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(Note:  Although this review will not contain spoilers for The Halcyon Bird, it may inadvertently reveal plot surprises from its predecessor, The Demon Catchers of Milan.  As always, I recommend reading books in a series in order.)

American teenager Mia Dellatorri has lived in Milan long enough to learn Italian, prefer her Nonna's homemade cuisine to anything else, and to feel almost more at home at her uncle's than with her immediate family in upstate New York.  And yet, the Della Torre's still won't let her out on the streets without at least one blood relative to protect her.  Inside the well-guarded home, Mia's safe from the vicious, ancient demon who desires to possess her.  Outside, she's vulnerable.  Too vulnerable.  The monster doesn't leave living victims, as Mia knows all too well.

When Mia meets Bernardo—the most beautiful man she's ever seen—she's ready to throw caution to the wind.  Anything to feel his strong arms around her one more time.  She knows that being with Bernardo means exposing him to the danger she faces every day.  If only she could tell him the truth about her family's demon-catching enterprise!  She hates deceiving her kindhearted boyfriend, but she has little choice.  The only way to keep him—and herself—safe is to get rid of her demon once and for all.  Challenging him means risking her life.  It's a chance Mia's willing to take if it means defending the lives of those she loves.  Even if the one person she can't save is herself.

It's no secret that I wasn't all that impressed with The Demon Catchers of Milan, the first book in Kat Beyer's urban fantasy series.  The novel sagged under too much detail and too little plot.  The Halcyon Bird, the second Mia Dellatorri book, picks up a bit, but still drags.  Again, Mia has no real story goal, which makes the novel feel episodic and aimless.  This, along with a confusing magical world, underdeveloped characters, and tell-don't-show prose made this a tedious, unsatisfying read for me.  It's more exciting than the first book, true, but not enough to entice me to stick with this series.  Bummer.

(Readalikes:  The Demon Catchers of Milan by Kat Beyer; similar in subject to The Mortal Instruments series [City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass; City of Fallen Angels; City of Lost Souls; City of Heavenly Fire] by Cassandra Clare)


Grade:


****

Even though I wasn't wild about The Halcyon Bird, it might be right up your reading alley.  What better way to give it a shot than to win a free copy of the book?  The good people at Egmont are generally offering one to one lucky Bloggin' 'bout Books reader.  If you'd like the chance to win, all you have to do is fill out the handy-dandy Rafflecopter thing-y below.  Please note that you must have a U.S. or Canadian mailing address to be eligible for the giveaway.  Contest ends on December 13.  Good luck!

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Dealing with demon possession is all in a day's work for the Della Torre Family.  For centuries, they've been walking the streets of Milan, "catching" the city's darkest citizens.  It's a lonely, but important profession, one that's as crucial as it is secretive.    

Mia Dellatorri, a 16-year-old living in upstate New York, knows nothing of her father's history.  He doesn't talk about his family, doesn't discuss Italy, and has certainly never mentioned demons.  Which means she's shocked and utterly unprepared when a particularly nasty one decides to invade her body.  After an exorcism she barely remembers, involving cousins she never knew existed, Mia is shipped off to Italy for her own safety.  Trapped inside an apartment with only her cousins and her history books to keep her company, Mia is restless and scared.  She doesn't want to hide from demons, she wants to hunt them, just like her relatives do.  Can she convince her relations to stop babying her and start training her?  She knows her demon will strike again.  Whether her relations like it or not, this time, she will fight him head-on.  Or die trying.

Okay, I admit it:  I made the plot of The Demon Catchers of Milan—a debut urban fantasy by Kat Beyer—sound a little more exciting than it actually is.  In truth, it gets off to a slow start (after Mia's possession/exorcism, anyway), plodding along until it gets to a very anticlimactic end.  The author spends a lot of time (a lot) building Mia's demon-catching world, which isn't a bad thing, unless it drags down the action without answering important questions, which is what happens in this novel.  Mia doesn't really form a concrete story goal until the last 3/4 of the book, which makes the rest of the tale feel sluggish and unfocused.  Since there's nothing really new or different about the premise of The Demon Catchers of Milan (although the setting definitely appeals), the novel needs something more to make it memorable—superb writing, unique characters, a never-saw-it-coming plot twist—something to make it stand out.  As is, I found it to be just another average, ordinary teen fantasy novel.  Nothing special.  

(Readalikes:  its sequel, The Halcyon Bird by Kat Beyer; the whole demon/mythical creature thing also reminded me of Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments series [City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass; City of Fallen Angels; City of Lost Souls; and City of Heavenly Fire] and Tyger Tyger by Kersten Hamilton)

Grade:

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(Note:  While this review will not contain spoilers for I Don't Want to Kill You, it may inadvertently reveal plot surprises from the first two books in the trilogy.  As always, I recommend reading books in a series in order.)

I have a little bit of a love/hate relationship with the John Cleever series by Dan Wells.  The books are all well-written, compelling and thought-provoking, to be sure, but they're also gory, violent and disturbing.  So, while I find them entertaining, I also find them a little hard to stomach.  The middle book (Mr. Monster) made me feel physically ill, so I was a tad reluctant to pick up I Don't Want to Kill You, the last book in the trilogy.  If it hadn't been nominated for this year's Whitney Awards, I probably would have put off reading it a bit longer, which would have been a shame because it's not nearly as unsettling as its predecessors.  Or maybe it's just me—it's entirely possible that prolonged exposure to the twisted mind of Dan Wells has deadened my frailer sensibilities.  

At any rate, I Don't Want to Kill You begins a couple of months after Mr. Monster ends.  John Wayne Cleever, a 16-year-old sociopath, is waiting patiently for the arrival of a demon named Nobody.  The monster is coming, John knows that; it's just a matter of when she'll show up.  Whenever she makes her arrival, he'll be ready.  He might study serial killers, he might dream of murder, but John's tired of watching people he knows die. It's time for him to take control, to destroy the demon who may already be darkening the streets of his hometown, masquerading as a normal, everyday resident of Clayton, North Dakota.  

John's unusual psychological makeup makes him the perfect demon hunter, but he can't let his darker impulses control him if he wants to have any kind of normal life.  And he does, he really does.  To triumph over Mr. Monster, the devil that lurks inside him, John must focus on the hunt for Nobody.  In order to save the people of Clayton, he has to take a careful, probing look at each and every one of them.  All of them, as he soon discovers, are hiding something, but which one of them conceals a demon?  It will take all of John's wit, all of his strength, all of his talent to find and eliminate Nobody before she takes over the town and everyone in it.  

Like the first two books in the trilogy, I Don't Want to Kill You explores the idea of people choosing their own destinies, in spite of all the things that might be working against them.  This intriguing premise is what elevates the novels above other horror stories.  In addition, John is a character who probably shouldn't be sympathetic, but is, simply because he's trying so hard to overcome his baser instincts.  He's a fascinating hero, one for whom I always find myself rooting, even when he's having homicidal thoughts toward his mother (shudder).  So, while the John Cleever books make me distinctly uncomfortable, I still think they're sort of brilliant.  Just in a gross, disturbing kind of way.      

Grade:  B

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  PG-13 for language (no F-bombs); violence/gore; and sexual innuendo

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find