My review guidelines can be found HERE.
Blackout
by Rob Thurman
317 page Mass Market Paperback
Released March 2011
A Cal Leandros Novel, Book 6 • Half-human Cal Leandros has always walked a bloody line between keeping his mortal soul free and clear (sort of) and unleashing the horror of his otherworldly heritage. The one thing that’s always saved him is the memory of his brother, Niko, his friends, and those he loves.
Until now.
Cal wakes up on a beach littered with the recently slaughtered remains of a variety of hideous creatures that were obviously looking for trouble. The fact that he was the one doing the slaughtering doesn’t bother him. The fact that he feels like a natural-born killer doesn’t either. What bothers him is that Cal doesn’t remember Cal anymore…
And he’s not sure he cares.
COVER ART
by Chris McGrath
• Gritty, dark... good imitation of internal content
• The haircut is right on
• Red metallic title is a bit hard to read and blends into the black background
• Obvious original artwork, sweet
PARANORMALITY
• Monsters
• Spiders
• Mummies
• Vampires
• Puck
• And more...
SEXUALITY
• Historic dangerous werewolf sex
• Paranormal titty bar
• Secondary paranormal gay couple, with extensive suggestive phrasing
REVIEW
• I began here, in the midst of the Cal Leandros series, and I don't feel lost. Well, any more lost than you would feel if you woke up with instincts to kill but no memory. I'm very glad I picked up with book. I will most likely be going back for the rest of them, though I'm certain I've reading spoilers in this one. The amnesia is an easy way to introduce me (the new reader) to Cal (the veteran series character).
• Cal's attitude is so nastily snarky I just want to squeeze him and duck the coming punch. Integration of modern slang and youth culture, even into the internal dialogue, brings a smile out in the darkest moments - and that is the essence of Cal.
• References to Peter Pan enthrall me.. pirates, waterfalls & flying children mixed in with monkey faced gigantic spiders.
• The amnesia is very well done, and once the self-discovery is finished - I feel the urge to reread the story to pick up all the hints I missed along the way.
• The gore is extraordinarily disgusting.
The spider flipped onto its back, leaking blood by the gallons and squirting web silk by whatever you used to measure web silk.
Bundles? Haystacks? A whole shitload of it.
If you took every one of Spiderman's wet dreams, added them together, then multiplied them by ten, that was what you'd get.
Not that I wanted anything to do with Spiderman's wet dreams, but for measurement purposes, that was about right.
pg. 177
PERSONAL LURES
• I was astonishingly bookless on my way to the gym (and the only way for me to get through my workout is to tempt the fates of embarrassment and balance by reading a paperback while using the elliptical) and after 10 minutes of debate, this one was in my hand. Certainly a note for blog promotion... for that is how I even knew I might be interested in Rob Thurman's book. (She was pretty damn snarky online and I like that!)
HUNGRY FOR MORE?
Read a Tuesday Teaser with a Fork.
Read an excerpt with Peter Pan and dead spiders.
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