Rating:4⭐️
Author Kim Harrison started writing this series in 2009 beginning with this book, Dead Witch Walking which introduces the reader to the dark, messy life of Rachel Morgan and her companions, a vampire and pixie with his amazing family.
And there’s a six year break in the series, then the author “brings” the character back after saving the world in the first part of the series. From book 14 on, new city and arc. FYI. The series isn’t complete.
It’s a interesting concept about a virus (and tomatoes) that eliminates much of the world’s human population leaving behind the paranormal species to come out of hiding to run things. The remaining humans when they recover, naturally, ban anything that smacks of scientific research and pharmaceutical technology. You have a disease? Not going to get any medicine other than aspirin for it.
Law enforcement has been restructured accordingly as well to deal with the various crimes and villains that have arisen based on their specific races , human and nonhuman.
That’s where Rachel and her companions come in, they work together in a paranormal agency as runners (bounty hunters) assigned otherworldly cases to bring in. The vampire species here has a different nature and it’s very unusual. It impacts her relationship with her roommate and co-worker, Ivy a living vampire. Ivy’s a fantastic character, rich in strength of personality and darkness. Both scary and vulnerable, I adore her. Then there’s Jenks, the pixie who loves his wife (a very capable and awesome female) and his many children. He’s not been treated well by others given his species so I enjoyed his developing relationship with Rachel here.
That leaves Rachel, the overly emotional person who has huge impulse control issues and a tendency to never research anything before actually doing something. Basically she’s a grown woman who constantly acts like a toddler, putting herself and others through tons of violence events and totally preventable issues had she either communicated with them or given her sketchy behavior just a bit of thought.
That gets exhausting and very old after a while. Then Rachel starts falling into the TSTL category.
And there’s Trent the boss of a strange company who has committed multiple crimes and murders, put her in cages, subjected her to all sorts of abuse, but he’s so good looking. Sigh.
We can see where the author is headed here. SMH.
It’s interesting and I adore several of the side characters. But I’m not sure that the main character is enough to make me commit to even that second novel. A TSTL character is always a DNF aspect of a book for me.
Perhaps I’ll circle back to this series later on when I’ve completed some of the other ones I’m working through at the moment.
Let me know what you think if you have read the series.
The Hollows (19 book series):
Dead Witch Walking #1
Buy link
Blurb
The first book in #1 New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison’s Hollows series!
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 a witch with serious sex appeal and an attitude, she’ll bring ’em back alive, dead . . . or undead.
Publisher
Harper Voyager
Publication date
October 13, 2009
Language
English
Print length
366 pages
Book 1 of 19
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 