The Witch With No Name (The Hollows #13)

New Hollows Day is probably as good as Christmas Day for many of us. Not to mention this one has come much sooner than expected! But if I\’m being honest, this is probably my toughest review yet. It\’s taken me so long to get it together because I just keep drawing a blank. Part of it is because this is the end of my favorite series ever. But I have accepted that this must happen to all good things, or else they could risk not being so good anymore. Kim Harrison brought this novel back around to be about the vamps. She made good on her promise compared to other recent books where they sat more on the back burner. It appears to be for good reason though because vampires are the key to changing everything. There were some revelations that truly surprised me and the unpredictable twists kept me at the edge of my seat the whole time. I was happy to see the demons and elves get a healthy dose of focus as well. Over the years I have grown very attached to their story lines and was happy to see they wouldn\’t have too many loose ends. Rachel and Trent. Yeah, if you\’re a fan I don\’t see why that would stop now! They display great teamwork and definitely turn up the heat as they\’re settling into their relationship together. It\’s satisfying to see but still hard to believe it\’s happened considering the long road they took to find one another. Of course it still isn\’t easy for them. They have very complicated lives, but their determination to make it work just gives a girl all the feels in the world. Rachel takes her relationships seriously and her friends and family are as strong as ever. We get the answer to the question of whether she is able to save Ivy\’s soul. That alone is worth the price of admission if you\’ve stuck it out with this series for as long as I have. The thing is, I was expecting to have the waterworks ready after finishing this final book. 9 years is the longest I\’ve stuck it out with a series. But I finished it feeling satisfied and believing that the characters would be okay. Kim has done her characters justice and she should pat herself on the back for being able to give them what they deserve. And it truly feels deserved with a very fitting ending. They\’ve worked hard and sacrificed so much. I enjoyed every page from beginning to end in this last installment. We received a lot of answers and many things were wrapped up, but at the same time it also feels like a new beginning so I still want more! I just don\’t know what I am going to do without my favorite witch, demon, elf, pixy, and vampire team to look forward to once a year. And now I\’m gonna lay the sap on extra thick. Honestly, reading for me won\’t be the same again, at least for a while. This is the first series to truly introduce me to the adult urban fantasy genre and it\’s set the bar so high that nothing else can scratch that itch quite like The Hollows can. Everything else fights for second. This is the first series I have followed for so long, so it will always have a special place in my heart for that reason alone. Of course I\’m looking forward to what\’s next, but it\’s always hard to say goodbye to history, especially as I\’ve gone through the ups and downs with the characters year after year, and I\’ve made quite a few friends in my real life along the way, including Ms. Harrison herself. So goodbye Hollows! Thanks for the ride! Thanks for the memories! Thank you, Kim Harrison! I\’ll be first in line for your next book!

Some spoilers…. I\’m seriously disappointed. I had such high hopes for the feisty Rachel Morgan when I was introduced to her a couple of years ago. I\’ve been laboring through the entire Hollows series since. I loved the characters (like Al), the title themes corresponding with Clint Eastwood movies, the urban fantasy. Over time, the series started to suffer from wash, rinse, repeat with the details and descriptions, pointless situational filler, wishy-washy internal dialoguing as Rachel constantly struggles with being a dark witch, then a demon, then whether or not she\’s good enough to be with Ivy, or later Trent. These last few books have been a struggle to get through. I almost gave up a few times. I\’m primarily upset with how Harrison went about telling some of the story – using copious amounts of filler (30 chapters that could have been told in 20) in lieu of gee perhaps unraveling the happenings surrounding the deaths and disappearances of a few major characters. Pierce and Ceri, for example, get an honorable 3-minute mention of how they died after the fact. Like it was an afterthought of, \”Oh, yeah. Remember these two. They are dead now.\” While other, less interesting characters, get prime print real-estate languishing in painstaking detail to their unfolding plots, meetings in the shadows, and later demise. To sum up: had I known Rachel\’s story would end with the typical all she needs to be happy is to be married to the guy who treated her like crap for most of the series, have kids, and set her business/career aside, I would have passed.

I’ve enjoyed all the Hallows books as well as Ms. Harrison’s other works, but she outdid herself here. I had tears in my eyes the last third of the book, not because it’s sad but because it’s so beautifully written. (And I’m a middle aged man who believes than men don’t cry unless there’s a dead relative or a dead dog.) Typically I re-read the entire series each time there’s a new book. This time I just jumped in, but the series is so etched into my mind at this point that I didn’t miss it. It’s a very fitting finale, a novel of hate, love, struggle and sacrifice every bit as good as any out there. It’s a mortal sin that high schools still teach Shakespeare instead of books like these, whose characters are so much more relatable and with plots so much better crafted. If teachers would shake off the cobwebs we would have a lot more kids who love reading. I give a lot of five star reviews (because I very seldom review what I don’t finish and there are so many great books that I won’t waste time reading those that aren’t great) but this one deserves ten stars. This is, as Robert Jordan famously says, an ending and a beginning. I’ve no doubt that the author has a lot more great stories whirling around in that lovely head and I look forward to reading them all. In the mean time, I highly recommend that anyone reading this review go back and buy the first in the series. They are all great, and while this is the best and can stand alone, it will be so much greater if you’ve experienced the whole series.

I\’m *so* tired of whiny, teary women. Yes, I know that for many women writers, emotional action is as important as physical action, in contrast to many male writers. Fine. But *must* that include constant whining, self-destructive thinking and behavior, indecisiveness, and general, consuming, overwhelming depression? Why? And why, in particular, at the **thirteenth** book in the series? Can\’t this women resolve *some* of her issues, after all this? Can\’t the author create a female character who actually *matures* as a series continues? Apparently not, and I\’m done with it all. If you like whiny, depressed, immature characters who never seem to grow up, hey, this book is for you.

Love this series, own them all. Wish there were more.

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