Wrong Side of Hell (The DeathSpeaker Codex)

It's like Buffy the Vampire Slayer took an undergraduate anthropology course on indigenous culture, spent some time with the police to remember what the law-enforcement side of the hell mouth is like, and then found herself immersed in a global good v. evil battle out of Tolkien. There's nothing wrong with that. But I think it demands a stylistic fluency that Sonya Bateman hasn't quite mastered. The book was almost, but not quite, gripping. I may try another, but not right away.

Stars: 4 out of 5

What a fun fast read it's been!

Gideon Black is a body mover, which means he is the person who chauffeurs the dead from hospitals to funerary homes, or from crime scenes to the morgue. He works nights, lives out of his van, and prefers the company of dead people to the company of the living. At least, the dead don't talk back… until one night the corpse of the cop he killed does exactly that. And after that things go from bad to worse for Gideon.

I liked how fast-paced and easy to read this book is. The action starts on page one and doesn't let go until the very end. Gideon is thrown head first into this new dangerous reality where fae and werewolves and boogeymen are real and are hunted down like vermin by a powerful organization called Milus Dei. Moreover, he discovers that he isn't who he thought he was and that his family (who are awful people by the way) isn't his real family. Oh, and Milus Dei wants him at all costs because he is the DeathSpeaker.

A lot to process in such a short time you would say? You would be right. And it's even harder to come to terms with this when your life suddenly becomes one nightmarish race for survival.

I must say that I like Gideon a lot as the protagonist. He has a sense of humor, even if it's gallows humor most of the time, and he doesn't sit and mope around when life throws him a curve ball. I like how he simply refuses to give up, no matter how many times he is beaten down. He just gets up, dusts himself off and keeps going, or crawls forward if he can't walk anymore. I also love that his resilience is explained by his backstory and well-woven into the plot. He comes from a family where weakness wasn't tolerated. He'd lived through terrible abuse and had learned to grit his teeth and ignore the pain, and grin at the face of the enemy through bloodied lips and broken teeth. So even though his upbringing was horrible, he wouldn’t have survived this story if it had been any different. I love it when a tragic backstory isn't just thrown into the book for character angst but is a driving force shaping his actions.

As I had mentioned before, it was a fast read… a bit too fast for my taste actually. This is the first book in a new series, and as such, it has to establish the world and the characters and make us want to follow along. In my opinion, the book did well on the last two, but not so much on the first one. We get almost no worldbuilding at all. All we learn is that there are the Others, who include fae, werewolves, boogeymen (excuse me, boogeypersons, let's be politically correct here) and some other unidentified supernaturals, and there is the Milus Dei - a human organization dedicated solely to the destruction of the Others… And that's it.

How did the Others end up in our world? How did the Milus Dei come to be? Why do they hate each other so much? Why does Abe trust Gideon so much that he is willing to cover up for him even when his direct superior gives him the order to arrest him? Who are the boogeypeople? We've only seen one so far and he seems more powerful than even a fae noble. Are there more? How didn't they take over the world yet if they possess such power? Not to mention that we get almost no backstory on any of the characters apart from Gideon and Taeral and maybe Sadie. It raises so many questions and gives no answers at all.

So while this book is a fast and fun read, it leaves you with the impression that you just ran in a dead sprint through a glass tunnel that allowed you very small and unsatisfying glimpses into what seems like a rather interesting world. I wanted to slow down and have a better look, but the story wouldn't let me.

But all in all, I admit that the book accomplished its purpose - I want to read the next one in the series. I just hope that we would slow down a bit and get a chance to learn more about this world and the characters.

PS. I received and advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Interesting story. Conversation seems a bit juvenile in some places, but I never tired of reading. I will probably get the sequel.

This book was quite good.
It has a typical "Chosen One" theme going on, since the MC is the Deathspeaker, but he isn't the Chosen One in that he's meant to save the world or any of that. It's more like he could potentially end the world. And while he is a changeling with secret Fae parents (a typical fantasy theme) his family isn't exactly legendary, even if they're powerful. He's more like a semi-chosen one. And it doesn't grant him secret powers beyond speaking to the dead and the basics that all Fae can do.
The MC is fun. He has common sense and battle sense, but he's not perfect or a huge genius. He's kind of scrappy, and you get the sense that he's better in a fight like this than in real life. The secondary characters are also pretty great: a tough female werewolf who does not appear to be a love interest, Tarael the alcoholic Fae badass, a bogeyman who can appear to be your greatest fear and likes scaring people a lot, and threatening swamp monster siblings. The antagonists are frustratingly evil. All the things you want.
I would say the one thing I would change is that it could use more thorough worldbuilding and characterization, since most of the story is fast paced action and plotting. But while it could use more depth, it's good for a medium-light read, and excellent for the urban fantasy genre. Would recommend.

can't wait for the next one

I have loved Sonya Bateman since MASTER OF NONE and MASTER AND APPRENTICE. Love love love that series! The books are on my keeper shelf. Not many get that in my house as Mt Git'r'Read is pretty full.
So I was fab-uber-pleased when I heard about the Deathspeaker Codex series. What an intriguing premise. Gideon lives off the grid, but earns his keep as a body mover in New York City. Body mover being one who carts away the dead from the scene of the death after the police are done. Gideon has the ability to sense things about the dead, not something he banters about or questions..it just is. He's always wondered about his past. He never felt like he fit in with the people who raised him. They were a pack of scam artists who used Gideon as target practice. He's trying to remain out of their sites for as long as possible, hence the off-grid lifestyle.
Then he has a run-in with a werewolf and a powerful anti-magic assemblage and his life is changed forever.
Sonya has such a super way with making her characters relatable and her world-building is amazing. The main character is thrown into a situation well outside his normal life, but rolls with it. He's noticed oddities surrounding him throughout his life and he absorbs, reasonably accepts and moves on. He wants to do the right thing for people even with how crappe-weasel his upbringing was.
Loved this book and plan on getting the next in series, FIELDS OF BLOOD, very soon. This one is going on the keeper shelf next to Sonya's other books.
Definitely recommend.