Review: Halfway to the Grave
I read Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost over the last two days. The cover caught my eye when I was looking to pick up a new Urban Fantasy/Romance. It’s an interesting take on the Dhampir/Half-Vampire legend. According to legend the best vampire hunters are the off spring of young vampires. Blade is one of these, and so is the protagonist of various anime flicks such as Vampire Hunter D and Blood: The Last Vampire. Cat Crawford is typically anti-vampire, with a black and white opinion that all vampires are evil until she meets Bones, a vampire bounty hunter out to destroy a white slavery ring run by an enemy. Cat is an interesting mix of worldly and innocent, but I never do quite believe the “sheltered country girl” history that she’s given. Her seductress hunting techniques and bar hopping makes it difficult to believe, and her transformation from blushing girl to brazen wanton temptress doesn’t seem as drastic as the characters make it seem. That said, she’s spunky, sharp-tongued, good with weapons and is fearless in battle. Her tribulations over the relationship with Bones and her worry that her mother will reject her leave the reader more annoyed than sympathetic, because in all other things she’s decisive and fearless so it doesn’t entirely fit her character.
There are some genuinely humorous moments in the novel, which I loved. The alcoholic ghost craving moonshine in a creepy cemetary cracked me up. Bones’s best friend’s greeting of Cat and her subsequent beating him to a pulp for surprising her was also a classic mistaken identity moment. Cat’s friend and neighbor Timmie’s timid personality is endearing, and leaves me wondering how he’ll develop as the story progresses. Bones’s quirky sense of humor and his assistance of a battered woman’s shelter bring some uniqueness to his character. I also really enjoyed Frost’s mingling of ghosts into the vampire tapestry, and her portrayal of a supernatural bar that is blatantly inhuman, rather than your typical supers hiding amongst humanity in a public, but mostly ignored, watering hole. The suspense in the novel is well done, although I did find Cat’s mother’s harsh anti-vampire reactions trying and frustrating, but I think some of that was intentional.
Caveats to readers, the language can be harsh and there’s several descriptive love scenes easily earning this an R rating. The violence is high, with dismembered bodies, stabbed hearts, political assasinations and the villian handles a white slavery ring forcing women into prostitution.
There are some genuinely humorous moments in the novel, which I loved. The alcoholic ghost craving moonshine in a creepy cemetary cracked me up. Bones’s best friend’s greeting of Cat and her subsequent beating him to a pulp for surprising her was also a classic mistaken identity moment. Cat’s friend and neighbor Timmie’s timid personality is endearing, and leaves me wondering how he’ll develop as the story progresses. Bones’s quirky sense of humor and his assistance of a battered woman’s shelter bring some uniqueness to his character. I also really enjoyed Frost’s mingling of ghosts into the vampire tapestry, and her portrayal of a supernatural bar that is blatantly inhuman, rather than your typical supers hiding amongst humanity in a public, but mostly ignored, watering hole. The suspense in the novel is well done, although I did find Cat’s mother’s harsh anti-vampire reactions trying and frustrating, but I think some of that was intentional.
Caveats to readers, the language can be harsh and there’s several descriptive love scenes easily earning this an R rating. The violence is high, with dismembered bodies, stabbed hearts, political assasinations and the villian handles a white slavery ring forcing women into prostitution.
