Spellbent [Mass Market Paperback]

Most of the time I find good, objective reasons for liking or not liking a book. SPELLBENT didn't oblige me. Objectively there's nothing wrong with style, characters and setting. This might be Lucy A. Snyder's first major novel, but she's been a short story writer for a long time and she knows what she's doing.
My problem lies with the heroine of the book. I just don't get her. And I don't like her much either.
Jessie lives in an unhealthy relationship with her former teacher Cooper. He facilitates her emotional and material dependency, isolates her and hinders her development. Law is a flexible thing to them and the bottom of society is where they want to be. I don't know if Cooper does these things deliberately to Jessie or not. However, if you try to come up with something positive to say about a character and the only thing coming to mind is "At least he doesn't beat her", it doesn't bode well. The worst thing about this situation is, that Jessie begins to see those things, but doesn't deem them important enough and lets them drop.

When Cooper accidentally opens a door to a hell, gets pulled in and a demon escapes, Jessie is the only one who can save her boyfriend. Authorities don't want her to go after him and when she refuses to cooperate declare her anathema. No one in the magical community is allowed to help Jessie, but her newly awakened familiar Palimpsest proves to be quite the wicked one.

I understand why Jessie wants to save her boyfriend. I can't see how a nearly dead person with no resources, no help, no plan thinks she can do the impossible, though. See, while fighting the demon Jesse got hurt. Badly. She lost an arm (it's a green pus oozing mess), an eye (filled by a ping-pong ball), got poisoned and suffered other severe injuries. She's with one foot in death's door and hurting horrendously, but could be completely healed if she agrees to leave her boyfriend be. Pain of this magnitude can't be ignored or pushed away by sheer contrariness. Pain is a big motivator. It motivates you to make it go away! So I don't understand why Jessie doesn't try to find a way around the agreement after she's healed. Especially since she doesn't know what to do anyway!
Her familiar saves her. He knows the right spells and potions for the right situations and agrees to help her even though he could get into big trouble himself. Lucky Jessie.

Aside from my problems with the characters I thought that the ick factor of this story was pretty high. Ferret droppings and bloody maxi pads fuel spells, there are beings made of sperm and menstrual period, the heroine tries to scoop out her faux eye with a spoon and has green pus oozing out of her arm stump, etc., etc. .

SPELLBENT is well written, but not to my tastes. If Lucy A. Snyder starts a new series, I might give it a try, though.

Jessica Shimmer is my kind of hero! If you're a fan of urban fantasy, you're going to love Spellbent. It's got magic, sex, a butt-kicking hero, and a plot that made me read the whole thing in one breathless, page-flipping sitting. If you're sick of the same old, same old in the genre, you're going to love it even more. Jessie solves problems using her brawn, both magical and physical, not her feminine allure. She's snarky, witty, and far from perfect. I love her!

And I love the magical world Snyder has built. It's authentic, dimensional, convincing, and full of surprises. (Wait until you find out what Jessie does to Mikey!) From the very first pages, you believe in this universe. World building is the hardest part of the fantasy writer's job, and Lucy A. Snyder does the work with a master's touch. Jessie Shimmer is so real and likeable I wanted to call her up and ask her to meet me for coffee. The other characters, from Jessie's familiar ferret, Pal, to the other magic workers live and breathe right there on the page.

Spellbent is a hoot, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It made me laugh, and I really cared what happened to the characters. Snyder has a keen touch for dialogue and for bringing a distinct voice to each of her people. And ferrets. It's hard to believe this is a first novel. But anyone familiar with Snyder's work knows her gifts as a wordsmith, so it's not completely surprising.

I can't wait to read the rest of the books in the series and find out what happens to Jessie, Cooper, and the other folks. Snyder did an excellent job of bring closure to this first novel, and in setting up the situation for the sequels.

Buy this book, go someplace where nobody will interrupt you, and prepare to get down. Don't start it right before you're supposed to go to sleep, because you'll be up until you finish it. Who knew Columbus, Ohio, could be so much fun? Five stars, all the way.

It's just a routine rain spell. Jessie and her teacher and lover, Cooper, head to the city park to call up a storm and make a few bucks. But something goes horribly wrong. By the end of the night, Cooper has been sucked away into a Hell realm, and Jessie has suffered devastating injuries.

Then, things get *worse*. Benedict Jordan, the leader of the city's magicians, gives Jessie a choice: either she agrees not to rescue Cooper, or else she becomes anathema. Jessie is definitely not the kind of girl who'll leave her boyfriend to rot in Hell, so she chooses anathema. Jordan proceeds to ruin her life and leave her with nothing. Nothing, that is, except her never-give-up attitude and Palimpsest, an uptight ferret familiar who is described as having the voice of a Canadian librarian. (Not knowing any Canadian librarians, my brain has substituted an unholy cross between Rupert Giles' voice and C-3PO's.) Pal provides much of the comic relief in Spellbent.

Together, Jessie and Pal do everything within their power, first to survive, then to save Cooper. Jessie's tenacity and resourcefulness make every step of her journey compelling. Jessie could be forgiven for wallowing in angst, given what happens to her, but she doesn't. She never stops moving toward her goals. I read Spellbent in a single afternoon and evening, unable to tear myself away. I had to know what happened next!

It's a good book even before we get to Hell, and then it's the Hell scenes that really blew me away. I was expecting the usual flames and pitchforks, but Snyder doesn't go that conventional route. Cooper's Hell is an intensely personal one. And wow, is it dark. I think my jaw was on the floor when Jessie (and I) learned about the horrific events that lay at the root of the entire plot.

Spellbent is dark enough that it won't be for everyone; a previous reviewer compared the gore level to that of Ilona Andrews' first Kate Daniels book, Magic Bites, and that's a pretty accurate parallel. This comes in part from the horror elements and in part from the magic system that Jessie and Cooper use: ubiquemancy, the art of finding the magic in everything. This sometimes means unsavory ingredients, like bodily fluids. It can get a little gross. But at the same time, it adds a verisimilitude that I can't help but respect. Ancient and medieval "spell recipes" often called for ingredients that would make most of us squeamish.

A minor aside: There's an odd little editing glitch in my e-ARC (it may be corrected in the published book). Jessie remarks that she's "not afraid of some third-string football-player rapist," which had me rereading earlier pages to make sure I hadn't missed anything. I hadn't; we meet the football-playing rapist in the next scene. It has no bearing on the plot, so all it did was make me scratch my head for a few minutes.

Jaded urban fantasy fans should consider giving Spellbent a try. Snyder adds together a determined yet flawed heroine, fun secondary characters, a plot with tons of forward momentum, and one seriously creepy Hell, and the end result is a visceral, powerful modern-day Orpheus myth.