Review for Saint City Sinners, by Lilith Saintcrow

Welcome to the fourth book in this series, starring Dante Valentine. The plot thickens, as Lilith Saintcrow put a complete pause on the mess that is the family feud from Hell (literally, haha) and turned Danny's attention to the the murder of her good friends Gabrielle Spocarelli and Edward Thornton. This time the cyberpunk novel held more mystery, because the pacing was faster and there was a lot more action. While everything seems to be higher stakes and more dramatic with demon kind because they're the top of the food chain, this book with its focus on vengeance and (human) problems like drugs reminded me of Tarantino. Especially with the way Danny is less haunted emo Necromance and becoming more unstable demon antihero.

I feel like this arc was inserted last minute, in order to create suspense and put off Lucifer's family situation. Admittedly, Gabe and Eddie never made too big of an impression on me, but I still had to wonder at the author's choice of adding another two deaths into Danny's count of all the people she cared about who she feels abandoned her. Equally interesting was the choice to have Jace Monroe come back as a guardian spirit haunting her head. Danny's confused, and I'm confused too. With both Anubis and Jace and Japhrimel in her head, who is she going to listen to? Since she and Japhrimel have been on the rocks, I guess that leaves Anubis and Jace. What does it mean for Danny now that Jace appears more often when she's knocked out than Anubis?

And now Eve is trying to get inside her head, as well. With so many people pushing her around, it's no wonder that she's frustrated. While she did not pray to Sekmet, I thought it ironic and fitting that Japhrimel should give her that statue. In return for having an impossibly fast metabolism and a portion of demon strength, she loses a large portion of her humanity, and Danny is beginning to realize it. Her honor is suffering and her values are changing, resulting in a lot of destruction. While Japhrimel loses a portion of his power, he gains a good portion of human emotion. All of this seems to be very subtle; mainly because the character Danny's too distracted to be self aware. Another subtlety is Lilith Saintcrow's ability to foreshadow, making for excellent suspense. For instance, what will Japhrimel do after he escapes from capture when he and Danny are at war? Why did Anubis demand that Danny spare the healer who had a part in killing Gabe?

More questions. In terms of general style, because the chapters are generally short and only one major event happens in each chapter, the author can be painstakingly detailed. This makes for a paradoxical feeling of the story-time moving very fast and very slow, at the same time. Also, before Danny unwittingly adopted a demon's sense of flat and ironic humor, she used to giggle in dangerous situations. Sometimes I would step back and look at the situation the author crafted, and chuckle sardonically as well - because I feel like the author is laughing at her own creation and character, Danny. Perhaps I'm thinking too much. Anyhow, the pacing is the way it is not just because of the length of the chapters, but also because of Danny's processes of questioning people and having pieces click together in her head - again, more like a mystery than a noir because of the somewhat short action scenes.

While my friend felt that there is no character development (because no matter what happens, Dante gets into worse spats and never stops complaining), I disagree. The slight changes are in the re-introduction of Jace, the distancing of Anubis, the ignored Sekmet and the interchanges between her and Japhrimel, who is developing as well. Because of the deep care and focus on these two characters, I felt that other characters were not changing. (Dying is not a way of changing, in my opinion.) Because the world is rapidly expanding, it seems that new people are introduced very suddenly, and also half the time go away very suddenly. The author makes it so that readers can seem to focus only on Dante and Japhrimel - indeed, it is the nature of their relationship that will decide whether all of Hell's denizens stay there or not.