Kira

11% through the book: "I like Chess, but I gotta know... Does she get off drugs at some point?"

41% through the book: "So, she has mentioned a few times that Terrible looks like Elvis (with the sideburns and the bowling shirts). Young Elvis right? Not jumpsuit Elvis?"

61% through the book: "One thing I appreciate about this story is that at least when Chess gets injured, she stays injured like a normal person. She got popped in the nose and the next day she looks like crap, which is kind of nice. Only superheroes should have super healing."

72% through the book: "Aughhhhh wtf is this situation with her hand?!" 

Review after finishing:

So I'm surprised to be giving this book so many stars. Should it be three? Maybe, but it doesn't matter. 

What matters is that I liked this book at all considering the following:

1. I don't like ghosts or ghost stories. They freak me out and make me feel like I need to go to church.

2. Speaking of church, this book is set in a dystopian future where ghosts have the ability to kill humans and at some point they tried to take over the world. The debunkers, the witches who could control ghosts, saved the world and now have the power. They call themselves the Church and have outlawed religion. This is also super creepy. Chess (Cesaria) is a witch in the employ of The Church. 

3. Chess has a serious drug problem and is popping pills left and right throughout the whole book. This bothered me a lot in the beginning but I either became desensitized or she is just such a high functioning addict that I forgot about it. I would very much like to see her go to fictional drug rehab though and get clean. Maybe she and Lex and Terrible can all go together. 

4. The downspeak is crazy and hard to adjust to. I gave up on The Black Dagger Brotherhood partly because their speech and words are so ridiculous, so this is a hurdle for me. One I think I can overcome because I like the characters and it makes sense in the context of the world they are in, but still a hurdle. Not sure how Chess snuck by with her plain and modern perfect English when she's surrounded by people who talk like Shortie from Indiana Jones, but whatev. I'm glad my narrator doesn't speak pidgeon because that would just be way too much. 

Even with all that, I still couldn't put the book down. I wanted to know what happened next, even when it freaked me the heck out. I don't do horror movies at all, not even wussy horror, so I kind of feel proud for getting through it. It's not like terrifying or anything, just creepy and suspenseful and there was a bit with worms that caused me to flip my lid (see above status update at 72%). 

In spite of the unsettled feeling I had for the first half of the book, I think I could like these characters. I'm intrigued with Chess and Terrible's weird chemistry and I have a small crush on Lex, so yes-- I will read the next one. This is grittier urban fantasy than I'm used to, in a darker world, but I like the writing and I am willing to give this series a fair shot. I liked it more than I expected to.