As with all John Dark books, the action comes in hard and fast, from the first book where we were introduced to this balls to the wall hard hitter to the forth book in the series, not much has changed except John Dark is getting angrier and angrier. He’s headed towards a meltdown and in this book he barely stays sane.
The book opens with him going to a bar and hooking up with a hot chick, who turns out to be a spider while he’s shagging her. He wakes up late afternoon and finds the sun hurts his eyes and there is a bite mark on his person.
His best friend Johnny takes him for some food and John eats the steak raw. Worried for his friend, Johnny’s grandmother (wise and hip to voodoo) tells him he is about to drink human blood and if he does that there is no return for his soul. He needs to go back in time and kill the spider-bitch so he is not infected with the poison of the undead.
And then the story gets weird.
I feel John Dark is becoming unlikeable and he has deep (for John Dark) thoughts about time and destiny and how souls are reborn and live several lives. It was a different John Dark than what I was used to. I didn’t really care for his plight nearing the end of the book. I wish I could have because the ending is pretty good and…unexpected. For me there is a fire in the three other books that keep you reading and rooting for JD, but in this book that fire dwindled to embers around page 217. John is always tough and angry and the reader always knows why, unfortunately that reason passed me by. Maybe being bitten but a spider-bitch and becoming one of the undead would piss anyone off. or perhaps it’s a build up for something coming in a new John Dark book. I’ll find out when I buy the next one. Which I am eagerly awaiting. There’s one thing about John Dark and that is that the character grows on you. Love him or hate him, you won’t forget him.
Most of the one liners are well timed and kept the flow of the book moving at a quick pace. A few fell dead. This book seemed to more fun based than the old hard hitting which is the style of John Dark I love.
On a good note: (quote from book) My mind wandered. I started thinking about all the strange shit me and Johnny had been through. Not only on this journey but on other weird journeys. Hell, on this one we’d almost got married to some girls with bones in their noses who definitely were two tons of fun. We’d been pirates and fought a werewolf and well, hell I’d fucked a werewolf. I’d done a howling good job of it too, if I do say so myself.
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