Seventh Grave and No Body - Review

Seventh Grave and No Body (Charley Davidson, # 7)

By: Darynda Jones

Publication: October 21st 2014 by St. Martin's Press

322 pages

Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Mystery

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)

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Goodreads description--Twelve. Twelve of the deadliest beasts ever forged in the fires of hell have escaped onto our plane, and they want nothing more than to rip out the jugular of Charley Davidson and serve her lifeless, mangled body to Satan for dinner. So there’s that. But Charley has more on her plate than a mob of testy hellhounds. For one thing, her father has disappeared, and the more she retraces his last steps, the more she learns he was conducting an investigation of his own, one that has Charley questioning everything she’s ever known about him. Add to that an ex-BFF who is haunting her night and day, a rash of suicides that has authorities baffled, and a drop-dead sexy fiancé who has attracted the attentions of a local celebrity, and Charley is not having the best week of her life.

A tad north of hell, a hop, skip, and a jump past the realm of eternity, is a little place called Earth, and Charley Davidson, grim reaper extraordinaire, is determined to do everything in her power to protect it.

We’re doomed.

Okay guys, I took notes and refused to let myself start book 8 until I sat down to write this review. So hopefully this review will be better than my reviews for the previous books in this series.

I liked the pop culture references. Sometimes this bugs me because it can automatically date a book, but these weren't references like "I love watching Breaking Bad" or "Twilight is my favorite book." Instead, there's mention of Jesse Pinkman, Heisenberg, and Bella... You just know or don't know the references. Those are the kinds I like. Also, "Friendbook" is just funny.

This series has a way of shining light on some of the worst of humanity. I know the cases that Charley takes on are fiction, but they're not far-fetched in many aspects. (Some of them are because this is a fantasy series after all, but unfortunately, most of them are realistic.) And this makes me so sad for humanity. I appreciate this in fiction because the cases are compelling, but in some ways, it messes with my mind. Especially when my Husband was telling me a horrible story that was real that I could see blending right into Charley's world.

A complaint that I've had over the entire series but haven't had the wherewithal to mention until now is how so many people that meet Charley seem to be aware that she's capable of doing different things, but they're keeping information to themselves. I realize the idea is for Charley to learn herself and grow over the series, but it can be frustrating as a reader to constantly read that a character is capable of XYZ or should know XYZ but can't or doesn't. Finally, Charley makes some significant strides forward in her abilities.

I very much appreciate that while this series doesn't follow religious theology necessarily, it doesn't discount God. In fact, the opposite is true. Charley mentions God in a respectful way more than once. I feel like this is so missing from literature today but especially from the fantasy genre. Why mention God when you can make up an entirely new religion or deity? Super applause to Darynda Jones for the decision making where this is concerned (at least up until this point in the series). She could always screw this up for me in the next few books.

However, Charley has recently been described as being a god in the other plane that she was from. Alternate planes and realities are something I struggle within books. This hasn't been a huge issue for me in this series so far because while they are mentioned the characters aren't traveling back and forth between them. But more and more Charley is being described in a way concerning the other plane that is confusing to me. Her personality seems to clash with who she's supposed to be...not just royalty but as a "god". I'm hoping this doesn't become too much bigger of a plot point.

I'm never a huge fan of descriptive scenes. Thankfully they're not too frequent in each book and they don't derail from the plot nor do they go on and on and on as some books I've read. I will plead with Darynda Jones, however, to lose the word "suckled" during these scenes. I cringe every time I see this word. Especially during these scenes.

This series has become a favorite and Seventh Grave and No Body is probably my favorite of the series so far. The advance in the series plot finally moved forward a good bit. Seventh Grave and No Body gets 4.5 Stars. Have you read Seventh Grave and No Body? What did you think? Let me know!