Friday Reads: Half-Resurrection Blues

Kelly Clever recently read Half-Resurrection Blues by Daniel José Older, who will be speaking at the SHU Performing Arts Center tomorrow evening at 7:00 as part of the Writing Popular Fiction MFA residency. (The public is welcome to attend the free talk, reception, and book-signing!)

Kelly Clever with an ebook copy of
Half-Resurrection Blues by Daniel José Older

The last Writing Popular Fiction author talk I attended (in January, with Kevin Hearne) resulted in my current addiction to the Iron Druid Chronicles. I decided to read something by June's visiting author, as well. Like Hearne (who wrote Heir to the Jedi), Older has written a book in the new Star Wars canon. I liked Last Shot, about Han Solo and Lando Calrissian, but I wanted to read some of his other material, too. Contemporary urban fantasy is more my cup of tea than YA or middle-grade books, so I picked Half-Resurrection Blues, the first book in his Bone Street Rumba series. 

It took me a while to get into the fantasy world of the series. Carlos, the protagonist and narrator, is "half-dead." What this means, exactly, is unclear, even to Carlos himself. He's not a zombie or a vampire, but he did die and come back to some form of life and doesn't remember anything about his life before he died. He works for the NYC Council of the Dead and interacts with ghosts, but he's still corporeal. He has one foot in each world, and it's an awkward and lonely place to be. He's basically a hit man for the Council of the Dead, finishing off rogue spirits for good or dispatching living people when necessary. 

When Carlos finds out that he's not the only one of his kind, his complicated life gets even more complicated. His divided life and loyalties are divided and tested even more than they already were, and he has to figure out how to survive and help his friends survive new and unknown threats from the living and the dead.

This one didn't hook me quite as much as Hounded by Kevin Hearne did, but that's probably because it's darker in tone. I'm glad I read it, and if my babysitter plans hold, I'm going to the author talk tomorrow. I'd recommend this book to those who like gritty urban fantasy, and particularly to anyone who's looking for urban fantasy with a protagonist of color.