Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green

I am a sucker for horror novels. A young patron recently recommended the Nightside series to me. I am glad I took his advice. John Taylor is a would-be private detective who specializes in finding things. He hasn’t had a job in forever and needs money. So when a woman comes in asking for his help finding her daughter he can’t say no. The trouble begins when the woman claims that her daughter ran away to a mysterious place called the Nightside. John Taylor is familiar with the Nightside as he was born and raised there. And he doesn’t really care to go back.

The Nightside is a hidden realm at the heart of London. It has been there since the beginning of time and will continue on after London is gone. It is a place where monsters walk, and the bizarre and the insane are everyday occurrences. Horses talk in the Nightside, and faceless men with syringes for fingers roam the streets and will try to kill you. There are harpies, time travelers, and a diner perpetually stuck in the 60s. It’s a place of odds and ends, both horrifying and sublime.

Something from the Nightside is the first book in the series and at times it suffers from that introductory-ness that the first books have at times.  But the uniqueness of the Nightside really captivates and I am excited to read the next one. I would recommend this book for anyone in 9th grade and up. Horror lovers will definitely like it. Those interested in the Dresden Files will find a good read alike in the Nightside series.

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Snake Agent by Liz Williams

Meet Inspector Chen, the Singapore police department’s snake agent. A snake agent is the detective in charge of all supernatural disturbances. Chen isn’t like other snake agents though. He is somewhat of free thinker and has even married an escaped demon from Hell. The case begins with a grieving mother who asks Chen to look into her daughter’s death. Apparently her soul never made it to Heaven and was mysteriously rerouted to Hell. The case leads the inspector to a larger conspiracy, one that threatens to overturn the ruling family of Hell and could quite possibly destroy the balance that keeps Heaven, Hell, & Earth in harmony. Chen literally travels to Heaven and Hell, speaks with ghosts, and even partners with another detective, one that happens to be a demon!

Liz Williams has done a masterful job of updating the detective genre. She has mingled it with horror, through the supernatural, and fantasy by drawing on a rich tapestry of eastern mythology, as well a dash of sci-fi with very cool technology. The best part that I personally enjoyed is the dynamic relationship between Heaven, Hell, and Earth. This isn’t a three tiered universe with Heaven above us, or Hell below, but rather all three are next door to one another. Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean you might not just step into Hell around the next street corner. Instead of having these realms in a hierarchical scheme, Heaven, Hell, and Earth all contribute to a overall balance. In this light Chen becomes more of a protector of this balance then a harbinger of justice.

On the other hand, this book did take me a while to get into, almost a hundred pages. This could very well be because it is the first of a series and therefore has to set the ground rules of this new literary world. But once I was hooked I kept on wanting to open up the cover and read any chance I could. If this creative amalgam sounds like fun, take a chance and pick up a copy. I would recommend this book for more advanced readers, ages 14 and up.

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Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton

Guilty Pleasures is the first novel in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. I decided to read this for a variety of reasons. First I saw a teen a while back reading one of the titles. Then because the summer reading program is coming up I have been on the lookout for vampire books, and lastly Marvel Comics has made a graphic novel of this first book.

Anita Blake is an Animator, someone who can raise the dead (who then become zombies). As a plot device this profession sets her up like a private detective. Supposedly most of her time is raising the dead for such banal issues such as settling disputes over the recently deceased’s will. The majority of the book though involves her working for both the police and the vampire community to solve supernatural related crimes. In the world of Anita Blake all sorts of undead creatures are not just real but part of the daily experience of human life. Vampires are legal citizens who as a group are very similar to other ethnic and racial groups. In St. Louis, where the novels take place, there is a vampire district that is at once a tourist trap as well as a place for seedy nightclubs. In Guilty Pleasures the plot centers around the a series of killings, where the victims are all master vampires, older vampires who are very hard to kill. Anita is blackmailed by the vampire community to find the killer so they can eliminate him.

I found myself enjoying Guilty Pleasures a lot. The novel is a mix of noir/detective fiction, romance, and horror. It reads a lot like if Raymond Chandler wrote Dracula under the Harlequin imprint. There is violence and gore, which you expect. The biggest caveat is the sex/vampire fetishism that imbues the novel. While there are no sex scenes, it is mentioned a lot in the novel, and even when it’s not it’s part of the atmosphere of the book.

However, I did enjoy the book. If I have free time I may read more of the series. I would say this book would be a good read for older teens (10th grade and up) who are really into horror and vampires.

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