the bunch sees development and becomes sort of likeable; the reader sees the gravity of his short life span, his fierce loyalty to Rachel and friends who help protect his garden, and his usefulness as a scout and bodyguard.

Admittedly, I jumped into Harrison’s strange world without reading any previous books in the series, and that complicates things. What to me resembled eighty pages of hasty plot and character introduction were likely intended as a reintroduction for series followers; characters already given meaning in previous books. However, strong sequels should stand on their own to a reasonable extent, and eighty pages are how many it took for me to acclimatize; when Harrison was no longer introducing me to previously established characters and plotlines with such frequency, and spent time developing these elements, I enjoyed the story.