Death Rejoices (The Marnie Baranuik Files #2) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Apr 10, 2013 AH rated it it was amazing

Shelves: demons, alpha-males, urban-fantasy, babr-reviews, magic, psychics, witches, zombies, necromancer, favorites

Football sized zombie spiders! There. Have I got your attention yet?

Strange and hilarious situations, a snarky sense of humor, and some scary paranormal adversaries including and not limited to zombies in furry costumes makes Death Rejoices one of my favorite urban fantasy reads so far this year. In fact, as I was reading this book, I couldn’t help but read parts out loud to my husband and other assorted family members and bursting out in laughter. Honestly, the situations Marnie finds herself i Football sized zombie spiders! There. Have I got your attention yet?

Strange and hilarious situations, a snarky sense of humor, and some scary paranormal adversaries including and not limited to zombies in furry costumes makes Death Rejoices one of my favorite urban fantasy reads so far this year. In fact, as I was reading this book, I couldn’t help but read parts out loud to my husband and other assorted family members and bursting out in laughter. Honestly, the situations Marnie finds herself in are both scary and hysterical.

Death Rejoices starts off furry. Yes, furry. It seems that attendees of a local FurCon have gone missing and Marnie and her gang are on a stakeout. And get this – Marnie is in a furry costume, too. She’s dressed as a squirrel and is on the lookout for a predator dressed as a white unicorn.

This installment of the Marnie Baranuik files brings on a slightly more mature Marnie. After all, she is now head of her own Preternatural Biology department at the FBI and she even has an assistant. Marnie has sworn off cookies (and is going through cookie withdrawal), but she still craves her sweets. She still acts a little impulsively and sometimes speaks without the benefit of a brain filter. Marnie still pines for Agent Mark Batten and her inner dialogue still has fond memories…Marnie has started taking self-defense training with Sherriff Hood. Her life at home is basically the same, and her brother Wes has joined her household under the tutelage of Harry while he adjusts to his new life.

What grabs me about this story (and this series) is how easy it is to relate to Marnie. She’s so down to earth despite all the crazy stuff she deals with on a daily basis. She longs for the simple things in life – her old Buick, even when she has a shiny new car in her driveway.. Zombie horde attacking? Not on her day off. And the men in her life? Interesting complications

I am amused by the men in Marnie’s life. The hunky Mark Batten is front and center in Marnie’s thoughts. So much so, that the underlying sexual tension between the two sizzles. Marnie has wasted a lot of energy being mad at Mark, and she doesn’t see what everyone else around her does. I loved how Mark calls Marnie Snickerdoodle and how she calls him Hunkypants. So cute.

Then there’s Harry, the vampire Marnie “inherited” from her grandmother. Harry and Marnie are quite domestic with each other. He cooks and cares for her, she feeds him. They even argue like an old married couple. They share a bond of DaySitter and vampire. It’s so fun to read Harry’s dialogue. His obscure and often archaic vocabulary had me hitting up the ereader dictionary often.

Marnie doesn’t have that many female friends. None at all. Her adversarial relationship with Agent Golden leads up to the best lines:

“When you walk into a man’s bedroom dressed for sex, Dr. Baranuik, does Darth Vader’s Imperial March start playing in your head?”

“The way I see it, there are educated, intelligent women, then there’s Marnie Baranuik, Mistress of Disaster.”

I’ve now added Dr. Pepper to my Zombie Emergency Preparedness bag. Who knew? You can never be too prepared. Death Rejoices was a blast to read. And if you are wondering about the fangy frogs – grab a copy of this book!

Thank you to the publisher for a review copy of this book.

Review posted on Badass Book Reviews.
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