Review: Flesh Circus, by Lilith Saintcrow

[othercat]

I very much did not like this book--but your mileage may vary. (I’m not really fond of this particular series in general--Jill Kismet is even more “standard babe with gun urban fantasy romance” than Saintcrow’s previous “standard babe with a gun urban fantasy romance” series heroine, Dante Valentine.) I had many problems with the plotting and world building, to the point where I was very reluctant to write a review. (Very, very reluctant, I bought and read the book a few months ago.)

This particular installment features the arrival of a hellspawn-run circus called the Cirque De Charnu, which is a great deal like the carnival in Something Wicked This Way Comes--only it apparently has some variety of legal sanction as long as certain rules are followed. (This is not the brain breaking part. After the umpteenth bizarro-dystopia, you get used to it.) There is also a homicidal transgender mambo, the usual shrieking and snarling between Jill and the demon she has a contract with, accompanied by Jill being Very Stupid about her relationship with her Native American werewolf boyfriend.


By the pricking of my thumbs something derivative this way comes.