Kim Harrison

Dead Witch Walking (Rachel Morgan, Book 1)

Brittany Reynolds 

I started reading this series several years ago and absolutely loved them. Since the last book has recently been released (It is sitting on my book shelf as I write this!!), I decided to re-read them so everything would be fresh. However, I started school two years ago and now I have very little time for reading (school is almost not worth this sacrifice!!). My solution was Audio Books (oh, audible you are my savior!). 



The book is narrated by Marguerite Gavin, I wasn’t a huge fan of how she voiced Ivy as she sounded almost masculine, but overall she did an amazing job (and I am hard to please). 

 A genetically altered tomato causes a virus to spread wiping out the majority of the human population, causing the supernatural beings (Inderlanders) to step out save the day. They come clean about what they are and now live openly, although humans and Inderlanders are still wary of each other. Rachel Morgan (witch) is a runner for the IS (Inderlander Police) who is sick and tired of being given jobs that are beneath her talents. She quits and takes Ivy (living vampire) and Jenks (pixie) with her. The IS is angry for Rachel taking Ivy and puts a death threat on her. She decides to catch Trent, a successful business man, dealing brimstone to pay off her contract and stop the death threat. 

There are a couple questions that I have this time around that I didn’t really notice before. This contains a few small spoilers, things you mostly find out in the first couple chapters. I'll hide any substantial spoilers. Keep in mind I have read all of the books except the last one, so spoilers may be from more than this book! 

1.  Why does Denon (her boss at the IS) hate her so much? If this was covered I missed it. 
2. Why do runners get killed when leaving the IS? This confused me. I understand not wanting other runners competing for jobs but I just couldn’t get on board with this. Wouldn’t most people just avoid becoming runners for the IS in general if it was that dangerous to get out off? 



3. Why did Ivy leave with Rachel in the first place? She didn’t really give a good reason to and could have easily left on her own. 
4. Why didn’t Rachel call her parents when she didn’t have a place to live? Was this covered, I may have missed it.
(view spoiler)[5. Why wasn't the question of why Ivy had the church months before Rachel moved in never answered?? It's killing me. I forgot about this completely.  (hide spoiler)]

A couple of negative things I didn’t like:

1. How Rachel didn’t think of looking into what it was going to be like living with a vampire at all before moving in with Ivy. If I was in her position, task number one would have been to sit down with Ivy and learn all I could as to not put myself into unnecessary danger. Seems like a silly mess up to me.

2. Also if she is a badass runner shouldn’t she know some information on living vampires? Isn’t that her job? I don’t know, it just confused me, for being so great at her job she doesn’t seem to actually have a lot of knowledge on the different kind of Inderlanders. Could easily be written off as she was given crap jobs for such a long time at the IS that she is out of practice, but it still bothered me a little.

3. Ivy also bothered me. I understand that vampires run off instincts and it’s hard for her to ignore but she needs to be better at controlling herself. If she is going to vamp out every time someone gets upset any relationship/friendship she creates are going to be unhealthy. I started to get annoyed at the amount drama that arose from Ivy and Rachel not being able to interact properly. I understand instincts are hard to control, I just thought that because they worked together for a year they would be more adept at dealing with each other by now.



4. I don't have any feelings towards the relationship between Nick and Rachel, good or bad. It is just ‘meh’ to me. I feel like Rachel just decides I guess he is alright. Why not date him?  I just didn't feel any chemistry between them.



Now to the positives!!! Yay!

Despite the negatives, I loved this book so much. I was almost scared that I wouldn’t like it as much the second time I read it, as I was much younger the first time (this has happened with other re-reads). However, I still love it! 

1. The characters were well developed and realistic. Reading a novel about characters that don’t have one annoying quality is hard to appreciate, no one is perfect and it allows no room for growth. Even the people you love the most in life have qualities that you don’t like. So while I may have listed some character traits as negative they are also positives as they create a more realistic atmosphere. I feel like lots of work went into every character no matter how small their role; Trent, Jenks, Ivy and Nick are all so well done. I have already read all of the books up to the very last one (if you haven’t do not read this spoiler, I am taking no chances on spoiling anyone!!) (view spoiler)[ and I had forgotten how much of a bad guy Trent was in the beginning. When he killed that man in his office I was shocked. Would our new Trent still do that? I hope not! I can’t wait to experience him becoming a nicer guy again.  (hide spoiler)]

2. From the moment Nick came into the story I was intrigued by him and all the questions that are still unanswered, especially with the FIB. Despite having read all the books I don't quite remember his storyline, only the basics and I am excited to experience it all again. 

3. The world building was well done. I found it easy to imagine as it wasn’t far off from our world. I really enjoyed that the turn was caused by tomatoes. Some people thought this was a problem but I loved that something so simple was the cause. 

4. I loved the family atmosphere that was created at the church. It gave me a sense of home; dysfunctional, annoying and safe. Some of my favorite scenes are when they are hanging out in the kitchen, Rachel and Ivy in slippers and robes (Slippers and sweats at home always, comfort before style!). This made them more real to me. Also any part where Rachel was reading the book Ivy gave her was hilarious. 



I loved this book and am already on book number 2! Can’t wait to experience the world all over!

shorouq ali

sometimes entertaining, but mostly disappointing with an author who wants to write mystery but fails miserably at doing anything other than creating exceptionally dumb characters and indulging in a state of "hot shit that ain't so hot but still shit"

Dawn Keiser

It took me a while to get into this book but once I got it I fell in love with it!

Dead Witch Walking

Yulande Lindsay

Wow, just....wow. Thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed Dead Witch Walking. A roller coaster ride of a novel. I particularly liked the main character Rachel and looking forward to learning more about her and her history. Ivy intrigues me and Jenks is both cute and hilarious. The major Baddie, Trent was satisfyingly ruthless without being one sided and clearly there's a lot more going on there. And then there is mysterious Nick, is he who he says he is? Can he be trusted? Looking forward to the rest of the series!

Sarah Escorsa

💀 DNF at who-the-bloody-fishing-knows-what-percentage-somewhere-after-the-halfway-mark-that-felt-like-1500%-methinks.

· Original rating: 2 stars.
· Previous rating: 4 stars. 
· New rating: 2 stars. Yes, coherence is indeed me.

➽ And the moral of this reread is: erratic as fish pacing + Rachel’s immature as squid tantrums + manufactured drama galore = bloody shrimping out of here for good I am.





[Pre-review nonsense]

Yay and stuff, I've finally regained my nefarious senses and rated this book properly and stuff!



You should know better than to ask.

Full review to come and stuff.



[October 2014]

💌 A very private message from 2020 me: I was clearly super extra high on top quality stuff when I wrote what follows. Thou hast been warned and stuff.

This is the second time I read this book. The first time I did, it left me absolutely unimpressed. Worse, it pretty much bore me to death and I thought it was only worth a two-star rating. So how did I go from giving this book two stars a year ago to giving it four stars today (more like a 3.5 actually)? The audio version!!

Marguerite Gavin is a fantastic narrator and she makes all the difference here. Where the book was boring, she makes it exciting and lively. It did take me some time to get used to Ivy’s voice (I still don’t like it very much) but Gavin does a great job with the other characters, especially Jenks. With Gavin’s narration, Jenks really steals the show! 

Despite the excellent narration, the weaknesses of the book are still there: a desperately slow pace and words, words, words, too many words. Dead Witch Walking could definitely have done with some more editing. Some scenes are just too long and overly descriptive. The audio makes them a lot more entertaining but still, there is only so much a narrator can do. The very first scene in the book (at the bar) was much too long and I thought the mouse spell-making scene would never end!

The book could have done with more action but the plot was entertaining. As this is the first instalment in a series, I guess it takes time to set things up and get the story in motion. This might be why Dead Witch Walking tends to be slow placed. 

Despite the obvious flaws, I enjoyed the story a lot. I like the world-building and the plot is fun and well structured. Still, what makes this book a great read is the cast of characters. I think I just love them all! The first time I read Dead Witch Walking I thought Rachel was uninteresting and incompetent. Well it looks like Gavin really did wonders for this book because I really like her now :) I like Ivy as she adds some tension to the story and I just LOVE Jenks. He really is one hilarious pixie! His lines just kill me and I found myself laughing out loud more than a few times. I love Trent. I love Nick. And Matalina. And Keasley. And Captain Edden (can’t wait to find out what happens with the consulting job!). Hey, I even love poor Francis! Great characterization all around. 

There are some pretty great scenes throughout the book, here are a few of my favourite ones:
- Pretty much any scene involving Jenks
- Rachel reading the vampire dating guide
- Rachel turning herself into a mink instead of a mouse
- Rachel as a mink, trapped in a cage in Trent’s office
- The rat fight
- Jenks and Nick comparing scars
- The demon attack and its aftermath at the church.
- The aspirin episode with Captain Edden

All in all, this was FUN! I’m really surprised here because I didn’t expect to like this book so much the second time around:) Now I can’t wait to read the next instalment in the series!

• Book 2: The Good, The Bad and The Undead ★★★★★
• Book 3: Every Which Way But Dead ★★

Kristina Masone

I'm a HUGE fan of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, and someone recommended this series. 

....Iunno about this. I may give the second book a shot, but this gives more Anita Blake vibes.

Kristen

I'm going to grade this book as an A-. I struggled through the beginning, but a little before the halfway mark, it just got amazing.

I've known about this book for a while, but I didn't really start reading adult books until this year, and this was my first. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. For anyone who predominantly reads YA paranormal fiction, this is a great first adult novel to bridge the gap between the YA safe bubble and the mysterious world of adult fiction. 

In this novel, Kim Harrison paints for us a Cincinnati which has been direly affected by a disease spread from tomatoes, which effectively wiped out a crazy amount of humans and brought out Interlanders, which are supernatural beings that lived secretly alongside humans until the humans began to die, and then made their appearance. Rachel Morgan is an agent for the IS (Interland Security, like the FBI for the supernatural creatures) in the beginning of the novel, where she works in tagging and bringing in Interlanders that don't follow the rules. Her decisions from the very first chapter of the novel place a target on her back for the duration of the book, and she's constantly on the run for her life from that point on.

First, the main character. Rachel, a witch, is the exact heroine I love to read about. She's strong, powerful, impulsive (sometimes to the point of stupidity), hilarious, and so very interesting. Being inside her head is never boring. She's constantly doing, constantly moving, and she likes to have the upper hand. All the characters are so well developed and add so much color to the novel. I couldn't help but adore them all... well most of them. Especially Trent Kalamack, the novel's main villain. I have a thing for the bad boys....

This is my first Kim Harrison novel, so I wasn't sure what to expect with the writing. As it turns out, her writing style is impressive. There were no flaws with the sentence structure or misused words, everything was SHOWN and not told (which is getting rarer in novels anymore), and the imagery and description were necessary, useful, or interesting, or any combination of those rather than being unnecessary fluff to fill a chapter, which is both unbelievably annoying and unbelievably common anymore.

Despite that the first fifteen chapters of this novel were slow, albeit necessary for setting up the stage for the following novels in the series, there were still some interesting scenes and interspersed humor that kept it interesting. I think the humor in this book was what surprised me the most. I was expecting a very dark read, and it was dark, but there were times when I actually laughed aloud. Around the sixteenth chapter, the action was consistent and exciting, and I found myself actually wanting to read more instead of forcing myself through it. The pages pretty much flew through my fingers after that.

Altogether, this book was a fun adventure and a complete blast to read. I was very impressed with it. I loved how Rachel kept getting into trouble, nearly dying, surviving, and then getting into more trouble almost immediately. This woman is invincible or something.... I'm looking forward to the next book, and I highly recommend this series to anyone. Well, anyone who likes lots of action and paranormal adventure. Romance lovers will unfortunately be a little disappointed, although there is a hint of possible romance in novels to come.

Andrea Mack

Tifani Dyson

Maïte Beernaert

Gwyn Dill

Melissa Palmer

Aubrey Hicks

shelby mosel

From New York Times bestselling author, Kim Harrison, comes the first book in an exciting urban fantasy series; packed with the perfect balance of wry humour and thrilling action, which will delight fans of thrillers and fantasy alike.

Dead Witch Walking (Rachel Morgan, Book 1)

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