The Rambling Writer Book Review: BOYFRIEND FROM HELL by Patricia Rice
A wildly inventive urban fantasy where ancient mythology emerges in a toxic superfund site
The first in Patricia Rice’s 3-book Saturn’s Daughters series (new editions from Book View Café), BOYFRIEND FROM HELL starts literally explosively and doesn’t let up. I haven’t read a lot of urban fantasy, but because I love Greek and Roman mythology, I gave this one a whirl. And in return, it set my head spinning with the fun and surprising inventiveness of the setting, characters, and events.
The reluctant hero, Justina (who goes by Tina or sometimes Justy) Clancy, is just finishing law school and unaware that she is a daughter of the god Saturn (Greek Kronos), fated to mete our justice. Bitter and defensive after being lamed by a brutal cop after she led a campus protest that turned violent, she tries to keep a low profile. Not going to happen. Even by standards of the chemically-polluted Zone, where mutant creatures roam and even statues leer and move around, newly-strange things are happening. When her shiftless biker boyfriend tries to run her down in her own car, she accidentally curses him to Hell. The car goes up in flames, and boyfriend goes down into one of the circles of Hell.
From there, things get even more complicated. I’ll try to avoid spoilers, but suffice it to say that an entertaining cast of eccentric characters – some mutants and some not – are drawn along with Tina into fighting powerful and violent figures with political power who apparently want to control the Zone as a sort of mutant laboratory. There’s a young woman who turns into a chimpanzee when frightened. An invisible teen pickpocket. The sexy but possibly abusive owner of several Zone businesses, who just happens to be Tina’s boss in her part-time job as she scrapes by to finish her law degree. A ghost who talks from a powder-compact mirror. Some lowlife, hard-drinking bikers who turn out to be okay guys. A private eye who conjures snakes. And a figurine of Justice with measuring scales who winks at Justine as she arrives at work with legs longer by three inches….
Along with the fast pace and plot twists, Tina’s voice and attitude carried me along. She’s no mealy-mouthed underdog who never learns from her mistakes or emerges from her pity parties (I get really tired of those types of victim characters in novels). She makes plenty of mistakes, but is a smart survivor. She figures out solutions, even if reckless. And she has plenty of attitude and sardonic humor.
BOYFRIEND FROM HELL happens to be on special discount at Book View Café for the next month, so now’s the time to check out the action. I’ll be starting on Book 2 right away.
*****
You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s Greek islands novel from Book View Café is available in print and ebook: The Ariadne Connection. “Technology triggers a deadly new plague. Can a healer find the cure?” The novel has received the Chanticleer Global Thriller Grand Prize and the Cygnus Award for Speculative Fiction. Sara is at work on the sequel, The Ariadne Disconnect. Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com
