Haunted: Number 5 in series (Otherworld, #5)

by Kelley Armstrong

Eve Levine - half-demon, black witch and devoted mother - has been dead for three years. She has a great house, an interesting love life and can't be killed again - which comes in handy when you've made as many enemies as Eve. Yes, the afterlife isn't too bad - all she needs to do is find a way to communicate with her daughter Savannah and she'll be happy. But fate - or more exactly, the Fates - have other plans. Eve owes them a favour, and they've just called it in. An evil spirit called the Nix has escaped from hell. She feeds on chaos and death, and is very good at persuading people to kill for her. The Fates want Eve to hunt her down before she does any more damage, but the Nix is a dangerous enemy - previous hunters have been sent mad in the process. As if that's not problem enough, it turns out that the only way to stop her is with an angel's sword. And Eve's no angel...

• ISBN10: 1841493414
• ISBN13: 9781841493411
• Publish Date: 26 May 2005 (first published 1 January 2005)
• Publish Status: Transferred
• Out of Print: 29 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Orbit
• Format: Paperback (A-Format (178x111 mm))
• Pages: 512
• Language: English

Reviews

[Chelsea]

I think I fall in love with this series the more I read it. Eve is easily one of my favourites and I'm glad she has a whole book to herself. Kristoff is also a surprisingly great character and I really love his relationship with Eve. He's the perfect partner for her. It was great to see such a powerful character struggle. Eve seems to be perfect in every way but she can't let go of the living world even though she's dead. I think this was a great story about how Eve finally accepts her death and that her daughter will be just fine without her.
I could have done with the chapters in the Nix's POV but besides that this was a pretty quick read.

[Hixxup]

ok so in my honest opinion, this one truly sucked compared to the ones I've read so far... It took me forever to read this and it never takes me this long to read a book, unless I'm not digging it and stuggling to finish it because there is more to the series and I don't want to get lost in some minor detail from a previous book I didn't read. But I'm glad Eve and Kris got back together and are all lovey dovey and stuff, the whole half demon, becoming an angel ehhh a little too far fetched for me but hey whatever it worked in this case. Basically I just didn't feel it like I did the other books in the series so far.

[empressbrooke]

It took me a long time after reading [b:Industrial Magic|125925|Industrial Magic (Women of the Otherworld, #4)|Kelley Armstrong|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171907387s/125925.jpg|121282] to continue on with this series; Industrial Magic had been so painful that it was difficult to convince myself to spend more time with the series even though I had enjoyed the first two books so much. Luckily, Haunted is a major improvement over the last book even though it still isn't [b:Bitten|11918|Bitten (Women of the Otherworld, #1)|Kelley Armstrong|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1306101770s/11918.jpg|2606334] quality.

I really liked a lot of the concepts in this book. The rules of being the ghost of a supernatural creature, the mechanics of the supernatural-ghostly dimension, the villian's unique characteristics and the way she used her partners/victims - all of these elements were well explained and well-used in the narrative to create a story that was actually fresh and interesting. I didn't have any problems with believing or understanding the characters' motivations, which was something that made the past two books weak for me.

My main complaint was how non-threatening Eve and Kristof Nash were. Previous books had painted a darker picture of them from other peoples' points of view, but that didn't really come through here. It may have been in the interest of making the protagonist likeable, but I would have preferred them to be a little more gritty. Eve does mention people she's killed and suggests killing innocent people to capture the villain, but it feels like it's wrapped up in puppies and rainbows.

[celinenyx]

Whether you like the Women of the Otherworld series or not, one thing is certain; the books all have something that makes them unique. The most intriguing aspect of this book was our new narrator: Eve Levine.

What makes Eve so special is that she's dead, and has been dead quite a while now. She's a ghost, living in the supernatural plane. She can visit the world of the living, but she is unable to actually influence anything there. She is ripped from her obsessing over her 15-year-old still living daughter by divine influence, and sent on a not so divine mission to catch a rampaging demonic serial killer.

What I liked about this book is how it adds to the series. I found it very interesting to read about a world after this life. It was new and something I had never read before. Even though there are a lot of angel and half-angel stories out there, none of them really show what happens after someone dies. There were a lot of imaginative solutions to keep the supernatural system running smoothly and I loved reading about the structure of this worlds afterlife.

As we are used to, this book is one action-packed hunt to capture the bad guy. This keeps the pacing high, but at some point the constant running around gets a bit tiresome. There was some space for character development but at times I wished there was some more, to get a bit diversity in the story.

Which brings me to the major problem I had with this book. As much as I like Eve, and as much as I like her voice and overall character, I just don't feel for her. For some reason I don't see her as a narrator. This book seemed a bit like a sidestep from the running plotline. There was some of the usual cast present but at the end of the book I and I looked back, I didn't see it really change anything.

Still, an exiting read that doesn't bore at all. There were quite a lot moments that had me giggling which is always good. Does contain some pretty gruesome serial killing fantasies, but nothing extreme. Maybe not the strongest part of this series, but I would still certainly recommend the Women of the Otherworld books.