The Unnoticeables

Angels aren't beautiful creatures of benevolence. They watch over us, but look for patterns and redundancies instead of protecting us. They eliminate the superfluous people to feed the Machine. Carey in 1977 New York and Kaitlyn in 2013 Hollywood both encounter these angels and their inhuman minions. Both just want to live their generally unsuccessful lives and have friends disappear around them. Both want to do something about it and try to despite crazy odds against them. Can two nobodies save their friends and other invisible people from being changed into empty puppets or flat out killed?

From the very first line ("I met my guardian angel today. She shot me in the face."), I was hooked. The story is split into three narratives: an unnamed narrator at an unknown time, Carey in 1977, and Kaitlyn in 2013. The unnamed narrator (the one shot by said angel) is rapidly losing his humanity and wants to tell his story. Carey is a punk whose interests are limited to punk rock, drinking, smoking, fucking, and stealing to get what he wants. He and his friends frequent clubs, create a bit of mayhem, and have fun. You see some pretty weird shit in New York, but Tar Men that melt people to goo is usually not one of them. He stays quiet because no one will believe him anyway, but when his close friends are targeted, he makes beating these creatures his personal crusade. However, Carey is a professional fuck-up, so his attempts are laughably bumbling at best and horribly inept at worse. I love his irreverence and self aware nature. He knows he's an asshole and most of the things he says are horrible, but that's just who he is. He's the most unlikely hero, but he has the best intentions at heart along with the drive to get drunk as cheap as possible and chase women.

The last narrator is Kaitlyn, waitress and out of work stuntwoman. She loves her work in movies, but she just sucks at networking, a vital trait to stay employed. Her best friend Jackie doesn't come home from an industry party after Kaitlyn is attacked by her childhood celebrity crush. Unfortunately, that crush talks in prerehearsed, mechanical sounding phrases and there's something off about him in addition to the huge alien tongue he shoved down her throat. This man is an Empty One who creates Unnoticeables, people who you can't describe even while looking at them. They blend in perfectly and lure people away in order to further fuel the mysterious Machine. Kaitlyn uses her background and cunning to save her fellow aspiring actors. She also has the bumbling help of a much older, crazier sounding Carey. He is pretty much the same, except closer to babbling homeless guy than sexy rugged punk. Both of them are considered expendable to these angels, but they couldn't be more different. This odd couple is hilarious to read and have some of the most fun interactions.

The Unnoticeables is a fun mix of urban fantasy and horror with vivid underground worlds in New York and Hollywood. I would love a sequel with more of Carey and Kaitlyn's adventures, exploring more of these underground, hiding in plain sight but no one sees it worlds. Carey is extremely entertaining to read while Kaitlyn is the more relatable one trying to make ends meet and being shunned from jobs despite being quite qualified. I would recommend this to fans of Richard Kadrey and Clive Barker.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

Black Heart

Cassel Sharpe is trying to turn over a new leaf. He comes from a family of curse workers involved in organized crime; he was previously used as an assassin unbeknownst to him; and he's in love with a girl who has decided to involve herself further in the illicit dealings of the mob. Determined to stay on the straight and narrow, he forces himself to work with the Feds, even though it has been hammered into his brain that they are the enemy. When they ask him to do the only thing he promised himself he would ever repeat, he doesn't know what is right or wrong anymore. Pulled between the mob (who hold his mother hostage) and the feds, Cassel walks a tightrope between them, trying to appease both while not truly joining either. Now he has to sift out the truth amongst all the lies and hope that he can live with the choice he makes.

Cassel is back! He is one of my favorite protagonists in YA fiction. Using his cunning and intelligence, he deftly navigates working for the feds, helping the mob, and protecting his family and himself. He doesn't always make the right decisions and definitely isn't perfect, but he works with everything he has and tries to make the best of it with some humor and sarcasm to top it off. I sincerely wish that all YA heroes and heroines were imbued with a little bit of Cassel. Many of them would be a lot more interesting and less frustrating to read. Anyway, he is caught up in a number of plot lines that cause him to have run-ins with everyone from the feds to the school faculty. He has grown so much in the course of the series and truly seeks to do good in the world. His romance with Lila is as heartbreaking as ever as they are both torn apart by opposing factions and circumstances on top of all the other emotional baggage from their past.

Black Heart is a formidable book with skilled writing from Holly Black. However, I felt something was missing. Red Glove was so awesome and this book just came up a little short for me. The story line at his school felt like it didn't quite mesh with the rest of the novel. There was ample action and intrigue and I was satisfied with the ending. However, the world surrounding Cassel has gotten so big and interesting that I was left wondering what went on outside of his story and the ramifications of his actions on the world. I really hope Holly Black revisits the world either to continue Cassel's story (which I would love!) or simply create new characters.

I love the Curse Worker series, but the ending left me with mixed feelings and a little lost. I still enjoyed this book and would definitely highly recommend the entire series to fans of urban fantasy.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins