Fangs For The Fantasy

Tess is still agonising over her choice to marry Jem – while deeply in love with him, she cannot forget Will, nor can Will who is torn between his love for Tessa and his great loyalty for his friend, brother and companion.

And Mortmain isn’t going to leave them alone to deal with their angst – his plan to horde all of London’s supply of yin fen the only drug that can keep Jem alive has finally hit them, especially since Jem has been taking extra, shortening his life so he can be more fully around and active for Tessa. His life span is measured in weeks, no longer in years.

And then there’s Mortmain’s attempts to claim Tessa and his final revelation of his grand master plan against the Shadow Hunters once and for all. A plan that is only harder to thwart with the head of the Clave gunning for Charlotte, stooping to any means he can to find sufficient excuse to remove her as head of the London Institute and deny her any help in facing this threat.

The main problem I have with this book is the same problem I have with the whole series – it’s slow. The actual plot of this book doesn’t kick in until we’re 30% in; before that we’re mired in love triangle angst that basically runs round and round in circles as Will, Jem and Tessa circle each other with their angst and love and worry. We have Jem’s shortage of yin fen but no-one really does anything about it accept continue to circle round and round and worry and angst and worry some more.

The story does pick up at 30% but it’s still less of a plot and more of a desperate flail, which always frustrates me, especially since it’s a theme in this series and leaves me having problem rooting for characters that, ultimately, flail their way to a solution. They knew yin fen was being bought up, but only now considered it an issue. Will goes riding off to Wales without any real plan, Charlotte and co follow with no real plan, Tessa hangs around being helpless and desperate with no real plan (which is past annoying now –she’s supposed to be training how to fight so can she actually do that occasionally – and not insist on attending emergencies in her wedding dress!), everyone kind of flails around, hoping their mere presence will somehow fix everything. I know, to a degree we’re looking at people in situations where they have few options, but this turn up and hope approach to a story doesn’t engage me – especially when the situation is resolved almost by Tessa pulling out a new super-power.

There are a number of side plots or tangential plots in this book – and one I really like; Charlotte and the Consul. It’s nicely done, it’s directly connected to the main plot line it adds considerable characterisation, world building and wider explanation of both Shadowhunter society as well as what is actually happening in the plot and support from the wider Shadowhunter forces as well as having an excellent portrayal of both sexism and having it challenged.

There’s the good one. Then we have the Lightwoods because… because… I have no damn clue. Why are these characters even here? Why am I supposed to care? Why did we have a completely unnecessary diversion to kill their wormy father when it added nothing to the book? Why did I have to spend so much time in the head of Gabriel Lightwood a character I managed to care even less about than I do will and Tessa – and I was on the side of the WORM when it had a chance to eat Will and Tessa. Why is this character even here? And Gideon? Oh Gideon, how little I care about your mountains of scones and flailing attempt to court Sophie. Then there’s Cicely. Dear gods, I can’t believe there’s a single person in the entire world who cares about Cicely. Why is she there?! She’s even less pointful than the unnecessarily returning Jessamine who shows up because we simply do not have enough pointlessness in this book! And not only there, but why am I wasting time not only reading about Cecily, but being stuck in her head so we can see fragments of a pointless relationship between 2 pointless side characters? To give us a pointless PSA about choice and autonomy vs having a future chosen for you? And what does that have to do with the price of tea in China? A nice message but pretty irrelevant to the central themes of the book and certainly not needing a passel of pointless characters bloating the cast for the purpose.

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The number one question in Griffin Shaw’s life is who killed both him and his wife Evie fifty years ago.  Though he has found new love with rockabilly babe Kit, Evie continues to haunt his dreams.  It’s been four months since he saved Kits life and returned to the mudflat (read: earth) but he is no closer to solving this extremely cold case.

Life keeps moving and the pures keep sending him souls to guide into the Everlast.  He may be part human now, but his duties as a centurion continue.  It is these duties that force him to do a take for Jeap Yang - a drug addict.  What he does not know is that this take will be different because not only will Kit involved, she will be introduced to a fallen.  This alone would be bad enough, but it will lead them on a trail to investigate a horrible new drug flooding the streets and confront both the Russian and Cuban mafia. Will Griffin and Kit manage to survive unscathed and can their fragile love survive all the forces which seemed aligned against them?

In The Taken, Pettersson included a strong message against violence aimed at women but The Lost, is absent such a message. Instead it seemed to fixate on fighting the subjugation of sexist patriarchal beliefs by showing women in charge of organized crime.   These women were strong but incredibly cold.  In Kit she did decide to show a softer kind of strength however but she was one person against two very domineering and angry women.  The difference between Kit and the two antagonists is that Kit is never really portrayed as having to battle sexism.  It seems to imply a sort of revenge fantasy rather than women being in control because they are powerful, organized and capable.

There was certainly more racial inclusion in The Taken but not only inclusion is good inclusion.  Once again,  Lil and Fleur made an appearance but their sole purpose was to educate Kit about Latino culture.

    “Shit, girl, he probably ain’t Mexicano.” Screwing up her beautifully painted mouth, Lil drew back to regard Kit with disdain. “You think us Latinas all look alike.”

    “No I don’t,” Kit said defensively, but the two women gave her matching stares, arms folded across their chests, perfectly plucked eyebrows raised in identical doubt. “You two, for example, look better than anyone I’ve ever seen in my entire life.” (pg 89)

This was a salient point for both Lil and Fleur to make.  Despite being a good friend to both women, Kit remains clueless about Latino culture.
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Kevin is now living on a boat and he has a life that consists of getting up, studying the tablet, going to bed, getting up, studying the tablet, going to bed. Sounds like law school, only I drank far far far more coffee. Until finally he looked at his notes and almost elated gasps *holy crap* (I felt the same way finishing jurisprudence), then his nose starts bleeding and he faints (yup, definitely jurisprudence).

At the Winchester Cave, Dean is setting up his room (including with a picture of his mother) and we have one of those awesomely subtle Supernatural moments when Dean says he has never had his own room. And it’s clean and not a motel – and did Sam just drop a wrapper on the floor? Oh you did not!  And he goes and cooks. In a real kitchen –they have a real kitchen and Dean can actually cook (even Dean remarks that he’s “nesting”). Domestic bliss is interrupted by Kevin’s call for help.

They arrive at his boat – guns drawn – and find Kevin being sick in the bathroom. The question him on his lifestyle and in an earthshattering moment Dean says “I’m going to feel dirty for saying this, but you might want a salad.” But he has found out how to close the gates of hell – a spell in Enochian to be said after the three trials are completed.

Trials? Yes there are three major tests that you have to undertake, like the trials of Hercules. The first of which is to kill a hellhound and bathe in its blood. Dean’s all for that – to close the gates of hell there’s no limit to the ickiness he’ll endure (I like this – he’s been tortured in Hell, he’s not going to draw the line at grossness) they just have to find someone who made a deal with the crossroads demon and kill the hound that turns up to collect. Easy – well, Dean says easy, Sam not so sure.

While Dean is out shopping (and being awed by the tomato variety out there), Sam talks to Kevin about how he’s living. Kevin is driving himself – almost to death – because he hates his life, hates being isolated, hates the fact demons are hunting him and he wants it to be over. Sam understands but fighting evil is a marathon not a sprint. But when Dean returns he gives Kevin headache pills and pep pills and advice not to OD. Sam protests but Dean points out they’re “at the 1 yard line” so it’s time to play through the pain (also a wonderful comment on how the two work – Dean has always fought to the edge of self-destruction).

They find their potential deal maker – a family of poor famers, the Cassitys, who struck oil on their land, against all geological knowledge. They head there and find the ranch manager and GASP SHOCK she’s a woman! And she’s working on fixing a tractor! I’m kind of depressed that it seems we’re supposed to be surprised by this. Sam and Dean are hired as farm workers and given a room – much to Dean’s sadness (he misses his room). A quick assessment of the situation finds the ranch manager, Ellie, having little motive, Carl husband of one of the Cassitys is just too nice leaving Alice Cassity who has already established herself as a piece of work.

Sam and Dean resolve to follow her for a while (since she’s unlikely to confess if confronted) and that night there is eerie spooky howling that worries the horses – Alice goes to calm them down, watched by Sam and Dean. And while she’s gone, a hellhound chews on Carl.

The police arrive and everyone is very shocked. The police tries to blame wolves but Ellie won’t have it. She reveals that the whole family is flying in. Sam tries to offer support for Alice Cassity in the stable but she’s find – which she finds confusing because she loved Carl, so why would she feel fine? At least she thinks she loved him, she never used to, he had a crush on her and she made fun of him. But then Valentines Day 2003 (oooh look 10 years ago) she suddenly fell in love with him.

Sam smells a deal and goes to tell Dean, nixing his plan of summoning a crossroads demon and then threatening it until it delivers a hellhound (a suicidal plan). Since Carl sold his soul for Alice, someone else sold their soul for the oil.

The family arrives and Ellie introduces them: Noah, 71 year old patriarch and his 20 year old underwear model wife. Alice the oldest daughter; Cindy, a country music singer whose career is crashing due to her drinking; and Margie the youngest, lives in Paris. Cut to the night with Sam serving table and Dean manning the grill (Ellie “I do like a man who can handle his meat.” I am stealing that line).

Rachel is faced with a crisis that hits very close to home – Rosewood babies are being kidnapped. Babies like her, with too many demon enzyme who normally die very young, are being stolen – each with the potential to become a day walking demon.

But it is just one move in Ku’Sox’s plan against her – the created and lethal supposed saviour of demon kind has his eyes fixed on Rachel and is determined to bring her – and, in fact, all of the Ever After down with him. The demon collective is too afraid to dare challenge him, and willing to accede to his demands even as his plans set to destroy the Ever After, render demons extinct and even end magic itself.

And he’s using children – those nearest and dearest to Rachel and Trent – to get his way, forcing hard choices and sacrifices on the people she cares for. It seems she can keep no-one safe and the entire force of the demon collective is poised to fall upon her as they panic and the Ever After shrinks.

There was a lot to love here. The world building grew immensely – but never in a way that derailed the plot or even slowed it down (though there were other factors that put on the breaks). We learned so much more about the world – the history of the gargoyles, the history of the ley lines and the Ever After and, most stunning of all, the history of the demon/elf conflict and the demons’ origins. The full nature and revelations of the demon/elf war, its origins and the nature of the demons who managed to survive since then was a wonderful shift in our perceptions of who the good and bad guys are – and suggests strongly that good and bad are just far too simplistic for this conflict. It added a lot of wonderful nuance and depth to this world. I’m sitting here rewriting this paragraph several times over because I am desperately trying not to spoil the awesome revelations but equally desperately want to talk about them – because they were so good. Even aside from the main plot line, Jenks and Belle’s ongoing revelations of fairy and pixie culture and Ivy’s storyline showing exactly what they mean when they say older vampires tend to kill themselves – it’s now very evocatively shown rather than just told.

And we got a full sense of that nuance and the epic implications of what these revelations meant in the story. Trent wants to make peace with Dali, which he’ll consider – but, given Dali’s own history – he can’t just accept the outstretched hand. Rachel’s epic speech about common demon history, about what they’ve endured, matching her own experiences to that and using it to shame Ku’Sox

We’re also definitely going to see more about the Elven goddess – which I really want to see.

The story itself was a roller coast – despite some elements I’ll discuss in a moment – it was very good at building tension and emotion. I won’t spoil, but some of the things that happened outright shocked me and added to the demand for action and excitement this book built excellently. There were also some excellently emotional scenes – the mourning, Rachel’s speech, Trent’s revelations that, for all his lofty goals, he’s a father first, Al’s drunken little binge, Rachel’s look into Al’s dreams, the rings – there was incredible emotion throughout this and I really felt for the characters

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Kate, the demon hunting soccer-mom, is back, juggling play dates for a toddler, her teenaged daughter, her husband and his political machinations with the complexities of hunting and killing demons.

With the demons yet again coming to San Diablo, Kate is faced a more evolved and ongoing threat as well as the fallout from her daughter finally learning the truth about Kate and her secret double life. Of course, once she understands she has a lot of questions – and Kate isn’t sure how many she can answer, especially in relation to Eric, her dead husband who apparently had a life and machinations he kept secret from her as well. A secret that got him killed – and may still have considerable bearing on what the demons are plotting today.

I said before that this series had an interesting gimmick, but that it couldn’t live on the gimmick any longer. While it is intriguing and new to have a housewife as a demon hunter, juggling her life and commitments while still trying to run her secret life killing demons, it’s a great hook but it’s not the basis for a full book series and could quickly grow tired.

And this book avoided that. We have a much more focused plot with a lot less side distractions or her mundane life being described in as much detail. It’s still there, certainly, and remains hectic but we don’t have as much page time dedicated to these tasks. Instead, we have a much more involved and winding plot. The demons are back again and up to something but there’s a definite meta developing with their plot line, something to tie in the whole series in an ongoing devious scheme that brings all of these demons to this town that Kate chose because it was safe from demons.

In addition to the demons developing more into an ongoing threat rather than one off encounters, we have considerable increased complexity with Kate telling her daughter what she does and her (and her dead husband’s) past. Not only does this free up some of the familial duties but it also adds a whole new dimension to the story with Kate’s worry about Ally wanting to join in the fighting, with her concern about the demons targeting her and Kate’s constant battle as to exactly how much she should tell her daughter

Which is, in turn, complicated by David, the freelance hunter who may or may not have Eric’s (her first husband and Ally’s father) soul inside him. This is a wonderfully complex and emotional storyline with Kate torn between the man she used to love, the man she used to hunt with and the father of her daughter, and her current husband and father of her son – who she does love, but who doesn’t know her past or about her hunting demons. It’s a wonderful, rich, nuanced conflict that adds a lot of depth to the book.

Throw in, on top of that, Kate investigating exactly what Eric was up to and we have a lot of plot here – but it’s all interwoven. She can’t investigate Eric without touching on issues of what to tell Ally and without considering the whole David/Eric issue nor without looking at the ongoing demonic scheme that is apparently involved in San Diablo and throughout the Forza. It’s really nicely done to have all of these plot lines touch each other, even though they’re approached separately.

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It was awesome, go buy it.

Why are you still here? Go go now! Go buy and read it?

Have you read it yet? Then what are you doing here? Get reading! Never mind sleep, read, people, read. What, you haven’t read the previous books? Go read them too!

Ok, now I’m assuming you’ve read it, you’re allowed a brief diversion before reading it a second time.

I can’t even begin to recap this – so much happens and to truly grasp it I’d have to spoil which would be a crime. Kara enters the demon world, finds out so much she knew was wrong, discovers a whole new reality, discovers so much more about her magic – and a lot more about the Lords, who she can trust and who she can’t.  There are many twists in that, some awesome world building, a great plot and some excellent characters.

There was so much to love here. Kara is plunged into the demon world where everything is so different yet so similar to Earth. The lands and settings are described beautifully, enough information to get a true sense of the place while at the same time not drowning us in unnecessary detail or pages and pages of over the top description. I just loved the setting here and how it, in turn helped describe the demons, the different forms, their lives, the way they behave (like the demon snowball fight – which was awesome) without needing to create Wikipedia articles about each kind. We got all the information about them and them much more filled out by these events and daily behaviour than ever we could through dry lectures.

And info dumping was always going to be a risk here. Kara arrives on this brand new world, she’s surrounded by every kind of demon and she discovers that a lot of what she (and other demon summoners) thought they knew about the demons and the demon world was laughably wrong (I loved that as well, how her old knowledge wasn’t infallible). Then we’ve got to learn about the 11 demon lords, what actually happened to Szerin, the past cataclysm that nearly destroyed the world, the blades, this alien force, the groves not to mention Kara studying bran new forms of summoning and using symbols.

There was a lot of information there and none of it was dumped. Of course some was lectured in a teaching situation but it was all really well balanced. The pacing was excellent, events prevented us having long screeds of info. When Kara is traumatised it is presented respectfully without Kara getting over it over night and without endlessly melodramatic pages of angst and navel gazing – and she has ongoing issues, especially about trust and her appearance, that stem from that. It’s a very natural, very real presentation of her as a survivor and, again, is balanced perfectly with the plot and the world building and the exploration to prevent us having pages and pages of repetition or dry exposition that just drags. Kara doesn’t trust people around her, for obvious reasons, but it never reaches a point of foolishness or the whole plot scuppering over Kara failing to see the obvious out of sheer mistrust – even though it takes a long time to ever gain her full trust. Again, an excellent and real balance.

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Menolly steps back up as protagonist in this book as the sisters come across an old potential crime while burrowing through the storerooms of the Wayfarer. Tracking down a missing elf from years ago isn’t easy, but is complicated by a missing vampire, a posse of undead, a friendly neighbourhood necromancer and his wandering ghouls, a demonic frat house who get exactly what they deserve and a whole new force of demons who fight on the astral plane

It’s a lot to juggle and, of course, behind it all is the politics from Otherworld and the eternal threat of Shadow Wing and his demons.

Menolly also has relationships to balance – Nerissa is finding her time taxed with the puma council demanding she assume a political role; while Vanzir and Rozuriel both pursue Menolly, their demonic natures fitting powerfully well with Menolly’s vampirism.

One of the main problems I’ve had with this series in the past is that it brings in a lot of extraneous issues, lots of side plots and lots of distractions that bogs down a very epic story – which is further exacerbated by the over-description, unnecessary recapping and constant talking everything through.

So I was really happy that this book managed to avoid a lot of that. I think part of it is that the world is so huge now there’s a limit to how much recapping and reiteration you can actually do. Similarly most of the storylines and elements were pretty much relevant to the plot without too much in the way of distraction. The writing was more concise, there was no need to reiterate the battle order every time they fought, less random anecdotes from Iris, less putting the end of the world on hold so they could have a meal – it was tighter. There was still some side references that made things longer than they needed to be, but they were relevant side references to things like the fae queens or Iris’s personal life. The story was much more contained and moved at a much brisker pace with a far greater sense of both the urgency and the epic consequences they face.

I wasn’t especially happy with how the story started, however. I can understand going after the astral demons since Delilah was targeted and people were dying. It was a nice reminder that, while Shadow Wing must be the priority, he’s not the only threat out there and they can’t focus on him when there are bodies on the ground. I can also understand Chase asking for information on the missing vampire from Menolly since she’s his vampire contact and it’s only a matter of asking questions. What I don’t understand is, with the ominous threat of Shadow Wing looming over them, they decided that it’d be great to search for an elf who may or may not have gone missing several years ago. Where’s the triage? Where’s the sense of priorities? I’m actually a little put out that it did all end up being related to Shadow Wing. Maybe it’s supposed to be a sense of how wide spread his power and influence is, but I felt it was a little “hey we got another spirit seal!” “How?” “Uh… we kind of stumbled over it, to be honest.”  The story itself was great – fun, well written, well paced – but the beginning and end were shaky.

I also think the friendly neighbourhood necromancer is really unnecessary in a cast that already has a rather large cast of characters. This is a wonderfully huge world with a massive, multi-layers epic storyline with so many factors and sides and forces that it always stands on the edge of becoming bloated.

Of course, it’s that world and epic story that keeps me coming back to this series. The fae, the devas, the different realms of fae, the demons and their factions, humans, shapeshifters, vampires – I don’t think there are many worlds I’ve come across that are as rich as this series. And it’s not just the sheer number of supernaturals that are present, it’s how all these forces are relevant to the plot line. All of them have an influence and all of them have a stake – they’re not just mentioned in passing, they are integral parts of the story.

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Hiatus is over, American Horror Story is back, hold on to your hats and your turkey because the whacky and weird and often awful has returned.

Much to everyone’s shock, Arden actually does try to bring Kit back from the dead. Kit is dazed from his harrowing experience and Arden is callously clinical. He tells Kit that the aliens didn’t come – even while the flashbacks show us what a liar he is.

Arden has Grace and marvels over the aliens healing of her bullet wound and wants to do more testing. Which is where Alien!Pepper steps in, Grace’s Guardian. Arden mocks her, just because she can speak doesn’t make her intelligent he claims and she counters by mocking his primitive experiments and how he thinks that even remotely puts him on the alien’s level. He steps it up by threatening to cut Grace open and his scalpel is ripped from his hand by an invisible force. Pepper then proceeds to lay on an awesome smack down, telling him how she, as a Microcephallic person, as a “freak” was often blamed and used as a scapegoat – how her own sister murdered her baby and then blamed Pepper – and the judge took one look at Pepper and condemned her.  She threatens Arden with the aliens’ “stirring his brain with a fork” so he can see how people treat people like her.

Pepper also does scary quite quite well.

Monsignor Timothy has been pulled down from his cross – and isn’t dead. When Scathach came to see him on his cross it wasn’t to take his soul, it was to give him a job, to exorcise Sister Demon Lettuce. She reminds him that his rosary is his shield against Sister Demon Lettuce

Which is probably why he’s a little perturbed that Sister Demon Lettuce is his caregiver while he recovers and why he clutches his rosary.

In the common room, blessedly free of that damned singing nun, the destruction of which is mentioned snarkily by Sister Demon Lettuce to Jude’s truly awesome “like I give a shit” demeanour. Sister Demon Lettuce has brought in a Juke Box, just perfect to torment Jude and her hatred of worldly ways. Even Lana seems to be impressed by Jude (as she should be)

But Lana’s quicker still to go to Kit to tell him Threadson’s loose – something he already knows as Dr. Oliver Threadson walks into the room and sits down for a nice chat with them both – after  moving the heavy glass ashtray out of Lana’s easy reach, anyway. He’s not going to kill them because she’s carrying his kid and he has Threadson’s taped confession. But it was Sister Demon Lettuce who rescued him – and Sister Demon lettuce who gave him a job at Briarcliff – so he will be treating them.

That night there’s a room search and Lana takes the chance to confront Sister Demon Lettuce – which gets her carted off to hydrotherapy. Sister Demon Lettuce moves on to try and shame Jude for masturbating with a marrow – but Jude’s not having that and throws even more epic “like I give a shit” in Sister Demon Lettuce’s direction. Shaming failed – Demon Lettuce sets Jude up for electroshock – an extra strong dose. I’d feel more sympathy for Jude if a) she hadn’t done this to Lana and b) I didn’t suspect that electricity would only make her stronger.

Back to Monsignor Tim who tries his hand at a bit of exorcism. It does not go well, but Sister Demon Lettuce has some nifty limericks. Oh and telekinesis.  Which starts out fun – but this is American Horror Story and quickly turns into yet another rape – this time Sister Demon Lettuce raping Monsignor Tim while he begs her to stop and talks of his vows. And Arden walks in to see them at it

Jude staggers into the common room, disorientated from the electroshock, witnessed by Lana who comments to Kit that she doesn’t feel any better seeing Jude hurting. Defiant to the end, Jude staggers to the juke box and tries to unplug it. Lana goes to her and helps her up and comforts her – and asks her name. To which Jude hallucinates a song and dance number, with all the inmates, with Lana and Kit as main dancers, to The Name Game.

American Horror Story sets new records of weirdness every week. I’m almost in awe. I thought the aliens were weird. She comes back to reality with Lana reminding her of her name.

It’s feeding time for the monsters and Arden is being pouty with Sister Demon Lettuce after seeing her rape the monsignor (he’s still invested in Mary Eunice’s “purity”). He then shoots and kills all of his monsters that have arrived to eat – the experiment is over. Demon Lettuce comments on his tantrum and he says it’s a farce and puts a gun to his head (I guess Pepper’s words hit home) but can’t pull the trigger, he collapses in tears instead. He clutches her and tells her she has no idea what it’s like to have lost her – she pushes him aside contemptuously.

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It’s the present for once and we open with a man, Johnny, speaking to a hypnotherapist, Dr Gardner, to get her help to curb impulses. His impulses? He skinned a cat as a child, then escalated to killing animals which he points our are predictors for psychopaths (serial killers more accurately) and those thoughts are getting harder to ignore. She becomes ever more uncomfortable as he talks about his roots – finding his real father (he now lives in his real father’s house) and his urge to hurt women and skin them. We flash to him as Bloody Face – modern Bloody Face – trying to skin Teresa at Briarcliff, but he’s not nearly as skilled as his father, Threadson. And he wants to go to medical school to learn his father’s skills.

Back to the past where in Briarcliff, Sister Demon Lettuce is upbraiding nuns for entering her office without knocking (aww, she’s all grown up). Even Lana comments on her “Jude imitation.” And Sister Demon Lettuce reveals that Lana is pregnant – and comments on a “drano margarita” to induce an abortion and calls her rape a lie (possibly because they have Threadson captured, Lana pretends she hallucinated).

Yes, Lana is pregnant. Who didn’t see this coming?

Lana declares that she can’t have this baby, she doesn’t want the baby but Sister Demon Lettuce says she can and will (and it’s an insane asylum, people hump like bunnies and they’ve had unwed mothers before… she has a way with words you have to admit) and the babies are taken to St Ursula’s home for lost children. Lana says she’s worse than Jude and Demon Lettuce threatens to restrain her.

Jude wakes up tied to a bed with the Monsignor standing over her telling her she’s become unhinged and paranoid. We see the process used to frame her with the Monsignor, Arden, Demon Lettuce and Leigh (yes, he survived) all conspiring against her to frame her for the death of Frank and accuse her of kidnapping and attacking Leigh. Even the Mother Superior testifies that Jude thought Sister Demon Lettuce was possessed by the devil. The magistrate ruled that Jude would spend the rest of her days in Briarcliff and she is stripped of her clerical status.

Mosignor and Demon Lettuce pack up Jude’s things – including her red camisole. And Demon lettuce reveals she knows all about Monsignor’s extreme ambition to become pope and offers her own service to the Monsignor to help him save souls.

Jude finds the nuns are no kinder to her than any other inmate - perhaps even harsher since she used to be the harsh taskmistress. Monsignor arrives with a visitor for her – Leigh. Oh I bet she’s thrilled. He has something to say which Monsignor thinks will help. He tells her he forgives her.

Jude is not amused and flashbacks to 1963 when they restrained Frank to his bed after he raped another nun (enough with the damn rape! And no, “Sister Chastity” being the victim is not ironic or funny or edgy, damn it). Leigh claims she has to forgive him, she says she doesn’t, she’s not a priest and he’s not a penitent. Back tied to her bed, Jude is not impressed.

Lana smuggles a wire coathanger to her room which she unfolds and goes to see Kit who is busy syphoning off his drip so he’s less loopy. Lana wants to kill Threadson again, but Kit still needs his confession.  Lana has an idea of how to make that happen.

Time to go see Threadson and show him her pregnancy results (“the ultimate cosmic joke”). He begs her not to give the baby up for adoption – since he himself was a child of the system. Lana holds up her wire coathanger – her “creative” abortion since she’s stuck there. Threadson starts begging and promising to change (imagine how little Lana believes that). She tells him how much she doesn’t believe him then begins asking about his victims, each one and why he chose them, getting confessions from him. All recorded by Kit. She does tell him that she was pregnant though – but she’d already given herself an abortion with the coathanger.  He calls her a monster for killing “an innocent child”, Lana’s not having it and tells him she’s going to get a knife from the bakery and slit his throat.

Arden, after his close encounter of the noisy kind, returns to the death chute to try and find Grace’s disappearing body and finds… footprints. If feet were odd and two toed. Actually they look vaguely like dinosaur footprints from Jurassic Park – NB: American Horror Story this is NOT A SUGGESTION! Aliens and demons are quite enough thank you.

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John Taylor is back in the Nightside with his ability to find anything, anything at all, anywhere.

Which makes him in high demand when the Grail disappears – the Unholy Grail. The cup that Judas drank from. A cup that corrupts all those around it, a cup that could very well bring about the end of the world.

It’s in the Nightside and lots of people want it. More than people – the Angels of Light and Darkness want it as well – and they’re willing to rip apart the entire Nightside to get it. They’re not subtle and they’re awful investigators, but no force can stand against them for long, and everything risks being utterly destroyed before they’ve finished.

Which leaves Taylor the problems of finding the Grail, deciding who to give it to – and making sure the people who want it don’t get the Grail first and don’t kill him to stop anyone else getting it. And with Nightside under threat, the big powers of the strange world come out to fight.

This book is fantastic. It seems to be a theme of the series – the fantastic. The Nightside is a place that contains literally everything – in all its wonders and its horrors (mainly horrors). The world has no rules and anything exists there – the richness of the imagination of this place is incredible. From magic to sci-fi, gods to aliens, monsters – to things I can’t even describe, things that don’t fit in any category, they’re all amazingly imagined.

And it’s all very dark and very gritty. Nothing is pretty or sweet or generous or kind in the Nightside. Even the apparently harmless is dangerous and there’s a well maintained theme of constant risk, of constant menace in the book. There is no downtime or safe space – and that isn’t just because of the story, but a constant theme of the Nightside itself. The only safety the characters earn is because, as John  Taylor and Shotgun Suzie, they have a reputation as people who are extremely dangerous. The only safety is being a bigger threat than those who want to hurt you. And it’s not just menacing, it’s disturbing. It’s never as simple as just bad guys who want to kill you – bad guys who want to kill you are nice and kind combined to what half of what the Nightside does. The menace here is a surreal, almost nightmarish quality and linked to just how strange and fantastic the world is.

What I find most impressive is not how both of these are introduced – the fantastic and the constant menace – but how it is constantly maintained with little references, new figures, new powers introduced just to show another facet of this strange and terrifying place.

This maintenance of theme also did a lot to establish the sheer might and fury of the angels (even if they started out almost dismissed when Taylor artfully turns the two factions against each other). No matter how many horrors we saw, how much power  the Nightside shows, the invasion of the angels was destroying it. It also serves a lot to establish Taylor’s power – he rarely overtly shows his abilities in a menacing way and the ability to find anything does sound pretty minor – but the way everyone is afraid of him establishes his menace far more than dramatic displays of flashy abilities.

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