Following an all-out battle with the walking Dead, the Spirit Hunters have fled Philadelphia, leaving Eleanor alone to cope with the devastating aftermath. But there’s more trouble ahead—the evil necromancer Marcus has returned, and his diabolical advances have Eleanor escaping to Paris to seek the help of Joseph, Jie, and the infuriatingly handsome Daniel once again. When she arrives, however, she finds a whole new darkness lurking in this City of Light. As harrowing events unfold, Eleanor is forced to make a deadly decision that will mean life or death for everyone.
Haven’t read the first novel, Something Strange and Deadly? Be sure to check out my review.
Now, this novel picks up a few months after the conclusion of the first, with Eleanor living in poverty after the events that transpired in Philadelphia. She is dressed in rags and has had to sell her family’s belongings in order to maintain her mother’s medical bills. Get this, she is residing in the local Philadelphia asylum called Kirkbride’s (I see what you did there Dennard, I see it). Don’t get it? Just click here. Anyway, Eleanor is still suffering from phantom limb (in more ways than one) when it comes to missing her former life and missing the spirit hunters. She then sees the familiar yellow eyes of the demon that took everything from her.
Lo and behold she ends up chasing down the spirit hunters, including the dashing and wonderful Daniel Sheridan whom she no longer cares for (yeah, right). Dennard does a good job of introducing some of the new characters, especially Oliver, Laure (who actually kind of annoyed me for some random reason), and Madame Marineaux and giving them a decent amount of depth for such an action driven plotline.
Plot was a bit predictable, and I am still upset that there is still no explaination regarding the origin of the first zombies prior to the first book and the beginnings of the spirit hunters. However, I do know that I need to get my hands on the prequel (although I’m not too keen on the idea of Daniel being in love with someone other than Eleanor) because it at least explains how Joseph and Daniel met.
Other observations that I had: I still think that Oliver and Elijah were lovers and that his deep devotion comes from being binded and from the constant companionship that grew into romantic love. If not? I’m going to be bummed, because I really liked that aspect.
I hate that Eleanor never addressed the mechanical hand that Daniel obviously constructed for her. I feel like that could have really packed an emotional punch in a scene between them, but it was just dropped as soon as it was discovered by Laure. Albiet there was a rather large zombie invasion after that.
I felt like the ending was rushed, and that the gratification at the end of the novel was so short and then it just ended! I think overall it was a very strong sequel to the first novel, but the world building is still something that Dennard needs to work on. I will keep an eye out for the next installment and will be getting a copy of the prequel to help fill in some of the story world gaps.
3.5 Bards
