Black Magic Sanction (Rachel Morgan, Book 8)
by Kim Harrison
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Book Summary Information
Author: Kim HarrisonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2010-02-23
ISBN: 0061138037
Number of pages: 496
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Book Reviews of Black Magic Sanction (Rachel Morgan, Book 8)
Book Review: Rachel passed on a WISH? oh no no
Summary: 4 Stars
I gave it a 4 because I love the series and how it is written, it is most enjoyable. But, heh, I HATE Rachel! I can't freaking stand the girl - and oh, I've known people like that in real life. Keep away keep away. They obstruct themselves, have cluttered minds, lack any clear thinking, and are frack-ups that CAN NOT learn to be otherwise. You have seen her in maybe 2 years (despite number of books) - but the prequil shows you what she was like as a teen, and so does her flashback at Make a Wish camp. She's frakked up.
SPOILER STARTS HERE (I'll put END SPOILER below and continue):
OK, in the middle of an extremely tense scene, the Leprachaun she met in book 1 offers her a wish, knowing she could use a good wish about now. DUH. Instead of TAKING it and thinking about a good wish, she passes it up after briefly cluttering her head up with "Ivy keeps her soul, Jenks lives forever" other people's needs. OH SMACK HER! That is why I can not STAND people like Rachel. The wish she could have made to fix everything: "I wish I was NOT born with Rosewood Syndrome, just born a normal witch." Done. ALL problems solved. Literally - ALL problems solved, including her psychology. Of course, that would also undo the entire series :) Can't do that!
END SPOILERS
I think readers need to pay a LOT more attention to what is going on and what is actually said - passively read and carefully read. Kim is not boring the readers with a chapter worth of psychology in any book, but readers SHOULD have caught on by now - and I don't see that ANY of them did, including others that hate Rachel, or wonder if all women are that screwed up. You DO get a psych explanation of why Ivy is frakked up. And you sort of DO get one for Rache - but nobody seems to have caught it! Kim didn't give a whole chapter on it.
Rachel was born very sickly. She spent her entire formative years so sick, she could barely walk across the kitchen, let alone the street. Yet she wanted to DO, like so many people born disabled, "I can do it, let me do it" is par for the course. They can NOT accept their limitations. This IS their psychological makeup and there are a LOT of people, real people, just like this. As adults, they might go from job to job, insisting that they can "do it" and repeatedly getting fired because they just can NOT do the job. They refuse to be disabled, even when they are very disabled. This is such a situation that now there are laws against firing disabled people, and companies have to make changes to allow for whatever they need to do the job! This is good, but it can also be pretty bad. And when/if such people (eg, Rachel) do get cured somehow, they end up JUST LIKE HER - physically healed, but mentally still "back there" and frakked up.
Her father is a major hero to her, she wants to be a hero, too. In the prequil, (which I read before reading the series, I also read Ivy's prequil where we meet Art - and I KNEW he killed Kisten! I freaking KNEW it!)... where we meet Pierce, she gets a chance to do the hero thing, and OH BOY, the adrenalin rush is the Big IT. Now, not all disabled people are like that. Others would have said "I can NOT do this, OK, I need to change my plans" and that would be that (and we'd have no Hollows series...). Despite her illness and infirm condition, she ignores brother Robbie's suggestion that she give up this I.S. dream and go with him to college. Note that Robbie is a stable, very ordinary witch and he certainly knows her dangerous tendencies to get herself into fixes. Had Rachel done the sensible thing, she'd have been a college grad or more - an earth witch. But that is not our Rachel....
More on the formative years. After Dad dies, she's stuck with an unstable mother while brother Robbie goes out west. Not good. She is sent to Make a Wish camp, they are given drugs to make them forget things - but nonetheless, these "things/events" are going to SUBconsciously affect their lives, whether they know it or not. We get a glimpse. Right there, young Rachel is arrogant, defiant in the face of her infirmity. She oversteps her boundaries - blasting Trent when he is teasing a girl he likes, Jasmine - who likes him back! And sure, Jasmine gets mad at Rachel. Rachel SHOULD have kept her nose out. There she is, frakking up right there, butting in, concerning herself with things she needs NOT be concerned about - and frakking up. She gets on a horse (that's CRAZY given her condition) - and falls. DUH.
But that right there sets the tone, that IS Rachel. She IS a frack-up - and will always BE a frack-up - and NEVER listen to anyone (including her own seldom voice of reason) that says "you can not do this." She is unable to be aware that her stupidity is painful to herself - AND TO OTHERS. Like, she does NOT want that damned coven to summon the real Al, when they switch names back, and get STOMPED TO DEATH for what they did to her by a real demon? Oh no, not our Rache. (I'm reading, go ahead, he he he, SUMMON the real Al, KILL THEM ALL AL. KILL THEM ALL, TEAR THE SELF RIGHTEOUS PISSANTS TO PIECES YAY! KILL VIVIAN. KILL KILL KILL BROOKE - KILL THEM ALL!!! YAY - Anita Blake WOULD!)... oh no, not Rachel (SMACK HER). She does NOT want Ivy to kill Nick? Oh no, not our Rache. And I want to beat her, smack her, kick her in the head for being THAT STUPID. Her brain is cluttered up with guilt and other STUPID feelings that get in the way of clear logic. It is exasperating! I start yelling at her (while I sit on the beach, reading!!). Heh.
TRENT is logical (so far). Yes, he's a killer, he's ruthless. His entire race is at stake. He makes logical sense!
Nick was always shady and crappy - Rachel JUST finds that out - as do some inattentive readers. It was obvious the first time Nick shied away from the cops! He's a CRIMINAL! Kim didn't "just drop that" into the plot. Nope. It was there. PAY ATTENTION! Read carefully. He knew Al - Rachel saw this - and so did the readers! WELL?
Cormel spelled it out for the readers (I like him!). Rachel is seeing in a very short-sighted way. She is not seeing ahead and she needs to see ahead. What she has done so far is HUGE - it is BEYOND huge. Does she realize it? OH NO, she is just the big hero that saved the Elves and other Rachel non-think. The Elves can rejuvinate their race due to her, the Weres can make more Were's due to her (forget David! that's short sightedness - David is not going to FOREVER have that Focus! - it WILL change hands!). And herself - she is the potential MOTHER of all Demons that can live in reality - NOT in the everafter. That is HUGE. I can see the Coven wanting to sterilize her. But WHY do the rest? Why lobotomize her, or etc? THAT part I don't quite get.
Yet, Rachel being Rachel, she can't think to USE THAT WISH to fix her genes? AGGGH! Rachel IS stupid because of her formative years, because of OBSCURING passions (not clear simple ones) that drive her actions. She does the insane and takes on a Banshee, eg. That goes right back to "I can do it, I can do it" when she can't walk across a room without falling. It's STUPID, and it's a kind of stupidity driven by obscuring emotions - i.e., it's not due to low IQ - it's WORSE.
As for the Ivy Lesbian thing, I'm glad that's over. Rachel is NOT gay, simple as that. She at least realizes the danger she put herself in playing with ANY vampires - and while she just loves being in danger (but has no CONSCIOUS notion that she is putting herself in danger, it's never clear thought for her), she does NOT want to be a shadow. THAT is the end of that.
SO - that is the character. That's Rachel. I think it's odd for a writer to make a main character that is just NOT likeable - or even people hate her. It's hard to make a main character like that in a series that at least I DO like very much.
Anita Blake (I read up to Circus of Damned - am awaiting next book and POS SOB so slow readers that 3 copies are overdue at library...ach FINE FINE FINE them...) at least - when she gets a chance to KILL KILL KILL an adversary - she does it. GOOD. That makes her likeable! VENGEANCE.
Summary of Black Magic Sanction (Rachel Morgan, Book 8)
The latest stirring instalment of the urban fantasy-thriller series starring Rachel Morgan. A pacey and addictive novel of sexy bounty-hunting witches, cunning demons and vicious vampires. Having barely escaped being skewered by the criminal vampire overlord of Cinncinati, Rachel now has even bigger problems to contend with. The demon, Algaliarept, although banished back into the everafter has infected others of his kind with his interest in a witch who can channel demon magic. Rachel soon finds herself with not one but three hellions on her tail; and one of them is even crazier and more dangerous than all the fairy assassins, weres and vampires on the planet. Published as 'The Outlaw Demon Wails' in the US.Literature & Fiction Books
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