Head Rush (2012) is a perfect finale for THE DISILLUSIONISTS TRILOGY. The thing about Head Rush is that readers won’t read it to be surprised. You know how it’s going to end; you just don’t know the details. Carolyn Crane makes those details fun, and keeps Head Rush rather short and sweet, which is perfect for the series as a whole.
In fact, Crane seems to know exactly how long each book should be, and she never overstays her welcome. She could have easily made this book longer than it is, but she seemed to know that dragging out events would make readers more exhausted with the book than they need to be. Things move fast, and the period of time covered is short.
While the ending is no big surprise, it’s still tragic and sweet all rolled into one. The emotions are high and Crane keeps them surprisingly intense, while never losing her focus on the overarching themes.
The thing that surprised me the most about this trilogy was how much fun I had reading it. While there are some typical urban fantasy elements here, Crane kept them fresh and new with her unique brand of psychology and her fascinating magic system.
I expected to have fun while I read this series. What I didn’t expect was to feel like I was leaving behind a friend after I turned the last page in Head Rush. That’s a real accomplishment for Crane. Not only has she written a series with a strong female protagonist who is just as messed up as anyone else (and thus, incredibly believable), but she’s managed to write a series that is unique enough to stand on its own merit in a genre that is flooded with the same-old-same-old. Crane is an author I will be sure to watch.
I really enjoyed this book. The lack of melodrama (as "plot") was a feature, not a bug, I think. Parts…
good points Mariion-. I actually had meant to talk about the ham radio but the review was getting long (I…
You got your review up before I could even write one. I loved this book--one of my favorite reads of…
Hey, any book with a ghost, a goat girl AND a vampire can't be all bad, right?
Whoa! Cool.