Dead Witch Walking (Hollows, #1)

by Kim Harrison

Marguerite Gavin (Narrator)

From New York Times bestselling author, Kim Harrison, comes the first book in an exciting urban fantasy series; packed with the perfect balance of wry humour and thrilling action, which will delight fans of thrillers and fantasy alike.

Rachel Morgan is a white witch and runner working for Inderland Security, in an alternate world where a bioengineered virus wiped out a great deal of the world's human population - exposing the existence of the supernatural communities that had long lived alongside humanity.

For the last five years Rachel has been tracking down law-breaking Inderlanders in modern-day Cincinnati, but now she wants to leave and start her own agency. Her only problem is that no one quits the I.S.

Marked for death, Rachel will have to fend off fairy assassins and homicidal weres armed with an assortment of nasty curses. She's a dead witch walking unless she can appease her former employers by exposing the city's most prominent citizen as a drug lord. But making an enemy of the ambiguous Trent Kalamack is just as deadly as leaving the I.S.

• ISBN10: 1400104718
• ISBN13: 9781400104710
• Publish Date: 23 July 2007 (first published 27 April 2004)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 13 March 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Tantor Media, Inc
• Edition: Unabridged edition
• Format: Audiobook (CD)
• Duration: 13 hours and 30 minutes
• Language: English

Reviews

[Quirky Cat]

Dead Witch Walking is the first novel in The Hollows series by Kim Harrison. It’s a world of magic, with witches, vampires, and werewolves becoming the norm among the normal humans (well, relatively normal).
Naturally, in a world this full of supernatural beings, there must be different organizations to help control and regulate them. Enter Interlander Security. They’re the police department of the supernatural world. Rachel Morgan is one of many employees, and all she wants with her life is to find a way out of it all.
Rachel Morgan is a witch, and a slightly chaotic one at that. Or perhaps it’s her preferred job that is chaotic. She’s decided to become a magical bounty hunter, alongside her two partners, Ivy and Jenks. Ivy is a living vampire, while Jenks is a pixy. And both are essential in regards to getting the job done and keeping Rachel alive.

I should probably mention that I’ve already read The Hollows series (several times), but I recently noticed that I never actually reviewed them. So in preparation for the next Hollows book (so excited!) I’m going to do a reread and review run. But since this is one of my favorite series, I have no problem doing just that. So let’s begin!

“Better to die knowing my enemies then to die sleeping innocently beside them”

Dead Witch Walking is a brilliantly funny and fascinating introduction to a world I’ve come to love. The complicated system of magical beings captivated me from the start, and with good reason. Rachel may be a sassy witch, but she’s our sassy witch, and I adore her.
This novel kicks off the first of the series, quickly introducing us to the world, the characters, and the plot. Since the series is fourteen books long (and counting!) it’s safe to assume that the plot will grow with time. That’s how a series should be.
Perhaps my favorite thing about this novel is all of the quick-witted banter. Rachel in particular, though I’m still laughing about some of Jenks more colorful swears and exclamations. They’re certainly memorable.
Dead Witch Walking was a rapid start to a long-running series. And it sure left its mark. Old fans and new fans are sure to enjoy the chaos contained within these pages.

Rereading Dead Witch Walking, I was quickly reminded of all the reasons why The Hollows became one of my favorite Urban Fantasy series out there. It’s vivid and beautiful, while also not being afraid to get its hands dirty.
Going back to the beginning, I was struck by just how young Rachel and her friends seem here. It may seem weird to put it in those terms, but trust me. These characters have grown so much during their series. And not just those three, but many of the secondary characters as well.

For more reviews check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

[jesstheaudiobookworm]

3.25★⎮Dead Witch Walking was a big, flat disappointment for me. It took me several months and even more energy to get through it. I should have DNF'd it before the 50% mark when I already knew I wasn't enjoying it, but the plethora of glowing reviews on Goodreads made me think that this was a "me" problem, so I would table it for a while before returning to it. This "tabling" method has worked for me in the past, but each time I returned to Dead Witch Walking, I was more apathetic towards it than before. By the end, that apathy had nearly turned to contempt.

Honestly, the apathy was almost worse than out right hating it. I can't put my finger on the exact reasons I didn't connect with Dead Witch Walking and that's a big part of why I kept returning to it. There was solid world building, some character development, and an action-filled plot, but none of it was good enough for me. I think it boils down to the writing itself. Something about it fell flat. The characters were interesting on paper, but were poorly fleshed out within the story and that's why I failed to connect with them, so by the end of the story, I was merely going through the motions without caring at all. I started Dead Witch Walking during a paranormal phase in which I heard several successive paranormal titles. Some were hit and others misses, but Dead Witch Walking was the biggest miss by far.

Animal fight scenes and abuse play significant part in Dead Witch Walking. I realize that I am extremely sensitive to this topic, so it's not surprising how much of a turn off it was to me. It really turned my stomach and I did have to stop listening for a while after that. In retrospect, I should have stopped listening altogether at the first sign of it, but because it happens so far into the story, I felt that I was too far in to stop.

The most frustrating thing about Dead Witch Walking was its potential. All of my major boxes were checked. There were even some extras teased, such as the female/female witch/vampire flirtation, but nothing came of it. There was a lot going on, yet the story still seemed to drag on forever. The last hour seemed so excruciatingly slow that it was almost painful to finish. That's baffling considering the amount of action involved around the plot's resolution.

I had no problem following the action. There were a few, but not many, "What the hell is going on?!" moments- mostly because this audiobook failed to hold my attention and I was constantly spacing out. The worst part is that, after having just finished this audiobook minutes ago, I've already forgotten the main character's name (Ivy?). I think that says it all. Dead Witch Walking was an audiobook that I couldn't wait to finish and one that I will probably never give a second thought.

Narration review: Unfortunately, Marguerite Gavin's dry narration did nothing to enliven Dead Witch Walking for me. I do not fully hold her to blame for this, however. Separate from this particular story, Gavin's performance would be much more appealing. She gave distinctive performances for the many secondary characters, which helped in the understanding of the tangled web of a plot. I would not be opposed to hearing Gavin perform again in the future, but I'm fairly certain I will be steering clear of anything else from Kim Harrison. ♣︎

[EBookObsessed]

I just lost 13 hours and 14 minutes of my life. I am at a loss. I don’t understand what so many people loved about this story. It went nowhere!

I can’t discuss this without some mild spoilers. You have been warned.

Rachel Morgan is a witch and at the start of our story, she is also a runner for I.S. (Interland Security). Interlanders are what they call supernaturals: witches, werewolves, vampires, fairies, etc. When you are an Interlander and you screw up, I.S. sends a runner to grab you and bring you in. The humans also have a division of the F.I.B., Federal Interlander Bureau, but since humans are no match for the Interlanders, the F.I.B. usually lets the I.S. take care of its own problems.

Rachel has become more and more unhappy with her job and the runs she has been given and after capturing a leprechaun, who offers three wishes to let her go, Rachel decides she might just take her up on the offer, buy out her contract with I.S. and go independent. Morgan’s friends, okay more like co-workers, Jenks, a 4″ tall pixie, and Ivy, a living vampire, try to talk Rachel out of leaving the I.S., then they decide they want in on her new agency and her wishes from the leprechaun.

Turns out Rachel’s boss doesn’t care about Rachel leaving. He’s been giving her crappy assignments and making sure they fails so she would leave. But when he finds out that Ivy, his best runner, is leaving with Rachel, he blames Rachel and puts out a contract on her head.

Most of the story deals with Rachel trying to stay alive and her trying to bring down a local businessman who she believes is behind all the Brimstone in town and the I.S. and the F.I.B. haven’t been able to pin this on him. Rachel thinks if she can bring down Trent, then the I.S. will have to call off the contract on her life.

Let the complaining begin…This book went no where! 13 hours and it went NOWHERE! Even before Rachel makes it home on the bus, her landlady already knew she was out of a job and all her things were in the hallway and already bespelled to kill Rachel if she touched anything. With little money and no where else to go, Rachel decides to crash at the new office space that Ivy had already rented which turned out to be a former church, complete with graveyard. While Ivy and Rachel worked together from time to time as runners, they weren’t friends so Rachel is confused why Ivy, who was so successful and much loved at I.S. wanted out.

As far as witches and magic in a story, I like to see my witches do magic. I liked Ivy in Slouch Witch because her more impressive spells were made up so she could be lazy. I didn’t like Harry Dresden in The Dresden Files because most of the time he didn’t do anything impressive. Here Rachel does have a magic wand, all her magic is put into amulets, some she simply buys at the store because it is too much trouble to buy ingredients and boil the potions. With the graveyard, also came an herb garden, so we see Rachel start cooking her own recipes and making her own amulets. But, simply put, if you don’t have your magic amulet with your special spell on you, you got nothin’ and you are dead. Also, Rachel doesn’t do offensive spells or draw from the layline going through the cemetery since that is dark witch magic. So although Rachel has a dead threat over her head, she can’t do any spells of attack, she can only use defensive amulets which was kind of boring. Rachel did do one interesting spell and that turn her into a rodent so that she could infiltrate the bad guy’s offices. She does get caught and he enters her into the underground rat fights. That section was interesting but that’s it. That was the only good I part of the story.

There are living vampires and dead vampires but that is pretty much all we know. This first story doesn’t go into any more detail than living vampires can go out into the sun and dead ones can’t. We know Ivy is abstaining from blood drinking, but no details of why or how that effects her overall. The biggest problem I had with Ivy and Rachel is the fact that most of the time Rachel was afraid of Ivy and her fear amped up Ivy’s vampire nature and things would get a little iffy whether Ivy would attack. We do get a scene where Ivy tries to explain to Rachel some things that she is doing that are setting off Ivy’s vampire nature and you would have thought that would be a step forward in character relations, but then we go back to Rachel being afraid and why does Ivy look like she is going to attack? I like character development to grow and there was nothing here. We don’t understand Ivy any better by the end of the story. We don’t have any hint of why she wanted to join Rachel so badly. Ivy and Jenks each took one wish from the leprechaun, and we know that Jenks wanted to become sterile because Pixies breed like rabbits and he didn’t want his wife to leave him. Ivy get a “to-go” wish on a chain and eventually she uses it, but we are never let in on what her wish was. I can only presume this all comes out in future novels, but the author seems to save everything for the next novel.

In fact, Rachel’s plan to get the good on the bad guy leaves her breaking into his headquarters several times and getting caught each and every time!! And why, the last time she is caught with a CD of information that she took from his drawer, did he let her keep it? What bad guys is going to just be like “keep it and stop breaking into my office.”

So for 13 hours, we have no real character development of our main characters. Nothing is settled between Ivy and Rachel. We also have no success with the bad guy who I presume will be showing up in future novels.

The only character I liked was Jenks who, even though he was only 4″ tall, was always ready to jump into a fight and protect Rachel or back her up any way he could.

Rachel also meets a human midway through the book who has no magic, but seems to know a little too much about things but Rachel seems to blow this off because he is cute. We really don’t any information why he seems to know a lot and at some point crossed he the F.I.B. so it is just more unfinished business for future stories.

I did grab a copy since it was on sale for $2.99 and I also picked up a discounted audiobook. The narrator did a nice job but I didn’t like anything about this story enough to want to bother with book 2.

[Chelsea]

I was expecting a lot more from this book. It's been on my TBR the longest so I figured I'd give it a shot. I think Dead Witch Walking could have use some more action and there was parts that probably should have been cut out. It felt like a long book and it dragged on at a lot of parts. I also found that there was a lot of names being thrown around that we didn't know and we got no explanation. We were apparently supposed to know that Trent was some kind of bad guy yet we were never told why. That being said, I did enjoy the action parts and I might continue the series eventually to see if it gets better.

I liked the characters but we could have used some extra development for them. We don't really know much about their backgrounds but the author made it feel like we were expected to know. Jenks was a clear favourite from the start and I found we learned the most about him instead of any other character.

I'm not in any rush to finish this series but I might get around to it some day.

[celinenyx]

Third reread

My original (long) review can be found below. It has been nearly seven years since I last read Dead Witch Walking, and it's still one of my favourites. When I read it I remember the excitement I felt when I was first introduced to the world of Rachel Morgan, the Hollows, and the high-paced mash-up of supernatural creatures that is urban-fantasy. Dead Witch Walking, to me, is the perfect balance of action, banter, character development, drama, and world-building. Though it is a chunky 400-page novel, I have read it in a single day. While the plot felt new to me as I had forgotten nearly everything about it, the characters feel as familiar and real to me as they did years ago.

Second reread

Reread this for a challenge. This is the book that got me into urban fantasy. Before that, I had only read epic fantasy, and I had no clue there were so much more kinds of fantasy there, just waiting for me to discover them.

Rachel is an IS (Inderland Security) runner, but lately things aren't really working out for her. She hasn't had a good run in weeks. So, at again a horrible tag she decides to quit. But she takes the best runner the IS has, Ivy Tamwood, a living vamp, with her. The IS, not so pleased with this, puts a price on her head. So now Rachel has to do everything to avoid being killed by fairy assassins and other evils...

This book is plain awesome. All supernatural beings came out of the supernatural closet during "the Turn", when the whole world was in chaos because of a virus that spreaded through tomatoes. Now, the "Inderlanders" live next to humans, but there is still a lot of suspicion and distrust.

Our protagonist, Rachel Morgan, is an earth witch, and a kick-ass heroine. She can defend herself quite well without her charms, and it feels great to have a heroine that can take care of herself. She is a bit ignorant, but she has her pixy and vamp partners to keep her out of trouble.

We see her grow in Dead Witch Walking from a I-can-do-all-of-this-by-myself-attitude to accepting that sometimes, you just need your friends, and you have to trust on other people. She is still not completely comfortable with living with a vampire that craves her blood, but we see definite progress.

All characters are so complex and have their own lives and problems. This series has one of my favourite side-characters ever: the tiny pixy Jenks, with a not so tiny attitude. His straightforwardness is hilarious. He just makes my day any time.

The story is incredibly fast paced, everything takes place in a couple of days, and there is so much going on. There are a lot of questions unanswered but there wasn't a big cliffhanger ending. There is a lot of stuff left for the rest of the series, and I can't wait to reread those as well.

[nitzan_schwarz]

2015 tbr challenge

1.5 stars

Originally published on my blog. Please consider popping by if you like this review ;)


Why is this series so popular?

Normally, I don't rate books I DNF. However, since I DNFed this one because I couldn't really stand it, I felt like I would be forgiven for passing judgment in the form of stars.

I've been really looking forward to reading this book. I heard so many great things about this series, from great sources. I was expecting a kickass witch, in a kickass world, with shipping to be had that will make me want to read sequel after sequel (I guess, in other words, I was expecting nothing less than the Kate Daniels series, or the Charley Davidson, or The Others, or Mercy Thompson. All great series you should read).

Alas, none of my wishes came true.

In retrospect I a) shouldn't have read it straight after a mindblowingly awesome book such Written in Red and b) should've known to lower my expectations when a first attempt to read this book a couple of weeks back resulted in me dropping it after a couple of pages.


I don't know Brit... I honestly don't know. 

Dead Witch Walking is told from the point of view of Rachel Morgan, which means that if you don't like Rachel, you won't like the book. Can you guess what I thought of Rachel? That's right. Hated her.

Seriously, she's just one of those characters that constantly pisses me off.

It's started with how she refused to accept the idea her ex-boss will put a price on her head, even though everyone warned her, and her boss literally told her he will. In no uncertain terms. I frowned at that.

Then, she's supposed to be a witch of some powers (or else, people won't be so interested in her / she wouldn't be the damn good runner she claims she is). And yet she decidedly lacks in powers. By page 90, she's been almost killed about 5 times, and four of those times she was saved by others who happened to be around and she didn't even realize she's been in danger until they nullified it. And you expect me to believe you're capable? You, lady, are no badass. 

Second, she treats her friends awfully. From page one, she is pretty much condescending, judgemental and unforgiving. Her friends help her. Does she thank them? Umm... nope, she complains. She get's angry. She feels justifies at being so.She never shows them any gratitude. And she hurts them constantly, and so callously!

(It's like she thinks Ivy being a vampire means she has no feelings. I'm not a particularly big Ivy fan, and STILL I was just indignant on her account.)

And let's not get me started on Jenks, the only likable character in this whole fiasco. Jenks is awesome. He is by far the most badass of the lot - saving Rachel constantly. He does a lot more than Ivy or anyone else. And yet he is treated as mere comic relief, with Rachel turning decent toward him only when she's turned his size and realizes that, hey, he's pretty hot!

Then, there's the world. For the life of me, I don't understand why the IS operates the way it does. Why can't it just fire people? Why is getting out a death sentence? Seriously, why would they go through all the hassle of hiring assassins of all kinds? It seemed so stupid and over the top to me when you can just fire someone. And considering this is a huge part of the story, it made the whole thing hard to swallow.

But the real reason I put the book down at page 190 instead of braving the rest of it as I already got so far has to do with Trent. Now, I have this thing. When I'm not clicking with a book that's part of a series, I tend to go read spoilers (I know, WHAT?) so I could make an informed decision on whether I want to read of those events, or rather pass. Which is what I did here.

This is why I know Trent is end game. I was on board with that, for a while there. Until he killed that man. The whatever-he-is is a psychotic, murdering SOB. And I honestly don't want to read of him redeemed because, there is no good excuse for that murder and cruelty.

Originally published on my blog. Please consider popping by if you like this review ;)

[Berls]

My Initial Reaction...

I read Dead Witch Walking about a year ago and devoured it. Now that Kim Harrison is doing a read-along I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to reread the series and review the books as I go. The second time around I liked this book even more than the first time and it's definitely still a favorite series.

The Narration...

Marguerite Gavin is a pretty good narrator. I'm listening to another series with her right now and enjoying her narration much more than I did in Dead Witch Walking. I think this is one of those situations where, when you read a book the first time, you have certain voices in your head and anything else just sounds off. Despite that, I got comfortable with her style and think she did a decent job embodying the characters.

The Characters...

I love Rachel and seeing her in these early days after seeing where she'll go made this first book so much more interesting. Even so early on she's tough and capable. She's funny and what I love most is that she's genuinely good. She doesn't want to hurt anyone - the idea of killing an animal, even to save her own life, pisses her off. And unlike much of the magical community she treats supposed "lessers" like Pixies and Fairies like people too. But life isn't being kind to her and she's ready for a change. So she quits her job as a Runner for the IS (Interlander Security) and, because she happens to take Ivy (their best runner) along for the ride, from the second she leaves she's under a death threat. Seeing her deal with the death threat reveals a lot about the strength she has inside and you can see lots of potential ready to burst out.

The second time around I also realized that all the characters, from even this really early point, are wonderfully developed. Ivy, a living-vampire and Rachel's new partner/roommate, is fighting with her nature and her destiny. She wants to be someone different and you can see it tearing her up. Jenks, their pixy partner, is marvelous (and will become a favorite character for me). He's hilarious, but so much more than comic relief; he's braver and more essential to Rachel's survival than you'd think anyone a few inches tall could possibly be. Then there's Trent, Nick, Kinglsey... I could go on and on. Every supporting character is full of depth and fun to read.

The Story...

Dead Witch Walking centers around Rachel, Ivy, and Jenks decision to leave the IS and the disastrous consequences for Rachel. Ivy was able to buy her way out of her contract. Jenks didn't have a contract. The IS wanted to get rid of Rachel, but they hadn't planned on her taking their best runner, Ivy, with her. And they expect her to pay - with her life. No matter how good Rachel is - and she's good - or how great Ivy and Jenks are at keeping her safe - and they're great - eventually one of the IS's contract killers will get lucky. So Rachel knows she has to find a way to get the contract paid off. And when she learns that Trent Kalamak, sexy councilman and wealthy businessman, may be involved in running drugs on the side she decides that tagging him will be her ticket out. Too bad he's not easier prey - catching him will be more than Rachel bargained for and she just might not make it out alive.

I remember getting hung up on the story development the first time I read Dead Witch Walking and, even though I followed it better this time because I knew where I was headed, I stick by my earlier judgments. The first quarter of the Dead Witch Walking really drags and is awkward in a lot of places. It's easy to get confused and it really seems that the story should have started when Rachel quit her job and filled in a lot of the earlier (and slow moving) details as Rachel's race to save her life moved along, but at least once you get to that part you know you're to the good stuff!

Concluding Sentiments...

Ultimately, Dead Witch Walking suffers from what I call "first book syndrome" - there's so much world to develop that the story suffers a bit. Having read further I know that it's worth sticking with it through that first bit, because Harrison is laying the groundwork for what will be a fantastic world. And once you get passed the first 25% it's a nonstop race to the end!

[Linda]

Action-packed, strong female protagonist, cool pixies, scary vamps and one character nobody knows what is - great read!

This and all my other reviews are originally posted on my blog (un)Conventional Bookviews

Dead Witch Walking has been on my kindle for a very long time! I went to check, and I actually bought it in September 2010, so yeah, Rachel Morgan and her friends have been very patient waiting for me to really notice them. Lately, three of my very good blogging friends have been talking about The Hollows series and telling me how good it is, so I decided I should at least start reading Dead Witch Walking and see if I agreed with them or not.

[tellemonstar]

Full review here

I enjoyed Dead Witch Walking. Rachel is an interesting character and Kim Harrison has created a well-developed world for her characters to live in.

As a fan of this genre, I like the supernatural characters to actually have personalities, my vampires to bit and my were-creatures to exhibit at least some behaviours of the animal they turn into. It was really good to see that in this book – Ivy’s struggles to deal with being a vampire, Rachel’s issues with certain types of magic and so on. I enjoyed that because in a lot of urban fantasy these days there isn’t always much mentioned about the cause and effect of magic or being a supernatural creature on the people who are affected by or using it.

I would definitely recommend this to people who are fans of Charlaine Harris (considering the Southern Vampire Mysteries is now completed) or Laurell K. Hamilton (especially as there is less sex and gore in these than is in the Anita Blake series), or just people who like their supernatural characters to be a little bit interesting.

[inlibrisveritas]

Dead Witch Walking is the first book in an extremely popular urban fantasy series and focuses on Rachel Morgan, a witch with a lot of tricks up her sleeves and a ton of enemies to use them on. I realize I’m in the minority with my rating, so I implore you to check out other reviews as well if you’re curious.

I really enjoyed the premise and main storyline for Dead Witch Walking. Rachel Morgan does a number on the world building giving us a world where supernatural creatures are known to the rest of the world and even coexist. The down fall is that at times I felt like I was getting overloaded with details on various non-important things, like shopping malls. I personally wouldn’t have minded a few time skips because of this very reason. I did love the whole idea of The Hollows, a literal community for those of the supernatural background. Can you imagine? I whole section of the city devoted to vampires, witches, and even leprechauns? It even comes with a host of moral and ethics issues.

Rachel is a resourceful woman who seems like a serious badass…but then turns into a terrified girl at the drop of hat if her roommate looks a tad too interested in anything. I think that was my biggest problem with her, and while I’m fine with their being some obvious (and understandable) tension between the two…she cowers and tiptoes during almost all of their interactions. I think I was offended for Ivy, over the lack of trust Rachel extends her….even though Ivy did quite a lot for her and didn’t have to. My favorite character was Jenks, the smart alec pixie. He’s witty, brave and isn’t afraid of telling Rachel that she’s too much to handle. Ivy is resourceful, quiet, and has that dangerous edge to her that I appreciate in a vampire. She handles situations with causal grace and most of the time she doesn’t lose her cool. I felt at odds with the fact that I enjoyed the two side characters more than the main character though, and it left me feeling a bit uneven as I read through.

I really liked the action and magic scenes, and those were the areas that I really enjoyed all the details. The spells are really interesting and I loved how instead of sparkles and lights they have substance. Oddly enough I liked that the spells and counters were messy and not some perfect invisible force. I’m also in love with the amount of supernatural variety and the fact that we get to see some many in the first book.

Overall I suppose I was a bit disappointed with the way this turned out. I can certainly see the amazing potential for the series and I’ve heard that it gets better with each book, but if I’m being honest I feel a bit hesitant to continue. I own the second book so I do plan to give it another go before deciding.