I simply loved this book.
How’s that for an opening sentence? Well, not much for those of you who want to know about the ‘why’, I reckon. Here goes!
The good:
Throughout ‘Cursed’, ‘Deathsong’ and ‘Ghostfeast’ we get to know a relatively small, yet brilliantly crafted set of characters. There are Some you’ll instantly like and maybe even relate to. Others will come across as outright suspicious and I do like the fact that Kent Holloway inmost cases decided that these characters actually do take on a antagonistic persona, even though in some cases it’s not entirely of their own free will.
There are several plot twists in place. Most of them have been executed masterfully, like how the main antagonist of this book is developed and eventually unmasked. I had a pretty good idea of who it was about halfway into the story, but Holloway kept me guessing here and there. I did get it right in the end, which made me feel even better about my modest detective skills ;)
Lastly, if you’ve read the first three of the books in this series like I have, you’ll have come to love Ezekiel Crane. You finally experience what he is enduring throughout the whole story and for that he can definitely count himself among the likes of Aloysius Pendergast and Will Trent. The paranormal aspect got an uplift from ‘Cursed’ and ‘Deathsong’ and while I was sceptical at first, it played out extremely well.
Room for improvement:
Ultimately I was a bit disappointed with the actual role Holloway decided to give the sin-eater. The entire plot could have had a much bigger climax with some minor adjustments, even though the ending in itself was very satisfying.
The other aspect of the story that felt a bit awkward at times were the love affairs, for as far as they can be classified as such. Ashera and Kili both felt as love interests in multiple cases, but Holloway didn’t let this come to fruition so far. This especially makes Ashera one very complex character because of her nature, and I was not entirely sure that the author knew in which direction he would take her during the writing process.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed ‘Ghostfeast’. Too bad it wasn’t just a bit longer, which could have provided the space to straighten out the slightly off-key parts in this otherwise brilliantly written paranormal mystery novel.