DEADTOWN by Nancy Holzner

Title: Deadtown

Series: Yeas it is.

Author: Nancy Holzner

Pages: 326

Publisher: ACE Fantasy

Reading Level: Adult

Spotlight: Main Character

Rating: 3.7

"Two rules I live by: never admit to being a shapeshifter on a first, second, or third date with a human. And never, ever bring along a zombie apprentice wannabe on a demon kill."

They call it Deadtown: the city’s quarantined section for its inhuman and undead residents. Most humans stay far from its borders — but Victory Vaughn, Boston’s only professional demon slayer, isn’t exactly human…

Vicky’s demanding job keeping the city safe from all manner of monsters is one reason her relationship with workaholic lawyer (and werewolf) Alexander Kane is in constant limbo. Throw in a foolhardy zombie apprentice, a mysterious demon-plagued client, and a suspicious research facility that’s taken an unwelcome interest in her family, and Vicky’s love life has as much of a pulse as Deadtown’s citizens.

But now Vicky’s got bigger things to worry about. The Hellion who murdered her father ten years ago has somehow broken through Boston’s magical protections. The Hellion is a ruthless force of destruction with a personal grudge against Vicky, and she’s the only one who can stop the demon before it destroys the city and everyone in it.

Taschima:

Deadtown, while slightly slow paced, it's a good new take on what happens when the supernatural world comes 'out of the coffin'.

Vicky is a demon slayer/ She was raised to be one since puberty hits and God knows she's good at her job. While going from job to job she stumbles into what could be classified into the demon of all demons, a demon who has had a feud with her family for generations and to whom she is personally connected. Strange enough even though the Demon clearly wants to kill her, he doesn't. Vicky is confused but knows that that ain't the end of it. Something big is happening; something that could destroy whatever sense of a life as a living free Paranormal being she has managed to have.

At first I thought cool, I'm going to read a zombie book! *ARGH* wrong. This book is not strictly about zombies, which makes me a little bit mad at all the zombie advertisement it has had. This book has zombies, werewolves, vampires, and any paranormal monster you can think of. And while the story is about them it doesn't focus on what we normally would expect (werewolves hate vamps, vamps hate werewolves) instead it focuses on the civil rights "war" that humans have against paranormals. Which is a breather for me, and a very interesting subject.

Our main character, Vicky, though is not interested in this 'war'. She is more concerned about her next kill. She is a slayer. She has been taught about demons her entire life. And after an event which led to her being personally connected to the baddest of demons you can understand why a girl would keep a grudge. She is hardcore, and a bad ass. But I still wouldn't rank her up there with my other main bad-ass characters (Cat, Buffy, Rose). I liked her, and she would be pretty cool to hang out with, but I guess I need to see more of her before I scream "GOD I LOVE YOU" like a total fan girl.

The characters in this novel... don't do much developing. And not all of them are used to their fullest.

Oh and our tie with the zombies is this slightly annoying zombie teenager. She is the typical teenager girl, but only zombiesized. I wanted to kill her MULTIPLE times.

One last thing, it was slow. At least for me it was. I just wanted the main character to get it over with so we could move on to more fun stuff. Then again this is a first novel and the author is trying to show us how everything works and stuff. Like for example the parts where Vicky shifts into an animal? She still narrates the story from the animal's point of view. It's so cool! I specially liked the last shift (though at times I found the thoughts of the animal kind of repetitive).

All in all, a good start and the author shows promise. I will be buying her next book, but I won't run to get it.

EDIT* I gave it a 3.7 because I just can't get the main character's voice, Vicky's, out of my head! I keep going over stuff that happen in the book...

PS; My giveaway for a Jeaniene Frost book has ended along with my poll. My Ipod from now on will not be in autoplay and I will announce the winner of the book in the next few days.