Book Review: The Year of Eating Dangerously by K. Bennett

The Year of Eating Dangerously
Author: K. Bennett
Series: Mallory Caine, book 2
Publisher: P Mass Paper
ISBN-10: 0786026251
ISBN-13: 978-0786026258
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Mallory Caine is a zombie, not the Romero kind in horror movies, the kind that is brought back from the dead, and told what to do. She doesn’t know who brought her back. She did hear voices telling her what to do, but she ignored them. She keeps at her job as a lawyer in L.A. and eats brains on the side. She is currently her father’s lawyer, who is in court for a murder charge, and decides to help a little boy who claims his mother is trying to kill him.

At the start of the story she sets her sights on killing a biker gang, and eating some brains. As it happens they have a girl with them. The girl just so happens to have to do with the paranormal surrounding the story. This plot point didn’t seem to add up with the others until much later in the novel, but all these threads seem to be teaming, and weaving themselves together. From her father, to the boy she helps, all of it starts to come together.

All the fun side characters along the way are also well worth it. Her father seems like a raving lunatic, or is he really getting visions from God? The little boy she is helping also has biblical ties. Mallory tells us the story, and even though she clearly in a God vs. Devil scenario she isn’t too happy with either one. She is getting pressure on all sides to make her choice between the two, but she just wants to get her soul back.

The fact that she is not sold on either God or the Devil is what I liked most about her. She is sassy, and I like sass, but not overly angry at the world. She isn’t happy with her lot, and she is tired of the cosmic world wanting to put her in a category. She kills people, and eats their brains. She even feels bad about it, but isn’t going to wallow in misery. Instead she is going to win her court battles with flare. It is that attitude that kept me with the story. Not all the characters built into the story have the strength she does.

The only negative was that the story is hard to take seriously. The main character eats people, and has a guardian angel, which also happens to be an owl. Not to mention that the paranormal also spills over into the actual court room. It is hard to see this kind of thing going on in a court of law. The detailing is sparse enough that the whole eating people isn’t near as gross as it could have been. Instead it is light and funny.

I haven’t read an Urban Fantasy like The Year of Eating Dangerously. The God vs. Devil story, which is what this is at its core, is not new. It is one of the oldest stories, quite literally, but what’s done here is different. I also love the main character. She isn’t really good or bad, but just trying to be. She is also practical and easy to identify with even if she is a brain eating lawyer. It does feel comic, and I giggled through a lot of it. I wasn’t grossed out by the face eating action, mainly because there is not a ton of graphic detailing. The chapters are extremely short, making the book easy to read in just a couple sittings. I defiantly plan to see where the series goes.
My Rating: