I ended up enjoying Brigid's character so much I devoured the remaining two books in the series within days. She is a woman you don't see often in fiction, given all the traits normally associated with a tired male LEO. Brigid is emotionally distant, unnecessarily secretive and until very recently, married only to her work.

She's retired from the FBI to Tucson, AZ with her newfound husband Carlo. She is contacted by a local FBI agent who believes that a serial killer from one of Brigid's old cold cases has finally been caught - or has he?

Soon, Brigid is up to her knees in unanswered questions and assassination attempts, all while trying to pretend that Everything Is A-Okay. Her stand-off with the sniper in the mountains is intense and vaguely hilarious, with her escape including "butt-slid(ing) down the steep side of the mesa, the Pugs bouncing along with me like a couple of basketballs." Snort.

I never much warmed to Carlo, he of the religious past and soft philosophy, but the way Masterman handled their confrontation about Brigid's lies and her past was absolutely superb. Brigid behaved as if she was being held hostage when she met with him in the end, all her lies having come to light: "... as as you keep the other person talking you have a chance of survival. Most people can't talk and kill at the same time." This reaction is indicative of both her recent trauma (see: serial killer) as well as the mindset she will never leave behind. She's already seeing her own husband as someone who's attempting to kill her, metaphorically speaking, while he is just desperately trying to come to terms with the person she has shown herself to be.

Behind her attempt at being A Woman of A Certain Age, Brigid is damaged and cynical. She's hid that from Carlo from the very first, convinced he would not like what he saw. He reveals a friend's betrayal of her confidence and then stuns her not immediately clamoring for a divorce, showing more backbone in one scene than he did in the entire rest of the book. "I liked this Carlo who was talking now, this powerful man who met me on my own ground. Maybe that's why I had married him, because I saw this version that first day in his classroom. Until now all the rest between us had just been trying on different people. Maybe we do that at any age."

The mystery, while very enjoyable, was for me, a vehicle to get to that scene between her and Carlo.

Still freaky to read ten years later - and this is knowing the ending.

There are people in the world who can bend others to their will. This is a story of their inevitable conflict with one another and the "normies" who are Used by them.

My reading notes in lieu of a real review: Melanie is the worst of the mind vampires. The thin veneer of civility she carries is scarier than someone who is always somewhat bristling with aggression and violence. That she can revel equally in Using others as much as she does shopping for absurdly expensive clothing is nothing short of horrifying.

You would think that she's only some sort of wilting Southern belle and then she busts out with lines like this: (on meeting with Anne Bishop, a "defeated female") - "Frequently when encountering these poor slugs, I am tempted to help them stick their hands and arms down their own throats until they choke on their own vomit and have done with it." jfc lady

It's clear that having this Ability did not turn her into a psychopath, as her story of casual childhood cat killing can attest to.

The racism is unsubtle and pervasive, good lord.

Now I personally enjoy tedious descriptions of what foods people eat and what clothes they're wearing or changing into, but I also know it's pretty goddamn unnecessary to add it so constantly. I wonder if this book could be a good 100 pgs shorter just removing those superfluous details.

Simmons killed my favorite character halfway through the book, so I will admit that I wasn't as invested in the story as I could have been after that, despite the fact that the action and intrigue was further amplified.

A generously rounded up 3.5 stars because I am weak to pretty things. Even if I took nothing else away from this anthology, finding this illustration of Levi being beautiful by Afua Richardson would have been worth it.



There's also a gorgeous story at the very back of the book penciled by Richardson - I've already found her tumblr, will be searching for more of her non-SNK work posthaste.

This collection was pretty good for a bunch of Western artists & writers reinterpreting a Japanese work. I particularly enjoyed the parody travel guide, Discovering the Beauty of the Walled Cities, seemingly by some well-heeled debutante with a wild hair up her ass about ~adventure~. As the anthology moves on, we see bits and pieces of this guide and realize what was once a woman's passion project became more of source of propaganda into how safe humanity is now within the Walls, thanks to the government. It becomes sketchier and less finished; the finality of notes on the manuscript of Wall Sheena are particularly troubling.

The tragic love story between inventor Lyla and academic Rene and their end as a casualty of the corrupt Military Police's crusade against new tech was my favorite story, even if I felt that the art by Jorge Corona didn't quite match up to its potential. The coloring by Jennifer Hickman, however, gave it a very sweet, old-timey feeling.

I cannot ramble enough about how much I love Asaf & Tomer Hanuka's art in the last story, "Memory Maze". It is SO vibrant and SO gorgeous. The choice of minimalist backgrounds in most panels that explodes into a riot of patterns just as you are getting used to the single colors is exquisite. Fucking stunning.

UGH NARUTO'S BACKSTORY MAKES ME TERRIBLY SAD. I don't even care that this is shōnen manga, I cried.