Blood Oranges

Siobhan Quinn #1

by Kathleen Tierney, Caitlín R. Kiernan

My name's Quinn. If you buy into my reputation, I'm the most notorious demon hunter in New England. But rumors of my badassery have been slightly exaggerated. Instead of having kung-fu skills and a closet full of medieval weapons, I'm an ex-junkie with a talent for being in the wrong place at the right time. Or the right place at the wrong time. Or...whatever. Wanted for crimes against inhumanity I (mostly) didn't commit, I was nearly a midnight snack for a werewolf until I was "saved" by a vampire calling itself the Bride of Quiet. Already cursed by a werewolf bite, the vamp took a pint out of me too. So now...now, well, you wouldn't think it could get worse, but you'd be dead wrong.

Genres: Urban Fantasy, Fantasy, Vampires, Horror, Paranormal, Werewolves, Fiction

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 5, 2013

About the author

Kathleen Tierney is the pen name of author Caitlín R. Kiernan.

Reviews

[Sharon ∞❥ is an emotional book junkie ❥∞ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ★'s

Well, to be honest, the blurb is really what drew me to this book. Words like 'demon hunter', 'ex-junkie', 'midnight snack for a werewolf', 'the vamp took a pint out of me too' and "So now…now, well, you wouldn’t think it could get worse, but you’d be dead wrong." really popped for me as well as the sarcasm. I just had no idea how crazy it would be! (And you get a taste of it at the very beginning with The Author's preface...don't miss it, it's hilarious!)

Quinn has been a runaway since the age of twelve and the story of her life is definitely not sugar coated. She's become a junkie and does whatever she needs to get her fix...including stealing and doing tricks. That's until everything changes one night when her best friend and make out buddy gets killed by a ghoul. Quinn's eyes are now wide open and she tells the tale in her own words which are sprinkled with verses from novels (from the hours she spent hanging out in the library) and heavily infused with sarcastic remarks and satire. (She's like a much darker Dani from the Fever series.)

At the beginning, Quinn was lucky. Demons were killed mostly by the manner of her being in the right place and/or right time or just by accident...she just happen to get all the glory. Things changed when she was bitten by both a werewolf and a vampire. Suddenly, people were after her and she was after others and the action gets amped up tenfold. (I got a kick out of things when she would wake up and could tell who and what!! she had eaten by her vomit....no really, it is kind of funny...gross but funny.)

The paranormals in this book are no way romanticized, in fact, the author does a good job blasting away quite a few notions of any sparkly vampires and alpha males. These paranormals are not pretty and there is quite a bit of blood and gore...and guts and bones...well, you get the picture.

Of course, there is a mystery and some good ol' backstabbing. Some of the information goes back and forth from the past to present but it was laid out in a very understanding and interesting way.

Quite a good story if you're looking for a straight up Urban Fantasy novel with a ton of snark. The price is a bit disconcerting but hopefully it won't cause too many people to shy away.

[Mogsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4-4.5 stars. This review originally posted at The BiblioSanctum

Now here's a book that comes with a ton of caveats.

First of all, it seems whenever a title about vampires or werewolves comes out nowadays, most of us tend to automatically think, "Oh geez, not yet another YA urban fantasy." Except I don't know if I'd let any tween of mine get within twenty feet near a book like this. No question about it, it is adult fiction containing a lot of mature themes and very naughty language, though interestingly enough, no sex.

Which is also kind of the perfect segue into my next point: If you are someone who prefers a little paranormal romance in your urban fantasy, then this book is also not for you. Our main protagonist and narrator is one of those gals who would sooner kill a monster than get lovey dovey and make out with one, if you know what I mean. As all tough demon huntresses should be, if you ask me. That she also makes fun of sparkly vampires is a plus.

Actually, if you're still unsure of whether or not this book is for you, just flip through the first few pages of front matter to the author's foreword. Here's my favorite quote from it: "In fact, if you're the sort who believes books should come with warning labels, this book's not for you. Also, please note: Siobhan Quinn is not a very good writer. Fair notice."

Yes, fair and pretty much accurate. Good thing my sensibilities are not easily offended, because this book was a lot of fun and a riot to read. It actually made me laugh out loud a few times. There's just something about the gritty writing style and Quinn's sarcastic cynicism and that devil-may-care attitude of hers that makes me really like her. She reminds me of a female Sandman Slim.

Yeah, Siobhan Quinn is definitely not your run-of-the-mill urban fantasy heroine. Not at all. The two monster-kills that that first led her onto the demon-hunting path were complete flukes, the products of her clumsiness and sheer dumb luck. She's a foul-mouthed street-kid drug addict with serious issues who gets bitten by a werewolf and a vampire -- both in a single night! -- but her "werepire-ness" has not left her any prettier, any more cheerful, or improved her hygienic habits one whit. Not to mention she's also a junkie, a self-admitted coward and compulsive liar, and a terribly unreliable narrator.

But perhaps the thing I liked most about her character is the fact she breaks the urban fantasy female protagonist mold, in a way that's almost borderline satire. That along with the book's departure from the norm offers a refreshing change of pace for those of us who are wearying of the same-old-same-old genre tropes, and who might be looking for something different to stir things up.

By the way, Kathleen Tierney is the nom de plume of Caitlín R. Kiernan, whom I found out only after I finished this book is quite a well-known author of horror fiction. Though I have not read any of her other works, after Blood Oranges, I think I might want to.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

Blood Oranges is a rare Dark Urban Fantasy that centers on vampires that I actually really enjoyed. It just so happens to be written by Kathleen Tierney who is in fact Caitlin Kiernan, one of my very favorite authors. I really stay away from all things that fall into the vampire and werewolf categories, but there have been a few exceptions that I happen to love.

Like Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden Files, this is an Urban Fantasy that contains just about everything, including the kitchen sink. Vamps, Wolves, Demons, and Ghosts, as well as other things that go bump in the night. Siobhan Quinn our very nasty heroine happens to be both a vampire and a werewolf kind of like Michael from the Underworld series. Quinn is not a nice girl, heck she has very few redeeming qualities about her. She has a tough childhood and by an accident comes to see the creatures of the night by accidentally killing one. This is the story and the backstory of all the events that make her into the woman that she is today.

Much of this book is filled with backstory after backstory filling in all the details that we do not actually need at this time. Too much time is spent in the past as this book is clearly a setup for more to come. I would have been angry about this, but I already have book number two.

Caitlin Kiernan is a gifted writer. She has quite a collection of thought provoking, atmospheric, horror novels that seem to all have a heavy dose of cognitive horror within. This book is not like that all…This is her only lets call it main stream urban fantasy and her style of writing under her pseudonym is quite different from her past repertoire. The good thing is that it really works for this type of series and I can see it easily have a large audience. Quinn and her story come across as the hard ‘R’ rating compared to Dresden and his clearly ‘PG’ rating.

Read this for the writing, the imagination, and the characters…

“Point is, the way you think folks behave, and the way they really do, those two things frequently have very little in common with one another. The prey has a tendency to imagine itself smart enough to outwit the predators. No. Strike that. The prey rarely even bothers to believe there are predators. Also, I’m not talking about rapists, murderers, and thieves. I’m talking about predators. I’m talking about the creatures lurking around out there with appetites most human beings can’t begin to imagine, the ghoulies intent on making a meal of you and yours, or, hell, just intent on torturing someone until they grow bored enough to contrive some especially messy way to finish the job. Ever seen a cat play with a mouse? That’s what I mean, only not with cats and not with mice. What I mean makes cats look pretty damn merciful.”


Caitlin Kiernan/Kathleen Tierney is an author not to missed. She is among my very favorite and I hope that you pick up a book or three of hers as they really are not to be missed.

This one is fun!!!

[Mir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Implausibly well-read junkie street kid inadvertently becomes (in)famous monster killer.

Rhode Island apparently has quite a vampire/werewolf/demon problem; no wonder it seemed so underpopulated when I was there.

Sloppy but amusing (as is the fake author bio at the end).

[Sjgomzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in an explosive style completely different from Caitlin Kiernan’s usual poetic prose, this book, which starts out as a parody of urban fantasy/horror actually ends up delivering a killer addition to the genre. I had such a great time reading this!

[Molly Mortensen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I should've listened to the warning at the beginning of the book. Quinn has a unique voice and there was a good hook, so I ignored it. Big mistake.

I can't stand Quinn as a narrator. She's literally telling the reader the story (A pet peeves of mine) but it's from like two years after the events of this book so the timeline is confusing, especially when she talks about how long she's been a hunter. (it's actually only been six months since she killed her first vamp) Which also means we have useless flashforwards along with all of the flashbacks. And as if that wasn't bad enough, she lies! The whole setup of how she became a hunter wasn't even true! Ugh!

I also can't stand Quinn as a person. She's a junkie (who spends the whole beginning of the book puking in withdrawal) She's also a coward and a complete idiot. The whole story starts when she's attacked by a werewolf because she decided to shoot up while she was tracking one, on the full moon! Then after she's turned she starts killing people, which was kind of the last straw. (Between that and how much of a slob she was with months old fast food all over her apartment. *Shudders*)

I also hated the world building. Vampires are corpses, so there's the whole grossness factor. (All of the monsters were rather disgusting.) I don't mind evil vamps but the living dead thing is too zombie for me. (Especially since our main character turns into one.) I'm just not big on horror.

That's all the complaints I have since I actually gave up on this book. (Which I never do.) And put all three books into my get rid of pile. (I unfortunately own them all, because they were on sale super cheap. Now I know why.)

[Trike · Rating 2 out of 5]

I suppose Blood Oranges is intended to be a foul-mouthed antidote to typical vampire romance novels or Buffy pastiches, but since I don't read either of those I have to judge it in a vacuum.

tl; dr version - nice idea, so-so execution.

Our protagonist, Siobhan Quinn, is a runaway junkie who gets attacked by a werewolf and vampire in the same night, suffering from both curses. Sadly, the author doesn't really play with this idea very much. You'll find that story in the movie Underworld. Turns put she was set up, and the book then becomes a basic mystery. I'm sure someone with a better memory of mystery novels could tell you which one Kiernan is emulating, but the structure feels a lot like Dashiell Hammett to me, complete with blackouts and a fevered dream sequence.

Unfortunately without Hammett's gift for language. Or even Mickey Spillane's.

The whodunit part was obvious early on, so this felt rather like paint-by-numbers. Kiernan apparently doesn't like action scenes in books, so she skimps on them, generally by having Quinn turn into a werewolf and blacking out. She does, however, have an extraordinary love of detailing every goddamn street Quinn drives down.

I get it, you looked up Providence on Google Maps. Stop it. And don't reference the Wikipedia articles you used to get sketchy background flavor for the city, that's amateur hour stuff.

The main character grew up in a dysfunctional household with an abusive father, and a few references are made about how poor they were. Which makes it inexplicable that Quinn was able to watch Nickolodeon's TV Land reruns. I volunteer with low-income people and they don't get that tier of channels even in the rare instances they do manage to get cable. Quinn also hung out at the library, which explains why she has so much geek knowledge. Another thing that rang false to me.

I can kind of see what Kiernan was going for, but she didn't pull it off. By the time we get to the guy laying out everything that's happened and why, we pretty much already knew it. In the Big Reveal an author really should be trying to get the reader to go, "Oh, of course!" instead of, "Yeah, knew that, what else?"

If you haven't read many mysteries maybe this will seem fresh to you. Anyone who's been around the block, though, can see the ending coming a mile away. Usually down Washington where you take a left onto Greene, which is one way only, turning onto Fountain.

Side note: why is Caitlin R. Kiernan writing as Kathleen Tierney? I mean, in terms of universal balance, those names are pretty much exact equivalents. Seems to me like a good pseudonym should be somewhat different from the author's real name.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantasy Review Barn

Well it is no wonder I keep getting this series recommended to me. The first person narration is as haphazard, unreliable, and just plain crazy as one of my reviews. Did I in fact write Blood Oranges? I don’t remember doing so, and if so my writing quality has gone up by quite a bit, but damn that is a familiar writing style.

Siobahn Quinn is a hunter of the supernatural and a damn good one. But when a nasty werewolf leaves her infected and almost dead she is saved from the most unlikely of sources, an ancient vampire stuck in a child’s body, who decides to pass her own little gift on to Quinn as well. Now Quinn is twice cursed, and by the way, all of her exploits are possible a bit of an untruth as well. That line about being a damn good hunter? Perhaps a bit of a stretch. In fact she is a junkie that hasn’t died yet due to pure luck and by being a bit useful to the right people.

At first glance I took this to be a parody of the urban fantasy genre but I don’t think that was the point. If anything it felt more like a parody of other parodies that don’t realize how transperent they are. Quinn is all too aware of the UF tropes and laughingly points them out throughout. Sparkly vampires (honestly someday I am reading Twilight just to understand this reference) is just one fallacy about the supernatural she points out. Want a quick history of vampire mythos? She has it on hand and can set you strait on which are real and which may be a stretch. But don’t take her word for it. Seriously, have I mentioned she is a bit untrustworthy?

The real story here is whatever Quinn wishes it to be at the moment. She admits almost immediately that she has already lied to the reader and warns that she will most likely do it again in the future. She goes off on tangents at a whim, sometimes a few lines and other times it can overtake the entire chapter. She forgets where she is, backtracks, and then hopes like hell the reader is still following. Throughout though she is dark yet funny and a complete blast to read; if I didn’t always believe a street junkie runaway could be so well read, no matter how much time she spent hanging out in a library, her quick and dirty history lessons were always a highlight.

Her story itself, or at least what can be believed, is enjoyable and tightly written. A classic survive the set up and track down those responsible type thing. She runs into other vamps and wolfs, gets riddles from trolls, gets pranked by dirty seagull (my favorite scene in the whole book, damn did I laugh), and puts all the pieces together the wrong way. The ending is either completely genius or a huge cop out; I am still trying to decide. Needless to say it fits both the character and goes against the grain of urban fantasy, so I am leaning on pretty damn smart.

Another book in which your mileage may vary. No doubt its entertaining anti-hero, dark storyline, and consistent humor should appeal to many. But I have seen unconventional writing styles turn people off before, and this one is completely unique. Quinn was at times a little too aware she was living in a fantasy book, but for the most part it worked. A junkie with a new habit, a bone to pick, and an unknown amount of luck left. What’s not to like?

4 Stars

[Carolyn F. · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author's warnings are little pretentious. "If your ears, eyes, and sensibilities are easily offended, this book is not for you. If you want a romance novel, this book is not for you. ... In fact, if you're the sort who believes books should come with warning labels, this book's not for you." Then she states, "Also, please note: Siobham Quinn is not a very good writer. Fair notice." Um, Siobhan Quinn is a fictional character who is the "heroine" of the book. This paragraph left a bad taste in my mouth. Like the author is too cool and anyone who dislikes her book is not part of the cool group. I guess I'm not part of the cool group.

[Alisa Hedden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like many successful authors before her, Caitlin R. Tiernan has taken on a different pen name to experiment with a different type of story. Having already made quite a mark in her current genre, this pen name gives her some flexibility to experiment with different styles. So, if you are absolutely in love with Caitlin’s previous work, let this be a fair warning that “Blood Oranges” is slightly different from her usual type of work.
This has Vampires (with piranha teeth and shark eyes) werewolves that don’t look like wolves, demons and monster hunters that didn’t go to the “Buffy” school of monster hunting. Most of the success in the monster hunting department is usually due to dumb luck rather than anything close to planning. As Quinn says, “Monster hunting does not come with a manual.” After being bit by the werewolf she was hunting, then rescued and bitten by a vampire, you could say her day has just changed from the usual lousy luck to (maybe) better off dead. The only good part of the whole thing is the double curse gets her off the heroin addiction. She would have preferred to stay addicted. Yes, she is a homeless addict. Not your usual hero material. As Quinn reminds us, she is not a writer and addicts lie.
If you can accept a hero that does not fit into the usual hero mold and that does not even want to be a hero, you might enjoy this. While awkward at times, as befits a story being told by someone that is not a writer (and is an admitted addict and liar) you might enjoy this book. Warning, light sexual scenarios and drug use. © Night Owl Reviews - http://www.NightOwlReviews.com

[Juushika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Siobhan Quinn is a monster hunter, if you believe the hype--accidentally, incidentally, but at least it allows her to support her heroin habit. But when Quinn is bitten by a werewolf and a vampire in a single evening, she's cured of her addiction--and stranded neck-deep in a whole new world of trouble. Blood Oranges is an utterly successful parody-cum-commentary of the urban fantasy/paranormal romance genre, but not necessarily the book that I wanted to read. Quinn's voice leaps from the page, abrasive and compelling; it drives the book, gritty but not grimdark, humorous without levity, suffused with unscripted energy. Rather than inverting urban fantasy's standard tropes, this cuts through them: a merciless mockery of their limitations that's overlaid with a desire for something as simple as convention. Blood Oranges makes apt use of a pseudonym, because this is a departure for Kiernan: it's fast, hard, and angry, plot-driven, looking outward with an eye for parody. Kiernan is one of my favorite authors; Tierney has a different focus, and it's not one that particularly interests me. Blood Oranges is utterly successful in what it sets out to do, and I recommend it and appreciate it intellectually, but I took no particular enjoyment in the book.

[Dev · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some parts of this that I liked, but overall I think it's just a case of 'trying way too hard'. The book starts out with some faux 'warning' that's like 'don't read this if you're easily offended' and then goes on to say that Siobhan is 'not a very good writer'. Nothing in this book really offended me per se, but it seemed like it was really TRYING to a lot of the time, often at the expense of the actual plot. I liked the overall thing with Siobhan being both a vampire and a werewolf and trying to figure out who is using her, but it was buried so deep in her random ramblings that it was hard to remember what was going on half the time.

Also, 'Siobhan' is not a bad writer. She is a fictional character in a book being written by an actual real life writer who I KNOW can be a good writer because I've read things by her [under her other name] that I enjoyed. The lower-than-average prose style of the book honestly would not have bothered me that much [I have enjoyed many books that were definitely not technically 'well written'] if it hadn't been mentioned constantly. It seemed like every few pages she would apologize for getting off track or tell you she was lying about something and justifying it because 'I'm not a writer'.

I get what the author was going for but it was just major overkill. One thing I did really like about this book was that there was absolutely no romance. There wasn't even a character that was there to be a potential love interest later on. Incredibly refreshing for urban fantasy. It was an okay book but it seems like she originally wrote it as a standalone so I don't really feel the need to continue the series after this point.

[Kendall Grey]

I’ll be straight with you. I hate vampires. I blame my disdain on a massive overdose on vampire books years ago when I was an avid Vampire: The Masquerade gamer (VTM is a great RPG, by the way. Huge difference between reading about vamps and playing one on TV, but I digress). After a while, all the vampire stories ran together for me, and nothing stood out.

And don’t get me started on werewolves. As much as I tend to avoid vampire books like a blood plague, werewolves and shifters are even worse. Dumb, brooding, pack mentality, lack of control, alpha bullshit, hulking idiots. Yawn.

I fucking HATE werewolves.

So, why the hell did I pick up BLOOD ORANGES, which features a chick who not only gets turned into a vampire but also a goddamn were-fucking-wolf (Quinn calls herself a werepire. Isn't that cute?)? A commenter on a post I made in an urban fantasy group said it might be what I was looking for (I believe I requested something to the effect of “a kickass female lead with a potty mouth, mad slaying skills, a thirst for blood, a total disregard for rules, no fear, a sense of humor, no need for a man, with a side of guts and gore and other assorted violence”). Thank you, commenter. You were spot on.

I LOVED this book.

The plot was pretty straightforward and simple: Baddie 1 wants vengeance. Baddie 1 turns Siobhan Quinn into a vampire after a werewolf bites her ass and plans to use her as a weapon against Baddie 2. A string of other Baddies (3 – 7 or so) get killed, eaten, or otherwise incapacitated. A twist happens. The end.

But it wasn’t the plot that had me clinging to my AirPods like a nun clutching her rosary in a whorehouse. It was the character and her voice. Quinn is a former junkie. An unreliable narrator. A part-time fuck-up who happens to end up in the right place at the right time, and part-time complete badass who orchestrates destruction with the precision of a nuclear bomb. She’s a woman with a sad past who doesn’t dwell on it or let it turn her into a pussy. And she simply does not give a fuck. About anything.

All I could think about as I was listening to this book (narrator Amber Benson is phenomenal, by the way. Was she the Amber Benson from Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Must find out.) was that Quinn and Richard Kadrey’s Stark, aka Sandman Slim, need to do a crossover series where the two of them exchange snark and witty comebacks and kick monster ass for 600 pages. And at the end, they bang each other in a steaming-hot sex scene (I know Quinn leans lesbian, but let me enjoy my fantasy, okay?) and then go their separate ways without saying goodbye, never to see each other again. I’d jerk off to that shit for days, especially if Amber Benson and MacLeod Andrews narrated it. *SPLOOSH*

Is it so bad that I just want to read books where chicks with attitude dominate the entire world?

I have no idea why so many people didn’t like this book. Actually, I do. It’s because I loved it. I tend to love things everyone else hates. Well, it’s your loss, haters.

As soon as I finished BLOOD ORANGES, I bought book 2, RED DELICIOUS on ebook and audiobook. I rarely jump straight into book 2 of a series, but I’m making an exception with this one and starting it when I get on the treadmill today.

I recommend BLOOD ORANGES to readers who enjoy raw, I-don’t-give-a-furry-fuck heroines, violence, graphic language, unreliable narrators, and greasy, dirty, hardcore grit. Wear spats and protective gear while reading. It’s messy in the very best way.

[Jeremy Preacher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, man, totally delightful. Which is a peculiar thing to say about a book with some of the flat-out grossest scenes I've ever read. (What happens when a werewolf eats something that her human half can't really digest? You don't want to know. Really.) I've read kind of a lot of urban fantasy, and when it's good, I like it, but it's often... kind of bad, and Blood Oranges is a response to the particular flavor of badness that is far too common in the subgenre. It totally works - the protagonist is the right person to comment on stupid media tropes, the world is sharply realized and dark in the "secret history" sort of way, that builds on real darkness, not dependent on an alternate-universe twist. The plot is not shocking but horrifying - it's clear pretty early on what the general shape of it will be (although the unreliable narration keeps it from plodding) but the details make it fascinating and awful.

The narration is worth a separate comment - it's the exact sort of intimate, fourth-wall-breaking style that Cherie Priest used to great effect in the stylistically similar (although tonally opposite) Bloodshot, which I also adored. Blood Oranges's protagonist is a junky who is at pains to point out that she's not a very good writer - she tells things out of order, holds back details, lies through her teeth - but Tierney is a very good writer, and all of those seeming lapses make the book far more interesting. I am totally on board.

(The fake author bio at the end is worth a read, too, if you usually skip those things. "Kathleen Tierney" is, as it says on the cover, Caitlin R. Kiernan, and she clearly has very little patience with the pen name. I was doubly delighted by the author's supposed place of residence - I went to high school in Deerfield, and I assume the reference to a house trailer was deliberate mockery, because it's... not that sort of town.)

[Neil McCrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great bloody gobbets of mean spirited fun.

I don't read urban fantasy or paranormal romance. I've watched and enjoyed True Blood and Buffy, but I suspect their literary counterparts would irritate the crap out of me. I do however read, and honestly treasure, the work of Caitlin Kiernan. So when she wrote Blood Oranges under the pseudonym of Kathleen Tierney, I immediately scooped it up uncertain of what I would get.

Not being terribly familiar with the genre it parodies I can't comment on that aspect, but Blood Oranges succeeds as a story in its own right. It's a quick unchallenging read and completely over the top. I'll let Goodreads supply the plot summary and I'll supply two more quick observations. I've read Kiernan question whether she is capable of doing humor. Blood Oranges proves that she has no worries on that account as long as the humor has . . . er . . . teeth in it. I've also read Kiernan lament over first person narratives that are written with far greater skill than the abilities of the narrator would suggest. She does not fall into that trap in Blood Oranges. Siobhan Quinn is a crap writer and this is reflected throughout the novel. It is to Kiernan's great credit that she is able to create and sustain this awkward voice and still keep the readers engaged, especially when many of the readers may very well be better writers than the protagonist.

[Elena Linville-Abdo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stars: 3 out of 5.

Not sure how I feel about this book. I was fun enough to read, even if the story meandered all over the place and the protagonists tended to ramble a bit. I might check out the next book in the series.

Longer review to come.

[Jen Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book begins with a fair warning to its readers:

If your ears, eyes, and sensibilities are easily offended, this book is not for you. If you want a romance novel, this book is not for you. And if it strikes you odd that vampires, werewolves, demons, ghouls, and the people who spend time in their company would be a foulmouthed, unpleasant, unhappy lot, this book is not for you... Also please note: Siobban Quinn is not a very good writer. Fair notice.

I'd say that all of this is a pretty fair assessment. The story is told as sort of a recounting of Quinn's life in her first person POV... sort of a memoir. The delivery is very conversational. It's also rambling at times and hard to follow in others. Quinn is nothing like your average UF heroine. She's a 19 year-old junkie, lesbian, homeless girl who sort-of fell into the life of killing supernaturals. And as the book begins, she becomes one herself.

The very short version of the plot is that a scary vamp turns Quinn into a vamp-were hybrid, shortly after she is bitten by a shifter. Said vamp is taking revenge on Quinn for killing her lover. But Quinn comes to realize that she is actually part of a larger machination, and she has to figure out who dragged her into this mess, what part she is really playing, and how to get out of it all.

As far as the plot goes, it was ok. Nothing earth shattering. I think what you'll either love or hate about the book is Quinn's voice. I kind of went back and forth on it as I was reading. Like I said, she rambles in her storytelling. She gets distracted and takes left-turns into bits of backstory or some other musings. She misleads you and comes back with other versions of events. She drops big hints that things are not what they seem, them waits until much later to explain. She talk to you, the reader. She repeats herself, fixates on some things, and maintains a "who cares what you think" attitude throughout.

Just read back over the first three chapters of this thing, and seeing everything that's been left out and told the wrong way round (never mind the bald-face lies), I feel it's necessary to call attention to the fact that I'm not a writer. In fact, I am most emphatically not a writer. An actual writer, he or she probably wouldn't be making all these stupid mistakes right and left, the omissions and continuity errors and whatnot...

As for the lies, I'm guessing writers lie as much as junkies, maybe more, so I'm gonna cut myself some slack in that department. Oh and if you're thinking, "But wait, Quinn, she ain't a junky anymore. She's a vampire." To which I would reply, only difference between the me of now and the me of those days before the Bride is now it's blood, not heroin... So there you go, constant reader. Straight from the horse's mouth. Anyway, just remember this is a book being written by someone who dropped out of school when she was twelve, and after that whatever she learned about grammar and composition was cribbed from library books.

Jesus, why do I even feel the need to explain such a thing.

The book isn't emotional. In fact, I don't feel like we ever really know Quinn, even though the entire story is told in her voice. I don't think that's an accident. She maintains that whole tough street kid persona until the last page.

There are hints of what is still to come in her life. Threads left hanging. The main arc is resolved, but the story kind of just stops.

So what did I think of it all?? I'm not sure. In the first half, I almost put it down. The second half, I wanted to keep reading to see how it would all play out. It was interesting, but hard to follow, and I wasn't very invested. It was also a little to self-referential for my taste. But it's different. Definitely not stale. I think some people will really like it. But I didn't love it.

Rating: C+

*ARC Provided by Roc

[Terry Weyna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tired of vampires? Or werewolves? Or girls who can dispatch the critters with no effort, swinging a stake through the heart as if it were a knife through butter? Yeah, me too. But give me a vampire who is a werewolf who is also a young female human hunter of vampires and werewolves, and we’re in business. Make her the unreliable, foul-mouthed narrator of her own story, and you’ve got Kathleen Tierney’s Siobhan Quinn in her first adventure, Blood Oranges.

“Kathleen Tierney” is Caitlín R. Kiernan, one of the finest writers of horror fiction working today, trying her hand at urban fantasy. Tierney isn’t satisfied with a cookie cutter approach to the genre, however; she wants to make it her own. So her heroine is a teen who ran away from home at the age of 12 for very good reasons. Quinn has lived on the streets ever since, making her way however she can. Her life features turning tricks, shooting heroin, and slaying monsters.

Except the monster slaying? That isn’t entirely intentional. Our first hint that our narrator is unreliable comes only after she’s told us she’s recently had a couple of “pretty spectacular takedowns.” A few pages later, she reminds us that all junkies lie, and cops to “stretching the truth like it was a big handful of raspberry-flavored saltwater taffy.” Quinn instead has been the luckiest kid ever to be surprised by a ghoul or a vampire, right up until the day she gets turned into a vampire and a werewolf both. When her luck runs out, it really runs out.

Fortunately, she has a mentor. He’s not anything like Giles, who helped Buffy figure out the proper ways to stake vampires, as Quinn is quick to tell us. Before she was turned, Mr. B (so-called because he changes his name every day to a different moniker starting with the letter “B”) provided her with heroin, cash, and a place to live, just to get some of the shine of monster-hunter that reflects off her; that is, he uses her as a sort of insurance to keep him safe from the monsters, with whom he regularly does business. After she obtains her dual damnation, he keeps providing her with cash and a place to live, but also appears to provide her with clean-up operations as needed. So when Quinn kills a cabbie because she gets a little too hungry when no one truly disposable is around (like, say, a homeless person), Mr. B takes care of it.

Mr. B draws Quinn’s attention to the fact that the vampire who turned her said something at the time about Quinn being her pet and her weapon, even while explaining that a vampire that’s a werewolf is considered a particularly terrible abomination among the monsters, by the monsters themselves. This sets Quinn on a mission to see how she can remove the werewolf curse (apparently it’s impossible, once one is dead and risen again, to get rid of vampirism). In the meantime, Quinn seems to have become unpopular among the undead and other nasties, and is therefore simultaneously trying to track down who is behind the attacks on her. In short, the plot thickens.

Tierney has created a marvelous character in Quinn. She’s no better than she ought to be, and it shows in her foul mouth, her grammar, and her often less-than-brilliant moves. She has no sympathy for herself, and asks for none. Yet she is able to care for others, including those one would normally not consider worthy of her regard, and she seems to be a fine judge of character, even if she doesn’t always act on it (her relationship with Mr. B being Exhibit A). She is far more real as a complete human being than are many of the teenage, lithe, tattooed demon hunters we regularly find in urban fantasies these days. And you can’t trust her an inch, which means she keeps readers on their toes. I enjoyed this book a good deal, and I’m looking forward to Quinn’s next outing.

[Meigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightfully, darkly different.

Siobhan ("don't fucking call me that") Quinn, through mostly the fault of her own doing, finds herself as both a vampire and a werewolf. Quinn is also a monster hunter, which you would think makes her an instant badass. Not so much; you see, Quinn is/was also a junkie, which you can be sure impaired her judgment a time or two. She isn't so much a badass as she is a fighter and subsequent survivor of the entanglements she sometimes gets entangled in. She screws up plenty, but she gets a few good licks in too.

What's different about this story, besides having such a flawed protagonist, is the storytelling. The narrative often reads like one giant non sequitur, bouncing around from the present to Quinn's past without any pause. As is the case with many UF books, this is told in first person, but it's more of Siobhan recalling certain events, like how she became a vampire/werewolf hybrid, how she became a junkie, the monsters that she's hunted and how things went both right and wrong, and also bits and snippets about her past and childhood. The narrative is a perfect reflection of Quinn herself - it's crude, often dirty, rough around the edges, and certainly not perfect (based on the disjointed feel from time hopping). What I appreciated most was the humor and the sardonicism; this particular book doesn't fit the traditional mold that so many others in the genre do. It's not formulaic, the story hasn't been told before, and I absolutely loved how Quinn would make offhand remarks in her storytelling that were actually sly jabs at some of the overused elements/character traits common in many Urban Fantasy books these days. There were so many times I found myself laughing out loud while reading this that I lost count.

Bottom line - this book won't be for everyone. I get that. It doesn't conform, it's not "typical" UF, there's no romance or rippling man abs. Just Siobhan Quinn, her dirty, dirty mouth, plenty of squidge worthy gore and general grossness, and a host of supernatural critters that she hopefully will have her head on straight enough that day to take down successfully. I personally adored it and will definitely be reading the second in the series, Red Delicious. If you like dirty, cynical humor in your Urban Fantasy books, I would strongly recommend you give this a try.

[Andrija · Rating 4 out of 5]

A warning to the weak: this book is a Trojan horse. Do not go in expecting to read a typical UrbanFantasy/ParaRom with a teenage protagonist. This is a copy of William S. Burroughs Junkie hidden under a Twilight cover. When I heard it was given to many ParaRom reviewers, I imagined them opening the book and a full bodied apparition of Henry Rollins would appear and bellow "My War" into their faces.

If you don't know who Henry Rollins is... you probably won't like this book.

Quinn is not a fearless monster slayer. She is a teenage runaway, a lesbian, a heroin junkie with ADHD and a liar. She's also not a good writer, though she explains this to anyone reading the book. One night, while trying to get a fix going, she's bitten by a werewolf and a vampire all at once. While it cures her of her heroin addiction, it also makes her a piranha-toothed bloodsucker who, once a month, becomes a living embodiment of feral hunger. Quinn also gets stuck in a war between two very old, very scary and amazingly sociopathic vampires...

This is an intense book, an uncompromising book and a gleefully vicious book to be enjoyed in the right mindset. If you really want to see something take all the usual tropes of current urban fantasy, drag them into a back ally, kick them in the kidneys and then rob it blind for meth money, read this book.

[Darcy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was intrigued with this book after reading the disclaimer that the author had at the start of the book warning about bad language, drugs, and sex. It made me wonder just what I was about to read. As I started I quickly encountered all of the things that the author warned about. Quinn is not your typical heroine, but for some reason I liked her at the start. However as things went on I found the story to become too out there and Quinn started to grate on me. After 60% I ended up giving this one up. I didn't care if Quinn could solve the riddle or if she could find a way out of her bad situation. In the end this one wasn't for me.

[Nancy D Miz-Firefly aka Sparky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Blood Oranges is a bloody weird book. (said to be phunny, not to indicate gore altho a fair amount of killing happens) I think fans of J. F. Lewis, Harry Connolly and Rob Thurman would like it.

The MC is a recovering(?) junkie/newly minted werewolf/vampire. And the author does a remarkable job staying in character. The story progresses exactly as I would expect an addict to behave, with zero continuity. It begins after the events yet to be shown and flicks briefly forward to hint at coming events, then settles (mostly) into the story, sidetracking occasionally to relate past events that have bearing on present events all related in a wry tongue-in-cheek voice that is very entertaining, if a little heavy on eye roll inducing because of the lack of continuity. The kicker happened at about 100 pages in, when we learn that most of the story has been misrepresented. And have to discover how the events actually took place.

Because, Junkie, Duh!

I was amazed how well Tierney was able to hold my interest while keeping the main character IN Character. I was tempted to give this book a two because the staging drove me crazy. But the crazy-ass staging turned out to be pretty clever, and believe it or not, gave the story an authentic feel. And I think Tierney deserves props for keeping me reading when I really wanted to quit.

[Stormy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blood Oranges, by Kathleen Tierney is, to put it bluntly, not your typical teenaged-protagnist vampire or werewolf story.

In the wrong spot at the right time – or vice versa – Quinn gets mistaken for a demon-hunter, and finds herself catapulted into the supernatural world. Eventually, her lack of skills and her drug habit catch up with her, and she finds herself bitten by a werewolf. Before the wolf can devour her like Little Red's grandma, he's killed by a vampire. This vampire tells Quinn that she wants her for revenge and to use her as a weapon before she turns her, creating a werepire. The book quickly dissolves into a mystery as Quinn attempts to discover the what's and why's of her change, and ultimately, who set her up to get attacked.

Is it a parody? It certainty makes fun of the vampire tropes going around right now, and makes several mentions of certain sparkling vampires. However, those feel more like jibes, and the book doesn't feel like a parody so much as a refute to those tropes. Something written in response to them, but not in an intentionally funny way. So it is a parody? I don't know. I think my inability to define it is probably why I had such trouble with it as a story, I never knew if it was supposed to be serious or if it was mocking.

Let's cut to the chase.

Quinn, our main POV character is writing the story from sometime in the future, which I don't think gets enough empathizes in other reviews. The problem with this for me was that ultimately, we knew she would survive. If she still had a potential 'death' left, be it to turn into a vamp or such, perhaps it would have worked better. But lacking that, I found it took much of the tension out of the story.

She is also – as both she and Tierney warn – not that good of a writer. And this is true. She skips over the action scenes, claiming their clunky and pointless when on the written page. When Quinn does werewolf out, she blacks out. Admittedly, the gore would probably have been redundant after one example, but I digress. This makes the book again lack tension, which I found to be one of the larger problems with it.

Now, how much of all of this is intentional on the authors part, or just a writing style that doesn't jive with me is debatable. Quinn is portrayed as a tough girl, a girl who grew up on the streets, and the writing reflects that. She doesn't break. As sad as it may sound, there was never a moment I felt I connected with her, or even empathized with her. Whether that was Quinn/Tierney's plan or not doesn't really change the fact that without the empathy, I couldn't be bothered to care what happened to her.

But beyond the clunky writing there are some interesting characters that I wanted to know more about. Her demon whore friend: Clemency Hate-evill. Even with a name like that, she manages to be interesting, though I wish we could have gone a little deeper into their relationship. She gives Quinn her only kiss in the entire book and some vital advice. My favourite character – for I will always fall prey to the greased-up sleazy bastards whose purred words set my soul alight with hell fire – had to be Mean Mr. B. Forever nameless and constantly changing his nom de plume, Mean Mr. B fits right into the world, wheeling and dealing with the best of them.

Quinn had the potential to be interesting, but as the main character, and the POV character to boot, she doesn't get the same pass that the side characters do. They're allowed to be a one note whore with a heart of gold or a smarmy bastard, especially for the screen time they get and the filtering through Quinn's POV. We sit inside Quinn's head looking back, and we don't even get to see her struggle with her changing body, how her werepirism affects her or even the killing of humans. I know she's supposed to be a cold demon-hunter, but that's an act.

By the end I was flipping through pages, and I found it frustrating that the ending seemed so easy. If your character tells you straight up that what she's about to say sounds like a deus ex machina, it probably is. The book is a standalone, but it leaves several threads loose, but honestly, by the end, I didn't care.

A quick note on the LGBT content before I wrap this too long post up. No mention is made anywhere on Quinn's sexual orientation (nor do I think it's something that's worth posting warning or making a big deal about). I was surprised by it, and it lasted through out the book, and not once did it get her in trouble nor did the universe dump a load of crap on her head for it. A big thumbs up for that. Though I don't understand why she felt the need to introduce Mean Mr. B as a faggot when she shares the female counterpart to his sexuality?

Either way, there are some good parts, some not so good parts, and some clunky writing. If you enjoy characters 'writing' the novel in their voice, or general pulp fiction, this may be for you. If you're like me, and enjoy smarmy bastards, it's got some parts for you. If you like fight scenes or emotionally connection to the characters, it's probably not for you. Personally, it wasn't in my taste, but for each their own, and I'm sure this book will float somebodies boat.

Two stars for containing but not demonizing LGBT content (worth a star in these days and ages), and Mean. Mr. B.

The sequel may be in my future, but only if it contains more of Mean. Mr. B.

Read more on my blog

[James Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have made no secret of my affection and admiration for Caitlin R. Kiernan and her work. I must say that I was a bit taken aback by her decision to publish this novel as "Caitlin R. Kiernan writing as Kathleen Tierney." It is no secret that many authors use this technique to publish works that may fall in a different genre. For example, Nora Roberts is a very successful romance writer who also has a very successful series that falls under the genre of romance/ sci-fi, which she publishes under the name of J. D. Robb. In my experience, there is not a lot of difference to be had in the style of the writing under the different names. In truth, I can find no difference in Stephen King's novels published under his own name and those he has published as Richard Bachman. In this case, however, the difference is dramatic. It is as if Kathleen Tierney is, in fact, a different person than Caitlin R. Kiernan. This book is a remarkable accomplishment, in my opinion.
Now, the question must be asked, would the book, "Blood Oranges" stand completely on its own were it not associated with one of the greatest and most creative writers in the horror/fantasy genre of our time? My answer is a resounding, YES.
Blood Oranges reads like nothing CRK has written previously. It reads like '40's noire meets Janet Evanovich. The phrasing, the rhythm of the characters speech, the pace of the unfolding of the plot, the very plot itself are all from the mind of Kathleen Tierney.
Summarizing quickly and with no justice to KT's superb storyline, Quinn, our erstwhile heroine, has a reputation as a "monster/demon killer," one which she earned rather unintentionally. However, she did manage to piss off one of the major baddies in the Providence underworld. As punishment, she is set up to be bitten by both a werewolf and a vampire almost concurrently. Needless to say, this presents a rather unique set of problems for Quinn. As she sets about the task of resolving her problem, she manages to introduce us to a wild set of characters, demonstrates a major attitude problem toward her readers, unleashes some of the darkest humor this side of Edward Lee, all the while telling one grand story. Perhaps the funniest (in a very dark sort of way) events are the unpredictable appearances of her loup(werewolf) side and her reactions to them.
In conclusion, this book is just plain fun and I would read anything further published under the name of Kathleen Tierney. In the "about the author" section, it seems pretty clear that this is a one-off, so I will have to settle for the treat. If you are a fan of CRK, this book is a must have. If you just enjoy books in this genre, dripping with sarcasm and dark humor, you will love this book. Get it, read it, pass it on.

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trinitytwo's point of view:

Siobhan Quinn, or Quinn as she prefers, is a girl who has fallen through the cracks of society. A runaway at twelve, junkie at fifteen, she's just another lost soul struggling to survive in the underbelly of the Providence, Rhode Island streets. Quinn doesn't have many redeeming qualities; hey, her parents never even bothered to look for her when she ran away. She's a foul-mouthed, lying addict who will sell herself for a hit of heroin and has about as many friends as you could count on one hand. At sixteen, she's just another faceless loser until fate, in the form of a ghoul, eats her best friend and Quinn accidentally kills the beast. This garners the notice of the Mean Mr. B, who takes her under his wing by becoming her benefactor and sets her on the path of killing monsters. Quinn is more lucky than talented in this area until she kills the wrong vampire. During an encounter with a killer werewolf she discovers that payback's a bitch, or in this case, a very powerful and ancient vampire called "The Bride of Quiet" who transforms Quinn into a unique weapon. Quinn is forged into a taboo being, a vampire who is also a werewolf, and all Hell breaks loose. In this master game of deadly players there are only two options for Quinn: defeat her maker or die trying.

Caitlin R. Kiernan/Kathleen Tierney's urban fantasy, Blood Oranges is prefaced by a warning from the author: "if you're the sort who believes books should come with warning labels, this book is not for you." And she means it. Quinn, the ex-junkie, antihero writes her journal of her trials as a monster hunter while spewing profanity and constantly reminding the reader of her proclivity for lying. Quinn doesn't want your sympathy, your understanding or your approval. Blood Oranges is Quinn's story, she owns it and she simply doesn't care what its readers think. I wholeheartedly did not like Quinn. But I did feel sorry for her and I was rooting for her although she would, at the very least, insult me for it. I really had no idea where Quinn's adventures were heading and I was pleasantly surprised that they tied together in such a surprising and satisfying manner. This urban fantasy has bite (excuse the terrible pun), dark humor and is edgy to the point of making this reviewer uncomfortable. As someone with an intimate working knowledge of Rhode Island, I can truly appreciate Tierney's faithful reproduction of Providence's landmarks written so superbly that I would definitely think twice about driving around alone at night. And Quinn? She's a serious badass and scares the Hell out of me, but I like it.

[Stephine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blood Oranges is about a junky, named Siobhan Quinn. Quinn fell into hunting things that go bump in the night. One night a werewolf takes a chunk out of her. Before the wolf puts her lights out for good, she is saved by a vampire, who has a vendetta. That involves turning Quinn into a vampire, so she is duel natured, both a vampire and wolf. On the plus side this gets rid of her heroin issues, on the bad, things get strange.

If I didn’t know this was a kind of spoof, and you asked what I thought, I would say it’s a well written pulp supernatural story. Labels are hard to put on things, and no two books are made equal, that’s one of the beautiful things about reading. You can expect in your face grittiness out of Blood Oranges. Instead of the heroine telling readers how ‘stormy’ their man’s eyes are four hundred times, we get the F bomb. Like most pulpy novels there isn’t a ton of character depth, but I will say there is more than the majority.

Quinn ran away from home when she was twelve. She hung around a library before she got heavy in heroin, because of that she is a border line intelligent junky. She always relates things to other books, which in many cases can be the spoof to urban fantasy. I think her reactions and dialogue is more in line with the situation. I have always said if I saw some kind of supernatural critter, I wouldn’t be buying him a drink. I would be running the other way, most likely screaming. This story kind of agrees with me.

Quinn is wrapped up in the supernatural, from porn loving bridge trolls to demon prostitutes. She is a tough as nails character. She tells the readers the story as she writes it, often times making up false details which she later retells. For someone who doesn’t seem to care what we think of her, she does tell us she isn’t a writer a ton. Then again, this could be more of the spoof.

The plot is a little more cut and dry. The vampire that turns her informs her that she will be her pet and weapon. It slowly comes into focus what the vampire means, and leads Quinn to discover and try to stop it.

Blood Oranges isn’t very long, and it’s a quick read. If you’re not one for grit, foul language, and are squeamish it isn’t for you. There is even a warning label, which is pretty funny. I enjoyed it, and do recommend it for those who wouldn’t be turned off by the language and so forth.
- Beth

[Burgoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

First things first: Kathleen Tierney is the nom de urban fantasy of author Caitlin Kiernan. Ms Kiernan is an extremely well regarded stylist, who primarily writes in the vein of “the weird”. She has been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award, the World Fantasy Award, & the Locus Award, among many others.

The plot is bog standard urban fantasy. Monster hunter Siobhan Quinn is bitten by a werewolf, then saved and bitten by a vampire, the Bride of Quiet, who intends to use Quinn for her own nefarious purposes. Being a sassy monster hunter, Quinn doesn’t take kindly to this idea, & starts looking for answers and revenge.

On one level this is a breezy, if gritty, urban fantasy. Quinn’s quest for answers and revenge pushes things along at a brisk pace. The writing is very accessible, and suitably quippy for the genre. What is ultimately more interesting is how Tierney uses this plot as a platform to deconstruct urban fantasy novels. Quinn is absolutely not a Mary Sue. She’s a homeless junkie who just accidentally got involved with monster hunting. She’s not sexy (unless you like shark eyes, piranha teeth, & bits of blood and gore in someone’s hair). She’s really not very good at it, and seems to succeed more from dumb luck than anything else. The various supernatural characters are likewise not sexy, or protective, or anything remotely resembling some sort of potential life partner. Instead, they tend to be horrific, with their own thinly veiled agendas that clearly are not in line with Quinn’s best interests.

A word needs to be said about the actual writing in Blood Oranges. As Caitlin Kiernan, she is known for beautiful, at times rather ornate prose. In her guise as Kathleen Tierney, she abandons this entirely. Blood Oranges is told from the POV of Quinn, a junky and runaway who presumably hasn’t attended school since the age of 12. The prose style reflects this character. It is coarse and at times simplistic, but then that’s the point isn’t it?

Blood Oranges is a boot to the head of urban fantasy. An angry, blood stained rebuke to the writers of simpering sparkly vampires and faux heroic heroines who love them. It’s a blast of punk rock attempting to cleanse the airwaves from bloated soft rock balladry.

[Michelle Leah Olson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our Review, by LITERAL ADDICTION's Pack Alpha - Michelle L. Olson:
*ARC Received from the Publisher in exchange for an honest Review

When I opened the package from the Publisher containing this book I was immediately intrigued, but wasn't sure that I'd get to it any time soon and simply added it to the pile of 'read when/if time allows'. After looking the book up on GoodReads and finding that I had other titles by the author and her pseudonym in my TBR list, I decided to bump it up a bit in the queue. I am SO happy that I did.

Blood Oranges wasn't at all what I was expecting, but it was wonderful. Truly, uniquely, & darkly "real" - only in a fantastical way - and the 1st person narrative was compelling, gripping, & profound. Add all of that together with the tale itself and the setting, and it was a dark urban fantasy meant to ensnare.

I'm not entirely sure that this book is for everyone, but I loved it! I think maybe I loved it BECAUSE of all of the things others might not like... It's blatantly honest in it's delivery. It purposefully makes the reader feel awkward at times. It doesn't adhere to (and in reality, entirely disregards!) any and all preconceived notions regarding the genre - the vampires in this book have piranha teeth and shark eyes, the werewolves are as far from sexy as you can get, the heroine doesn't want to be a monster hunter and is admittedly a junkie and a liar, etc), and the first person narrative is slang filled, non-linear, and very obviously written by someone who is not a writer (something Quinn, our heroine, makes sure to remind us about). :)

Bottom line, if you want to try something different within Urban Fantasy, I highly suggest giving Blood Oranges a shot. I think that this is the first book of a series, and I really hope that it is, because I find myself wanting to fall into Quinn's dysfunctional world again some day. :)

LITERAL ADDICTION gives Blood Oranges 4 Skulls.

[Gerri Leen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that starts with quotes from Zoe Washburne and Hattori Hanzo, with a heroine whose language would make Debra Morgan blush, and in which monsters are just that--is that book for me? Uh, yeah, totally. In some ways this reminded me of the Nightside series in the way nothing here sparkles and the heroine is one of the monsters--and things get progressively weirder and weirder. But mostly it's its own world, which is good, cuz I gave up the Nightside books and I'd like to keep on with this--if you know me, you know I don't like series, so that is saying a world of lot (I've even bought the sequel, so this isn't something I might read later).

The pacing in this is great. My one complaint is how abruptly it ended (and not really on a cliffhanger or anything. It was just suddenly over. If that keeps on, I might not stay with it, but it's not a reason to mark it down a star--if 4.5 stars were available, though, I would mark it down a half star). The narrator is utterly unreliable and is surrounded by people given to mind-f*cks, so this was a plot that roiled rather than rolled. And I loved that, the stutter starts where you had to sort of back up and re-look at things. I'm interested to see if that continues in the next book--it may get old after a time, but I trust this author to have the skill to make it work.

Speaking of the author, she is a more famous one writing in pseudonym. I've read a few of her things in the other name and never been in love with them, but she has mad skills--they were just the type of horror I don't really groove to. In this series, she's got the stuff I like, and I'll keep coming back. At least for now (that's a hit at me, not the authors--I'm a commitment phobe).

[Fantasy Literature · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tired of vampires? Or werewolves? Or girls who can dispatch the critters with no effort, swinging a stake through the heart as if it were a knife through butter? Yeah, me too. But give me a vampire who is a werewolf who is also a young female human hunter of vampires and werewolves, and we’re in business. Make her the unreliable, foul-mouthed narrator of her own story, and you’ve got Kathleen Tierney’s Siobhan Quinn in her first adventure, Blood Oranges.

“Kathleen Tierney” is Caitlín R. Kiernan, one of the finest writers of horror fiction working today, trying her hand at urban fantasy. Tierney isn’t satisfied with a cookie cutter approach to the genre, however; she wants to make it her own. So her heroine is a teen who ran away from home at the age of 12 for very good reasons. Quinn has ... Read More:
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