Among the Living

“Once upon a time if you told doctors you heard voice, they’d diagnose you as schizophrenic, put you on heavy drugs, and lock you away in a cozy state institution to keep you from hurting others. Nowadays they test you first to see if you’re psychic.”

Have you ever wanted a psychic power? Communicating with others telepathically? Making objects move? Being able to speak with animals? Well, I used to want to move objects with my mind. Reading Firestarter by Stephen King when I was a kid made me imagine all the possibilities that I could have available to me, if only I could learn to end a spoon. Unfortunately, spoon bending was not an ability I was able to master and I had to develop other skills to make a living. But the idea show more continues to intrigue me. The world of crime solving urban fantasy novels is saturated and there is quite a bit of overlap in world building and supernatural talent. That is not the case with the PsyCop series by Jordan Castillo Price. The stories take place in present day Chicago with a twist. Psychic talent is widely acknowledged and utilized by police forces; there are psychic pairs of police officers – one without psychic talent (the “stiff”) and one with psychic talent; but the talents vary - -and Ms. Price has come up with some unique talents. I do not want to spoil anything for new readers, but I will just say that the talents she writes about are nothing I have seen in other supernatural based television shows or books.

The main character of the book –the story is told from his first person point of view – is Victor Bayne. Vic sees dead people. But he does not only see them, he can talk to them, hear them and they follow him around and generally make his life miserable. Vic uses his talent as a member of the Chicago police force, but when he is not on the police force Vic medicates himself with prescribed drugs that help dull his ability. Kind of, the drugs kind of work. Vic is a flawed character, definitely not perfect. In Among the Living, the reader follows Vic through his day and investigation; poor Vic stumbles through most encounters and his inner monologue is unintentionally funny from his perspective – Ms. Price is a genius at writing witty inner monologues. Here is an example, the story starts off at a retirement part for Vic’s partner. Vic heads through the house and passes his partner’s child and some friends as Vic debates saying something to the kids he thinks this, “I quelled the urge to go back into the rec room and tell Maurice’s kid that his dad would probably shit a brick if he heard that expression in his home. But that’s lead to a long-winded discussion of civil rights, yadda yadda yadda. Plus I’d be absolute certain to come off as a creepy, white asshole then, in case there was any doubt at all.” This is typical of Vic’s inner thoughts. Another example of Jacob’s messy life and his thoughts on it (this scene takes place as Vic’s new partner drives Vic’s car), "I rummaged around my glove compartment and found an old pair of shades crusted with mysterious dust. How did things get dusty while they were shut inside a glovebox? .....Gutierrez' eyes were on the tiny GPS navigation screen. Also dusty, I noted. …I stared through my dusty plastic lenses at a string of Indian grocers and sari shops and noted that I could kind of see over one lens but not the other. Therefore, the shades were probably crooked as well as dusty. Charming.”

Other great examples:

“I sat in the passenger seat of my car and picked the brim of a Styrofoam coffee cup into a dozen small, ragged pieces. I hesitated before letting them fall to the floor, and then I realized that it was my own damn car and I could do what I wanted.”

“I went out to my car with the intention of grabbing a very late lunch when I saw there was someone sitting in my drivers’ seat. Since Guitierrez still had my keys, I realized that was a good thing.”

“I swung around to grab her and shake some sense into her, but the seat belt caught me by the neck. I swore at it and clicked it open, but by then I’d calmed down enough to stop myself from acting like a lunatic.”

Vic is not the only interesting character in Among the Living. There are three other characters introduced in Among the Living, Vic’s partner Lisa and two other detectives partnered together – Carolyn and Jacob. Each of the characters are complexly written, funny and add to the story. Warning: I absolutely love this series, but it is not for everyone. The main character is gay and there are some explicit gay romance and sex scenes. The story and the series involves the developing romantic relationship between Vic and Jacob, like everything else in the story, it is well written and purposely layered. During the ins and outs of Vic’s daily life, he pretends he is not gay, “I fixed my gaze on a completely irrelevant nail hole on the wall and pretended they weren’t talking about anything gay. I always figure I’m going to get some kind of telltale look on my face and tip somebody off about my own lifestyle.”

This book is a fun mystery, intriguing urban fantasy world, interesting characters and a sweet romance that does not dominate the story line. Among the Living is a novella and a quick easy read; I highly recommend just picking up this story and taking the dive.

My favorite line of the book, which is a bit of a spoiler

“‘You really don’t know, do you?’ He pressed a gentle kiss onto one of my eyebrows, then the other. ‘It was you, Vic. He disguised himself as you.’”

Ms. Price has written a number of books in this series, the main novels and novellas are for sale, but she offers the in between short stories free (for the most part) on her website: show less

“I really hate threesomes when one of the participants is dead.”

Incredibly short at 89 pages, but a good intro into the series.

Jordan Castillo Price's world is creative - different people, around one in five hundred, have psychic talents that differ, each in strength. To enter the police force, if they show as psychic in their testing, they have to go to a brutal psychic camp and then are paired up with a normal cop in a special op team nicknamed the unoriginal 'Spook Squad.' Among the Living is a singular point of view through Victor, our awkward, disturbed, gay and awesome main character.

I love mains who have a little bit of issues with awareness and self-esteem, it's realistic and refreshing, especially considering how hard and show more psychologically draining his particular power is - to hear the dead. Victor is great and I know that there is well of possibilities waiting to be uncovered in sequels. The entire 'cast' was great really - the new partner who has to fight the right battles before officially joining beside him, the lie detector Caroline, and of course the ultra-hot Jacob.

It's a gritty feel throughout, ramped up when the villain is revealed. He was creepy and creatively done. At a mere 89 pages and Price's talented writing ability, the pacing of this didn't stumble and sped by. I do think they dove too quickly into the sexual stuff but what was there was hot - and I repeat - HAWT. Seriously, I had to fan myself with some of these scenes, which of course is a mega bonus. show less

The voice of Vic lulled me, at first. He made me think of Sam Spade, a little. Vic is self-deprecating, seems grumpy, lazy, and evasive. And yet that contrasts with how people react to him. He drug me in, he's snide and weirdly thoughtful. This alternate reality world is presented only through Vic, so it comes in heavily filtered and too personal, if that makes sense. Vic's ability and experience has made him touchy and wary. And yet, he's funny, too. And, as we quickly learn, attractive to Marks.

The end is sharply, decisively written, unlike many romance stories, and though I knew what it would be, I loved it for its very abruptness.

Well, it seems that I found another great series to keep my ears entertained :P

Vic is a great character, a powerful medium working with the Chicago PD as a half of a team. The other half is a non-psychic cop, Maurice, whose retirement party is the beginning of the story. Is in there we get to meet Jacob Marks... while they hook up in their guest's bathroom...

Now, Vic is not only closeted, he has some very obvious issues regarding his sexuality and his own self. This is why he is clearly confused as to why smart and gorgeous Jacob might want to have anything with him.

And, there is a paranormal serial killer on the loose...

A great first story in a series I'm more than willing to keep listening, with characters who are complicated, funny, show more and interesting; and entertaining and well-constructed plots. A winner, indeed show less

I was iffy about this novella at first. I got it because I had heard lots of good things about Jordan Castillo Price's writing, and because the review of this novella on Dear Author intrigued me. However, Vic did not immediately endear himself to me. I wasn't a fan of his clearly habitual overuse of Auracel, and his quickie sexual encounter with Detective Marks in the bathroom at his partner's retirement party had me wincing.

I'm not quite sure when it happened, but Vic grew on me, and now I really, really want the rest of this series. I absolutely loved Vic's “voice” (the novella is from his perspective). He was so paranoid and frazzled that I had to laugh, at times. The way he went through suits reminded me a little of Stephanie show more Plum's habit of going through cars. I began to understand his habit of taking a little too much Auracel after reading about a few of his spirit encounters. It's not something Price beats readers over the head with, but it's clear that Vic regularly sees lots of things that would make the average person wonder about his sanity, and much of what he sees is less than pleasant. At one point, he strains hard enough to see the ghost of a dead goldfish, and there's a part where he encounters the ghost of a baby who was left to die in a stairwell in his apartment building.

Besides Vic, I also liked Vic's new partner, Lisa Gutierrez, and I hope she shows up in future books and novellas in this series. I think the character I liked the least was Detective Jacob Marks. I think Price intended for readers to find him sexy, but, from his first appearance, I hoped that he and Vic weren't going to end up as a couple. Regardless of the last lines of the novella and what Gutierrez told Vic, something about Marks made me think he was more interested in Vic for his paranormal abilities than anything else. I couldn't bring myself to trust him, and I even thought he'd turn out to be the murderer. I still kind of expect him to be revealed as a bad guy in a future book/novella, but, if not, it'll be interesting to see if Price can eventually make me like him.

I loved the way Price handled the psychic abilities. At the moment, it looks like there is probably a limited (but large?) number of psychic ability types, with various levels within those types. Even though Vic is a fairly high level psychic medium, that doesn't make him all-powerful, not even just within his work life – as he says at one point, the spirits of murdered people can lie or be confused, just like the living. He can get information that normal people can't, but that doesn't mean the information is necessarily of any use. I liked that every one of the psychic abilities that cropped up in this novella had limitations and created weaknesses in the psychics. For example, Vic had to put a huge amount of effort into finding an apartment he could live in without regular interruptions from ghosts, and Carolyn can't lie.

Usually, even with good novellas, I find myself thinking “Well, that was nice, but if it had been longer this or that could have been expanded more, and it really felt like it was leading into a larger work.” That wasn't the case with Among the Living, which felt just as long as it needed to be, didn't seem like an excerpt from a longer work, and still managed to make me want to read more. I'm glad I've already purchased Criss Cross, the next work in the series (although there's a freebie, Thaw, that I'll have to download and read, too). If I end up liking that as much as I liked Among the Living, I'll probably bite the bullet and buy the rest of the series, with or without a sale.

Other Comments:

When I first purchased this novella, there were no spaces between paragraphs, and paragraphs weren't indented, which would have made for some painful reading. I reported the issue to AllRomance, and they had a fixed copy available for re-download within a day. Thank you, AllRomance and JCP Books!

(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

Three things about Among the Living:

(1) It's excellent
(2) It's short
(3) It's expensive.

I usually don't whinge about price. I think, for the most part, books are good value for money. If I get to sit and read for an entire afternoon, let alone for several of them, at the price of a movie ticket I'm pretty happy. Plus, I want authors to make a living. This is literally the first time I've ever bought book, thought it was excellent, and decided not to move on to the next in the series because of a price issue.

Among the Living was $3.99 and it's a novella. That's...okay? I read it in an hour or two and finished it wanting more. The next in the series is $4.99 and it's 40,000 words, which is half the length of a proper novel and still 2/3 show more of a normal YA. Same with #3. I am biased against short books in general. I don't want to keep coming back to the well, parched and dry mouthed and reaching for the buy button, always unsatisfied and wanting more.

This is totally bumming me out because, as I keep saying, the book is damn good. The voice is excellent. Vic is so unassuming, so unaware of his own value, with a great, sharp sense of humor. I rooted for all the other characters, even when I didn't expect to - for his new partner Lisa, for snappy Carolyn, and big, sexy Marks. They were crystal clear and real and I wanted to spend time with them.

The story itself is dreadfully, painfully short. Vic is a strong psychic who can see and speak to the dead. Usually murder victims can't wait to tell him whodunit. But a series of bodies are popping up and there are no ghostly victims in sight. Why isn't Vic's power working? What's gone wrong? Every scene is fun and engaging and wonderful but no sooner has the case heated up than it's solved.

I don't have a negative word to say about the writing or the book. But it's short, short's not my thing, and that means I'm going to wish this author and her fans much happiness together while I find something else to read. show less

What can I say? I'm hooked...

Think paranormal urban fantasy police procedural romance and you'll have some idea of the basic premise of this novella. Sounds like it could be a bit of a shit storm, huh? But it's not. Price really pulls it off well. Among the Living somehow manages to set up interesting, multi-dimensional, lovable characters, a charming romance and an intriguing world while spinning a compelling (if brief) mystery plot all in the span of roughly 30,000 words. Impressive, if you ask me. Hopefully, though, the longer format of later entries in the series will lend itself to mystery plot lines that have a little more time to be fleshed out. While perhaps not Nobel Prize material, the novella is a well written, enjoyable show more read.

I'm a bit late to the party on this one, but now I feel as though I have to catch up, like yesterday. show less