Review: The Undead Pool (The Hollows #12) – Kim Harrison

The Undead Pool by Kim Harrison
Series: The Hollows #12
Published by Harper Voyager on 25 February 2014
Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Romance, Suspense, Urban Fantasy
Pages: 423
Format: eBook
Source: Kindle Purchase

Witch and day-walking demon Rachel Morgan has managed to save the demonic ever after from shrinking, but at a high cost. Now strange magic is attacking Cincinnati and the Hollows, causing spells to backfire or go horribly wrong, and the truce between the races, between Inderlander and human, is shattering.

Rachel must stop the occurrences before the undead vampire masters who keep the rest of the undead under control are lost and it becomes all-out supernatural war. However, the only way to do so is through the ancient elven wild magic, which carries its own perils.

The Undead Pool is a great story, in which Rachel has even more magic than usual, and where she might have to stay far away from the demons while she takes care of a huge problem in Cincinnati and The Hollows. It all starts when magic misfires happen throughout Cincinnati, and Rachel happens to be where things go wrong twice in the same day. The Undead Pool starts about three months after the ending of Ever After, so it seems things have been slowing down for her a little bit, but that is not at all the case anymore once this story gets going.

Then, it appears that the master vampires aren’t waking up at night, and there’s a lot of violence among the living vampires both during the day and at night, more spells misfire, and Rachel has her hands full. She does allow herself to go on a date, though, and she spends a lovely evening with someone she likes a lot, playing bowling and eating burgers – until there is yet another misfire at the bowling alley. Little by little, Rachel realizes she really can’t go to Al for help this time, because the things causing the misfires are also attracted to her aura. And they are made from wild magic, which would put Al completely on the edge.

In The Undead Pool, Rachel finally sees that she has a lot of friends who care about her, and who are ready to put their lives on the line to help her save the world. Through many twists and turns, they help her come up with a plan, but at the last moment, things have changed and they need to play it by ear. Many of the characters I love from prior books are present in The Undead Pool as well, of course, Jenks is there – loyal and funny as always. Then, there is Ivy, Trent, Quen, Bis, David and others who follow Rachel’s lead and are more than willing to give her a helping hand – or tooth.

The excitement in The Undead Pool is very tense, and my mind was trying to figure where the story would go, and who was behind the bad things, and if someone I already knew might have something to do with those mystics. Quite fast paced for most of the story, The Undead Pool did also kind of feel like the beginning of the end. Many storylines that started in prior books seem to start to be resolved, and whereas I would love for Rachel to both find happiness, and be able to take care of herself without as much inderlander and otherworldly help as she has needed in the past, it made me sad to think there won’t be that many more stories featuring her and her crazy bunch of friends. And I just don’t want it to be over!

That said, Rachel’s growth in The Undead Pool is even more spectacular than in the earlier books, she finally feels more self-confident, and when she is able to handle some magic that seemed completely alien to her, she also got a much stronger handle on her own powers, too. The fact that there are several people who have her back was a pleasure to read about, because she really has been kind of on the sidelines for a while.

If you know my blog a little bit, you know that The Hollows is one of my all time favorite series, the mix of urban fantasy, paranormal creatures, magic and the strong female characters, as well as the well-spun story that has a true story-arc that started in the very first book and still counts on the seeds of that amazes me more with each book I read. The Undead Pool thrilled me in many ways, but I have been pretty vague in places to not spoil anything here, because I know several of my blogger friends aren’t caught up yet.

Death threats I could handle. Saving the world had always been a little trickier.Hand on his hips, he stared in disgust as the whining squeak of the pen on paper mixed pleasantly with the shouts of his kids in the sunny garden, where they were playing June bug croquet. It was as much fun as it sounded – unless you were the June bug.“Go,” I said, knowing he wanted to check on his pack – our pack – at the arena riot. “But will you call me tonight?” “Call?” He touched my arm, very aware of the watching people. “You’ll be lucky if I don’t sleep on your doorstep. That vampire is crazier than Goldilocks on bane.”

 

 

 

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