“Poison Fruit” by Jacqueline Carey
Poison Fruit is the last book in the Agent of Hel trilogy (my reviews of books 1 and 2 are here: Dark Currents and Autumn Bones). It’s been a couple more weeks since the traumatic events of Halloween, and Pemkowet is slowly recovering. However, as winter approaches, there’s a fresh set of troubles brewing – people are having deadly nightmares all over town, and the city is getting sued by disgruntled tourists who just happen to be represented by a hellspawn lawyer that seems to have done the unthinkable and claimed his demonic birthright.
I really like this series because it’s set in a Michigan small town, which doesn’t seem that different from an Ohio small town (where I live), and I recognize some of the archetypes of the people and the place. This book especially resonated with me because it’s set in winter, and it’s been snowy here pretty much since the beginning of January.
The last two books were mostly standalone adventures, but they were seeding a lot of plot threads that come into fruition (pun unintended) in this book. Daisy is pretty tough now, and has learned to deal with threats to Hel’s dominion, but she’s still terrified of the fact that she could release Armageddon if she gives into even a moment’s temptation (for good reason!) In Poison Fruit, the combination of a creature that feeds on nightmares and the prospect of a hellspawn that has done what she never can means that she is forced to confront it head-on, and she becomes even more badass because of it.
The characters that we love still remain incredible, we meet some new fun characters (Skrrzzzt!), and even some characters that we don’t love become somewhat awesome. I got a lot of what I wanted from the book – Daisy growing, more information about Lurine, seeing Sinclair fully assimilating into Pemkowet, more Oak King, and even the love triangle resolved in the way I wanted it to (although that was a no-brainer, there’s only one right answer there). It was heartwarming to see all of Pemkowet’s eldritch community band together in the face of an unprecedented threat, and the book’s ending was pretty much perfect.
This book itself wasn’t perfect though, there are a few parts I found mildly irritating. I know Stefan is supposed to be the epitome of a wish-fulfillment character, but come on! His courtship of Daisy was pretty ridiculous, and I felt like I never really got a sense of who he was as a person. I did like how it all came together at the end, though, and that complaint was acknowledged a little bit. Also the whole “supernatural creatures use technology” trope was both brilliant (the reason for the Night Hag’s visit) but also got a bit grating sometimes.
The most annoying thing, however, was that this was the end of the series. I really want to read more about Daisy and Pemkowet!