Polterheist, by Laura Resnick
Book Review by Joshua Palmatier
Have you read this book?
Polterheist is
the fifth book in Laura Resnick's Esther Diamond
light and humorous urban fantasy series. Lots of fun and an easy read,
not the usual dark and heavy urban fantasy that seems to be the norm.
The basic premise is that Esther Diamond is forced to work at the
department store Fenster's during the holiday season as a Jewish elf,
since her usual "between jobs" work as a waitress is unavailable. So
she endures the insanity of the holiday crowds with gritted teeth. But
then inanimate objects start coming to life and trying to kill her,
while her fellow employees keep disappearing. Not to mention that
someone keeps hijacking Fenster delivery trucks, bringing her erstwhile
boyfriend Connor into the picture. And all of it seems to be escalating
as the holiday season reaches its peak. Is it all caused by a
poltergeist, perhaps the recently deceased matriarch of Fenster's come
back to haunt them, or is it something more defarious? Esther will need
the help of Max, resident wizard, and the mobster hitman Lucky to
figure it all out . . . hopefully before her boyfriend arrests her or
the city of New York is destroyed in the process.
As usual, the humor never stops with Laura Resnick playing up the
insanity of working in retail during the holiday season to its maximum
effect. I've worked retail myself, and quite a bit of this would have
been even funnier if I hadn't. So there's a sharp edge to the humor
here for most. But it's still rollicking fun. Esther is in true,
typical form, causing mayhem and destruction, all with the best of
intentions.
The plot for this book wasn't as strong as the previous book,
Vamparazzi, especially the play on the title. The
allusion to the strange activity actually coming from a poltergeist is
more of a passing theory, quickly brought forth and discarded, and I
don't think any reader will be convinced that's what's going on from the
beginning. But that's fine, because it makes a great title, and what's
really going on is so much more deadly and interesting in the long
run. As usual, there's a great cast of characters, with Esther dealing
with the other employees trapped in elf and Santa outfits and the owners
of the department store and management. Max and Lucky don't appear
much in this story, which is fine.
Connor is back, of course, and actually the interaction between him
and Esther is the best part of the entire book. Their plot arch takes a
significant leap forward in a very good way, in my opinion, after
having stalled out in the last book. I really enjoyed how this
developed here and it was by far my favorite section in the book. It
was handled well and believably and not in any heavy-handed, overly
romantic way. In fact, it was just right.
So, not the strongest plot in the series so far, but certainly a
ton of fun and with some great development between Esther and Connor.
Certainly looking forward to the next book in this series.
Joshua Palmatier/Benjamin Tate
www.joshuapalmatier.com
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www.joshuapalmatier.com
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