Blood Oranges

Starred review from December 17, 2012
The first urban fantasy title (and first publication under the Tierney name) for Caitlín R. Kiernan (The Drowning Girl) brings an engagingly fresh perspective to well-trod territory. A gory whirl through numerous graveyards and the seamier parts of contemporary Providence, R.I., introduces readers to narrator Siobhan Quinn. Though Quinn is quick to denounce “Young Plucky Vampire Hunters” and “those trashy ParaRom paperbacks,” readers could be forgiven for putting her in the same category at first: she hunts “nasties,” supernatural creatures like ghouls, vampires, and werewolves. Then a werewolf and a vampire both bite her in the same night and she becomes a “nasty” herself, forcing her to adapt, improvise, and reconsider her allies as she searches for answers and vengeance. Quinn is queer, foul-mouthed, a formerly homeless ex-junkie, and a well-read high school dropout, and her idiosyncratic and thoroughly compelling voice will hook urban fantasy readers right away. Colorful side characters and a fully realized setting make this fast-paced series opener well worth checking out. Agent: Merrilee Heifetz, Writers House.

January 1, 2013
First of a wisecracking supernatural horror series, from an author who's better known as Caitlin R. Kiernan (The Drowning Girl, 2012, etc.). Narrator Siobhan Quinn--she insists, fiercely, on Quinn--a street-dwelling heroin addict, became a monster-slayer after killing a ghoul (though, as she finally admits, it was by accident). She has a steady supply of good dope and an apartment thanks to her benefactor, the mysterious fixer and manipulator she calls Mean Mr. B (he uses different names, all beginning with B, depending on circumstance and whim), since he considers it useful to have a monster-slayer in his debt. Having come to believe in her own notoriety, she goes werewolf hunting in Rhode Island. Instead of staying alert, however, Quinn shoots up and gets bitten by the werewolf--just as a vampire shows up! When she regains consciousness, astonished to have survived either antagonist, let alone both, she finds she's now a werewolf and a vampire. At least she's no longer an addict, and when Mr. B shows his pleasure at her new condition, she begins to suspect she's now somebody's weapon--but whose, and aimed at what? Clearly, she'd better find out--and fast. The New England setting is colorful and convincing, and Tierney populates it with a weird and splendid set of supernatural beings. Quinn isn't the most reliable of narrators, though eventually she'll stumble out with the truth; nor, as an investigator, does she prove the sharpest of wits, but she gets there. Add in the downbeat tone that somehow manages to be uplifting and the sort of gratuitously gory action that used to be called splatterpunk and readers are in for a memorably exhilarating and engaging experience. Sly, sardonically nasty and amusingly clever.

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February 15, 2013

Former junkie-turned-demon-hunter Siobhan Quinn runs afoul of a werewolf, who bites her just before being killed by a vampire. Rather than coming to Quinn's rescue, the vampire, the Bride of Quiet, has come to turn Quinn into one of the undead as payback for Quinn's killing of a vampire she had made. Suddenly Quinn becomes part of a deadly game, a pawn of the vampire who created her as well as a tool in the hands of the mysterious "Mr. B," who pays for her apartment and occasional expenses, and sometimes directs her toward certain supernatural targets. Now, however, Quinn plans to take her own form of revenge against her maker. VERDICT Since the publication of her first novel, Silk, in 1998, Kiernan, nominated multiple times for the World Fantasy and Shirley Jackson Awards, has made it her mission to turn the comfortable genres of imaginative fiction inside out. Now writing as Kathleen Tierney, she moves from dark fantasy to urban fantasy and introduces a heroine as fascinating and complicated as she is foul-mouthed and impatient. This no-holds-barred series debut should appeal to her devoted readership.

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