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Succubus Blues

Richelle Mead

Published 2007        343 pages

Synopsis

When it comes to jobs in hell, being a succubus seems pretty glamorous. A girl can be anything she wants. The wardrobe is killer, and mortal men will do anything just for a touch. Granted, they often pay with their souls, but why get technical?

But Seattle succubus Georgina Kincaid’s life is far less exotic. Her boss is a middle-management demon with a thing for John Cusack movies. Her immortal best friends haven’t stopped teasing her about the time she shape-shifted into the Demon Goddess get-up complete with whip and wings. And she can’t have a decent date without sucking away part of the guy’s life. At least there’s her day job at a local bookstore—free books, all the white chocolate mochas she can drink, and easy access to bestselling, sexy writer, Seth Mortensen, aka He Whom She Would Give Anything to Touch but Can’t.

But dreaming about Seth will have to wait. Something wicked is at work in Seattle’s demon underground. And for once, all of her hot charms and drop-dead one-liners won’t help because Georgina’s about to discover there are some creatures out there that both heaven and hell want to deny…

The Review

Succubus Blues is the promising debut novel by new author Richelle Mead.  I know, I know, succubuses (succubae/succubi?!) are not vampires but there are similarities (both can suck the life force out of a person) and after reading this book I thought it was definitely worth a mention.  Besides there are a couple of vampire characters in it so it has a legitimate place on LoveVampires!

I would put Succubus Blues on the urban fantasy/chick-lit part of the bookshelf.  I say chick-lit because this book’s main audience will probably be women.  Georgina isn’t like most chick-lit protagonists – she isn’t a shallow air head who only worries about her shoes or clothes but a realistically flawed woman who has literally managed to pave the way to hell with good intentions.

Georgina is a succubus and although she has to regularly feed by sucking the life force out of men as she has sex with them, her heart really isn’t in it.  She isn’t an evil character; she doesn’t enjoy her life as a succubus and her character is written in such a way that she comes across as a hugely likeable person.  Until the back story is filled in by the author it is quite hard to imagine how she ended up a succubus in the first place. 

For a novel with a succubus for the lead character, Succubus Blues doesn’t have a lot of sex in it, just a couple of fairly short scenes.  (Succubus Blues is no Anita Blakesque bonkathon – this book actually has a plot!)  And the book isn’t just about sex or romance.  It has a mystery plot that will keep the reader guessing and an interesting mythology of divine and evil creatures. 

The evil creatures in this book really don’t appear to be all that evil.  The vampires, Cody and Peter, are only supporting characters in this book and don’t have much to do in the story - they are Georgina’s friends and this is their only role in this book.  Their characters are again written in a style that makes them seem more human than evil creatures of the night.  In the same way that Georgina makes a lousy succubus, Cody and Peter suck as vampires.

All in all, populated with angels, demons, imps, vampires and a whole host of other mythical characters Succubus Blues should satisfy even the most demanding urban fantasy reader. 

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