Darkling

Author: Yasmine Galenorn
Published: January 2, 2008 (Berkley)
Category: Urban Fantasy
Series: Sisters of the Moon #3
Rating: 7/10


This is, appropriately, the darkest book of the series (so far), telling the story of vampire-sister Menolly. She was the touchiest of the three sisters in the last two books, dealing with her unwanted form of un-life. Before she was turned, Menolly worked for the OIA as a spy, using her acrobatic skills to observe from odd places, like the ceiling of a cave. However, on one of these missions, she was captured by the Elwing Clan and turned by their leader, Dredge.

All over Seattle, humans have been going missing, only to turn up as newborn vampires - the sure sign of a rogue vamp on the loose. It looks like Dredge is to blame - the same sadistic Dredge who gave me my scars, and who may well be in cahoots with the demon Shadow Wing. If so, Otherworld and earth are screwed. The only way we can hope to defeat Dredge is for me to travel home to Otherworld, and face my own demons. For unless I sever the ties that bind me to Dredge, all hell is going to break loose...

A word of warning to prissy people: Menolly is bi and has relations with a female were from the Rainier Pumas we met in Changeling and a priest in Alastril, the City of Seers. That's the least of a prissy reader's worries, as the description of Menolly's torture, rape, and turning by Dredge are rather graphic and violent. Despite that, it's very well written. Clearly, I have no problem with violence (and I didn't even play lots of damaging video games as a child!).

I really enjoyed the view into Menolly's past; it felt like she was hidden away in the first two books of the series. Reading about her emotional pain made me feel so bad for her, but at the end, she accepts her nature, and fulfills a prophecy that claimed she would do what she would never do. So in accepting her vampire nature, she became human again.

Morgan Le Fay makes a brief appearance in Darkling, really more for the purposes of foreshadowing events to come in the series. The next book, Dragon Wytch, is scheduled for July release, and goes back to Camille's story.