When 17-year-old Valerie Russell runs away to New York City, she's trying to escape a life that has utterly betrayed her. Sporting a new identity, she takes up with a gang of squatters who live in the city's labyrinthine subway system. But there's something eerily beguiling about Val's new friends. Impulsive Lolli talks of monsters in the subway tunnels they call home and shoots up a shimmery amber-coloured powder that makes the shadows around her dance. Severe Luis claims he can make deals with creatures that no one else can see. And then there's Luis's brother, Dave, who makes the mistake of letting Val tag along as he makes a delivery to a woman who turns out to have goat hooves instead of feet. When a bewildered Val allows Lolli to talk her into tracking down the hidden lair of the creature for whom Luis and Dave have been working, Val finds herself bound into service by a troll named Ravus. He is as hideous as he is honourable, and as Val grows to know him, she finds herself torn between affection for him - and fear of what her new friends are becoming because of him.
I wasn't a huge fan of the first book in this series so I didn't end up being a huge fan of this one. I didn't like how this book was a whole new set of characters. I felt like I was just beginning to understand the first ones and now these new ones are being sprung on me. There was a lot of drug use in this book which was fine except that there were so many stereotypes about it. The author is just not a great writer. Using stereotypes all the time, the characters were lacking and the story was choppy. The idea was good and the story was good in general but there were things that could have been way better. I did like the romance happening with the main character. It made the story a little lighter. Not the greatest book but bearable.
