Let's be real: Caliban is a psychiatrist's worst nightmare. He's a sociopathic brat who knows exactly how to get under people's skin. I love him for it, but he's so damaged that it's inevitably going to rub some readers the wrong way. Thurman created a cynical, dysfunctional 19-year-old boy with a dark sense of humor and a horrifying past, and ran like hell with it. If you can't get into that type of character, then these books will become very grating very fast. But if you can accept Caliban for who he is, and appreciate the wit and the humor that goes along with it, you'll find him to be a lot of fun and surprisingly endearing.
I didn't care as much for big brother Niko at first. More often than not, he's a bit too perfect and his actions and dialogue don't ring as true next to his unapologetically flawed, demonic sibling. However, he slowly grew on me over the course of the first few books and I came to appreciate his dry sense of humor. Robin, the third member of the warped trio and an ancient trickster, is one of the greatest fictional characters I've encountered in a long time. He's vain, ridiculously talkative and completely obsessed with sex, but as his backstory is fleshed out, you realize that he's also painfully lonely, extremely loyal, courageous, wise, and has a very dark side when he's forced to show it.
With few exceptions, the supporting characters are fantastic as well, and series evils, from the nightmarish auphe to Darkling, Sawney Beane and Suyolak, not to mention all of the bizarre and unsettling creatures employed by them along the way, are some of the creepiest, most effective monsters I've seen. They're imaginatively described in a simple but visual way that makes them so easy to picture, it's like watching a movie.
Nightlife kicks off the story by introducing us to the disturbing world of the Leandros brothers, their abusive, twisted childhoods, Cal's auphe heritage and his monstrous family's plan to use him to end the world. It's a highly entertaining read that does a great job of leading into a series that only gets better and better. The change in narrator for the second half of the book (from Cal to possessed Darkling Cal) was a bold move on Thurman's part and not something you often see. It was a bit disconcerting, especially this early in the series, but it does get points for originality and is much easier to appreciate the second time around, once you know the characters better.
Moonshine steps things up and greatly expands Thurman's universe, delving deeper into the intricacies of the supernatural underworld when Cal goes undercover with the werewolf mafia. Moody albino wolf Flay and gypsy leader Abelia-Roo are especially wonderful additions to the cast, and the story, which bounces between Cal's infiltration of the preternatural mob and the recovery of a friend kidnapped by a very surprising villain, is exciting from start to finish.
Madhouse, takes the series to a whole new level and is one of the best reads I've ever had. Cal and Niko accept their most dangerous case yet - the apprehension of recently resurrected Sawney Bean, an insane historical figure with a taste for human flesh. The timing isn't great for Team Leandros as Cal's auphe half begins to show.
To battle their seemingly unbeatable foe and his army of revenants, the brothers hire Flay's sister, Delilah, and her psycho wolves to help out. The madness that ensues is legendary. The introduction of Delilah, a key character in the series, as well as Wahanket, a terrifying mummy who lives in the bowels of the Met Museum, is a game changer. I literally could not put this one down until I finished.
Deathwish slowed things down with a far more simplistic and close-to-home plot that finally gives us some backstory on Promise, Niko's vampire girlfriend, when her daughter and ex-husband show up with their own agendas. Even worse, the auphe are after Caliban again...and they don't want him to build a gate to the past this time. Apparently, the brothers' antics have wiped out all of the male auphe, leaving Cal as the only viable option for repopulation. Depression and borderline psychosis abound.
I enjoyed the fourth book but, after the wild ride of Madhouse, it dragged a bit more than it might have otherwise done. Delving into Promise's life was intriguing, though, as was the chance to finally get inside Niko's head since, for the first time, Thurman alternates narrators. Also, the three-way bromance going on between Cal, Niko and Robin is fantastic here, and the final showdown with the auphe is one of the highlights of the whole series.
And then came Roadkill. This is, by far, the best book of the series. No, it's not a highbrow novel with flowery, poetic writing...like the others, it's a gritty urban fantasy that's written in a raw and straightforward style. But it is an incredible story that made me laugh and cry and kept me on the edge of my seat the whole way through.
Thurman pulled out all the stops for this one and the gang's all here. When Robin and the brothers set out on a road trip to destroy an ancient anti-healer who's spreading sickness and disease across the continent, they're joined by ruthless Delilah (now Cal's wolf with benefits), the angelic Ishiah, Abelia-Roo and her shady band of kin, and two extra special guest stars. Rafferty, the surly ginger healer, was criminally underused after his first appearance in Nightlife, but Thurman makes up for it here by bringing him back in a leading role. His beloved cousin, a fellow werewolf stuck in animal form, who is slowly losing his human memories to the primal wolf mind, joins Caliban in narrating the story, his own plight mirroring Cal's rapid descent into the madness of his brutal auphe half. The result is an immensely powerful tale of fraternal love and sacrifice, with one of the most heartwrenching endings you'll ever read.
Blackout is where things started to go downhill. It's not that the story is bad, but after outdoing herself with Roadkill, the sixth book just fell short. The characters were there, the snark and humor were there, the adventure and monster-fighting were there...but it left me feeling empty. For the first time, I reached the end of a Leandros novel and thought "that's it?" It just didn't have the same spark or life that the other books did. Still, every author is entitled to ups and downs, and I figured she needed a filler after Roadkill to start fresh and get back on track.
No such luck! Blackout was underwhelming but it wasn't bad. Unfortunately, that can't be said of any of the books that followed. I really struggled with Doubletake, which is chock full of repetitive melodramatic monologues about the brothers' unhealthily close bond. Yes, after six books, we know all of that; we don't need to hear the same old tripe every other page!
Niko's father is a useless character who really offers nothing to the story, and Grimm, Caliban's big bad half-brother and the primary "threat" is a disappointing cliche. I'm not buying the whole premise of the auphe experimenting for years before "getting it right" with Cal. It seems like something Thurman thought of after the fact and threw in just to keep the auphe relevant. The overall story was ridiculous, forgettable and poorly handled.
Slashback was even worse as Thurman attempted to "humanize" the brothers with a bunch of unbelievable flashbacks about their childhood encounters with a serial killer. The reincarnation aspect in particular was an all-time low that severely cheapens their everyday struggles and comes off as complete and utter bullshit. I had to actively force myself to finish this one and only made it halfway through the disaster of DownFall before calling it and leaving the series behind. From what I've seen, Nevermore and Everwar are more of the same - or possibly worse - so I'm not going to put myself through reading those.
The quality of the writing itself (structure, dialogue, description) also seems to have tanked ever since Thurman went from being a passion writer who composed her stories while working a day job to being a full time "professional" author. I don't know if she's just gotten lazy or overconfident, or if she's under too much pressure to crank them out, quality be damned, but it's depressing as hell. The writing was never Shakespearian but it was perfectly good for her style of storytelling. Now she's stripped away the soul and everything sounds like it's been written by an angsty teen.
Looking back, the series should have ended with Roadkill if it wanted to go out on a high, or at the very least with Blackout, which offered a solid, if bittersweet, conclusion to the brothers' story as Cal decides to embrace and integrate his dark auphe side with his human half. Unfortunately, it didn't. But that doesn't take away from the handful of awesome novels we did get.
Nightlife through Roadkill are very enjoyable, with action, intensity, hilarious banter, engaging characters and a stellar look at the supernatural side of life in the big city. If you can enjoy those five and forget the rest, you'll have a great time with it. But be warned: under the dark humor, at its core, the series is about violence, immense psychological suffering, monster slaying, desperation and the very screwed up result of mixing them all together. No, it's not for everyone but, personally, I love it and highly recommend giving it a shot.
