Publisher: Del Rey

Author: Lucy A. Snyder

Release Date: 10/16/2010

Pages: 336

MSRP: $7.99

Recommended Audience: Adult

Lucy A. Snyder is at it again with the tales of Pal and Jessie Shimmer, but this time around it gets weirder, more mature, and rawer than Spellbent. The book also has more action and is paced a little better this time around which is great for longer periods of reading. After beating the Virtii, rescuing Cooper’s brothers from his hell, and getting a possessing Goad inside of her she has run into more trouble this time around. The first half of the book takes a while to get to the good stuff which is everyone getting stuck in a temporary post-apocalyptic Cuchillo, Texas.

Pal,  Jessie, and the gang find themselves having to meet Jordan in another realm because they killed her brother and they must pay for it. Upon arriving under mutual circumstances they get chased into a portal via another Virtii and are stuck in the post-apocalyptic Texas where an evil goddess named Miko wants a person to give her their souls willingly or she will take them and use them as meat puppets (a fancy way of saying, zombies).

Without spoiling too much of the plot they meet some other strange characters, and it turns into a full-scale war, but you never get to read about that. I felt Lucy took some shortcuts to make the book shorter, and I would have loved to read more about a battle or two with the meat puppets. The book’s main pull comes from its raw mature theme, and it has more graphic sex, gore, and language than the first book. I was pretty taken aback by some of the stuff in here so people with weak hearts should stay away. The story is more personal with Jessie and you can really see how she’s changed and how much crap she can take as a human being.

Shotgun Sorceress really shows how much pain and suffering humans can take, and it still has this surreal edge about it. I love that style of writing, but the book didn’t score higher than her last one because she is taking shortcuts again. This series is great for people who want to get right into it, but I like a little back story and a little more detail about what’s going on in the world. Lucy is one of the “I don’t care what you think” writers and it shows in her books I wish more people would write more like here. If you read the last one go ahead and read this because it’s different (not so much as better) and you’ll enjoy it.