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slc333's review against another edition
3.0
I really like Harper & Quinton as a couple and I like how Harper is not super powerful anymore but the real star of the show was the ferret Chaos. She is so cute and entertaining.
chestercopperpot_reads's review against another edition
3.0
I'm bummed. I absolutely love this series. After an action packed and lose end tying novel like Labyrinth, I was pumped to read this one. It was SOOOOO BOOOORING. The details and the research put into the novel is superb and in typical Richardson fashion. However. You could tell this book was merely a filler and would have been more suited to be earlier in the series than the 6th book. Ploughed through it so I could get to the next one, but it took me forever.
amyextradot's review against another edition
2.0
I WANT to love this series...I just can't. This was a crazy-ass amalgam of spirits and magic from other cultures (Chinese? Creole?) and some random power-nexus in a lake.
What.
The.
Frell?
I can't believe that Quenton and Harper have this massive, deep love...despite the fact that I was pulling for them in the beginning.
I just don't think I can go on with this...
marciay's review against another edition
1.0
This seemed to just trudge along...it felt very different from previous books in the series.
laurla's review against another edition
"i showered and dressed while running interference in the ferret's plans for world domination through shoe theft."
"i kicked at a hump of crystallized snow that had banked up next to a tree trunk and watched it shatter and crumble. chaos ran to challenge the snow to a fight, hopping up and down in her weasel war dance and then biting the frozen mess when it wouldnt play."
"i think i prefer you normal."
"i object to being called something as boring as 'normal'."
"will you settle for 'within a standard deviation of deviant'?"
"i kicked at a hump of crystallized snow that had banked up next to a tree trunk and watched it shatter and crumble. chaos ran to challenge the snow to a fight, hopping up and down in her weasel war dance and then biting the frozen mess when it wouldnt play."
"i think i prefer you normal."
"i object to being called something as boring as 'normal'."
"will you settle for 'within a standard deviation of deviant'?"
easolinas's review against another edition
4.0
Harper Blaine is headed for the Twilight Zone -- and by that, I mean Forks and the Olympic Peninsula. Thankfully there are no sparkly vampires or drooling fangirls.
No, we've got a slew of Chinese demons, magically cursed lakes, voodoo zombies and dead bodies turned into soap. Awesome. Kat Richardson's "Downpour" does suffer a little from barely following up on the last Greywalker novel, but it's a strong urban fantasy with plenty of murky gothic Pacific Northwest atmosphere.
After her third death, Harper finds that her Grey powers have been diminished. But not so diminished that she can't hear the pleas of a faint ghost named Steven Leung. So Harper heads out to the Lake Crescent area to find his body and uncover who killed the poor man -- and finds the place swarming with strange, dangerous creatures.
It turns out that the "cursed" lake and the bizarre creatures (monstrous guai, undead deer) are connected to Leung's surviving family, the domineering Jewel and the elusive wild Willow, as well as a bitter ranger, a crazy old man, Chinese demons and a a ley weaver. One of these lake people is a cold-blooded murderer, and Harper might be next if she keeps investigating.
I was a little disappointed in "Downpour" at first, because it seemed to almost avoid the fact that Harper was pretty much dead at the end of the previous book. She doesn't seem to have any physical or mental scars from it, and it's only really mentioned in passing. Fortunately that's the only big pothole in the story.
The rest of it is rich and developed. Richardon writes the story as a sort of Pacific Northwest gothic -- dark, rainy and murky, with shimmering Grey magic and lots of twisted grudges and family struggles. Richardson's writing has become even stronger, with lots of eerie horror moments ("The hand-spider dissolved, leaving nothing but skeleton fingers clothed in tatters of rotten flesh"), as well as scintillating beauty (the ley weaver and its, um, Art).
And I love that instead of the usual faerie/vampire/werewolf mixes, Richardson includes some very non-mainstream monsters (white-faced demons with burned-branch horns) and magical systems.
And unlike many other authors, who give their heroines power-ups until they achieve God Mode Sue, Richardson gives her heroine a power-DOWN. This is a pleasant surprise, and it means Harper becomes more vulnerable, and depends more on her brains and wits than on her magical skills. And her relationship with Quinton takes a few more steps forward, linking them in a surprising new way.
"Downpour" doesn't follow up much on the previous book, but it's a solid gothic urban-fantasy. Also, it makes a nice alternative to "Twilight" -- all the Pacific Northwest scenery, none of the whining and antifeminism.
No, we've got a slew of Chinese demons, magically cursed lakes, voodoo zombies and dead bodies turned into soap. Awesome. Kat Richardson's "Downpour" does suffer a little from barely following up on the last Greywalker novel, but it's a strong urban fantasy with plenty of murky gothic Pacific Northwest atmosphere.
After her third death, Harper finds that her Grey powers have been diminished. But not so diminished that she can't hear the pleas of a faint ghost named Steven Leung. So Harper heads out to the Lake Crescent area to find his body and uncover who killed the poor man -- and finds the place swarming with strange, dangerous creatures.
It turns out that the "cursed" lake and the bizarre creatures (monstrous guai, undead deer) are connected to Leung's surviving family, the domineering Jewel and the elusive wild Willow, as well as a bitter ranger, a crazy old man, Chinese demons and a a ley weaver. One of these lake people is a cold-blooded murderer, and Harper might be next if she keeps investigating.
I was a little disappointed in "Downpour" at first, because it seemed to almost avoid the fact that Harper was pretty much dead at the end of the previous book. She doesn't seem to have any physical or mental scars from it, and it's only really mentioned in passing. Fortunately that's the only big pothole in the story.
The rest of it is rich and developed. Richardon writes the story as a sort of Pacific Northwest gothic -- dark, rainy and murky, with shimmering Grey magic and lots of twisted grudges and family struggles. Richardson's writing has become even stronger, with lots of eerie horror moments ("The hand-spider dissolved, leaving nothing but skeleton fingers clothed in tatters of rotten flesh"), as well as scintillating beauty (the ley weaver and its, um, Art).
And I love that instead of the usual faerie/vampire/werewolf mixes, Richardson includes some very non-mainstream monsters (white-faced demons with burned-branch horns) and magical systems.
And unlike many other authors, who give their heroines power-ups until they achieve God Mode Sue, Richardson gives her heroine a power-DOWN. This is a pleasant surprise, and it means Harper becomes more vulnerable, and depends more on her brains and wits than on her magical skills. And her relationship with Quinton takes a few more steps forward, linking them in a surprising new way.
"Downpour" doesn't follow up much on the previous book, but it's a solid gothic urban-fantasy. Also, it makes a nice alternative to "Twilight" -- all the Pacific Northwest scenery, none of the whining and antifeminism.
catherine_t's review against another edition
5.0
This is the sixth in Richardson's "Greywalker" series, and it's a humdinger.
Harper Blaine is working on a very ordinary case for a lawyer, when she sees the ghost of a murdered man burning in his car. This is precisely the sort of thing she can't ignore, so she begins poking around. Before she knows it, she's stirred up a whole nest of mages--not to mention Chinese demons and various other Otherworldly creatures.
The book pretty much grabs you from the get-go, and doesn't let up much in the next 300-odd pages. Harper isn't a superwoman, which adds to the appeal. She gets tired, hungry, and lonely, like the rest of us. Sure, she's got special abilities, but they don't always work the way she thinks they will. In fact, her abilities with the Grey have changed quite a bit since the events of "Labyrinth," and she's still adjusting to that--not to mention recovering from a gunshot wound.
Add to this realistic protagonist the nods to arguably the greatest of the American noir practitioners, Chandler and Hammett, you really can't miss by picking up this book.
Harper Blaine is working on a very ordinary case for a lawyer, when she sees the ghost of a murdered man burning in his car. This is precisely the sort of thing she can't ignore, so she begins poking around. Before she knows it, she's stirred up a whole nest of mages--not to mention Chinese demons and various other Otherworldly creatures.
The book pretty much grabs you from the get-go, and doesn't let up much in the next 300-odd pages. Harper isn't a superwoman, which adds to the appeal. She gets tired, hungry, and lonely, like the rest of us. Sure, she's got special abilities, but they don't always work the way she thinks they will. In fact, her abilities with the Grey have changed quite a bit since the events of "Labyrinth," and she's still adjusting to that--not to mention recovering from a gunshot wound.
Add to this realistic protagonist the nods to arguably the greatest of the American noir practitioners, Chandler and Hammett, you really can't miss by picking up this book.
suzjustsuz's review
4.0
I must have enjoyed it more than I realized because I finished it and jumped right into the next and finished it before it occurred to me to update Goodreads. :)