Week 19 ~ No Humans Involved

Week 19 ~ May 7-13, 2007

No Humans Involved (Women of the Otherworld, book #7)
by Kelley Armstrong
(fantasy, paranormal romance-ish, some – not me – will tell you horror)

Ah, back to the Otherworld. I love this series. A lot. It’s well developed, well-rounded, and well written. The heroines are strong and yet versatile, and the relationships make sense. A very nice series indeed.

This specific book could, if you chose, be read out of order without much confusion. Jaime, the narrator, hasn’t been a huge part of the previous books, and the parts she has played are touched on as good reminders of her background or ways to introduce new readers to her. (I suspect that the format change from paperback to hardback made it a priority that this book be able to support readers who are new to the series.) There are plot points from prior books that will be spoiled if this one is read first, and there are nuances to character that will be missed, but the book should hook new readers as well as old.

As to that hook, it starts off with Jaime preparing for a séance to raise the spirit of Marilyn Monroe and discovering that she’s going to be staying in a house where she’ll be required to eat her meals inches away from a hanged man – only he’s a ghost, so she’s the only one who notices. Jaime is a necromancer, and her powers of being able to see and contact the dead alert her to the presence of half-ghosts in the garden… ghosts which shouldn’t exist in the fashion they do. It’s written with a good blend of humor and substance, romance and action and thought. This is possibly my second favorite book in the series, possibly my third fav. But it’s definitely near the top of the series, and comes with high praise from me.