Black Arts

Black Arts (2014) Faith Hunter

I really wish this book had come out over the holidays. Instead, it comes out at the start of the week, after school is back in session, so I have to wait until the weekend to read it, lest I lose sleep staying up all night to finish it.

For several books, Jane has been dealing with the fact she had to kill Evangelina Everheart, and in doing so, lost her best friend, Molly, Eva’s sister. Molly and her sisters have refused all contact with Jane, and so Jane has lost herself in her work, and not a lot of good has come from that.

Now, Molly apparently headed south to talk to Jane and work things out, but never makes it to Jane’s door. So either she lied to Evan about coming to see Jane, or something kept her from arriving.

Neither options is good.

Meanwhile, Jane is still dealing with Beast’s magical attachment to Leo, as well as her own past, which she continues to fill Jane with guilt.

On top of all that, she continues to work as Leo’s Enforce, which puts her in charge of a vampire gather–and one where a dangerous vampire who would really like to take over Leo’s territories wants to move into the area.

There is a LOT happening in this book, but pleasantly, it never becomes too much. The problem with Molly has been simmering on the back burner for several books and needed resolved (the last short story set just prior to this book actually begins to set this up, but you don’t need to have read the story to dive into the book.)

Theoretically, you should be able to read this book without knowing the back-story, but I can’t say I’d recommend it. A lot has happened to bring Jane to where she is in this book, and I think you’ll miss a fair amount of the payoff in the end, without having suffered with Jane over her loss of Molly’s friendship and her guilt over the deaths she has caused.

So if you haven’t read this series, I’d really recommend going back to the first book in the series and working your way forward. I believe it will be well-worth it to have that when you finish this story.

One thing to note: things are not 100% solved at the end of the book–but it is most definitely not a cliff hanger. Instead, it’s an acknowledgement that some problems are big–very big–and will take a long time and a lot of work to resolve. And honestly, I like that acknowledgement that things usually can’t neatly be wrapped up before the credits. Some problems require a lot of work. And that’s okay.

I’d also like to point out that, as usual, these are marvelous covers, with Jane always looking strong and powerful. Yeah, I could do without the skintight outfits, and yeah, Jane never wears her hair down going into a fight, but those are really small quibbles when what this cover gives us is a powerful woman of color.

I’d love Faith Hunter for being able to get these kinds of covers if I didn’t already love her for creating Jane and keeping her strong.
Rating: 9/10

Published by ROC

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