Review: Hexed by Kevin Hearne

Details:

Atticus O'Sullivan, last of the Druids, doesn't care much for witches. Still, he’s about to make nice with the local coven by signing a mutually beneficial nonaggression treaty when suddenly the witch population in modern-day Tempe, Arizona, quadruples overnight. And the new girls are not just bad, they're badasses with a dark history on the German side of World War II.
 
With a fallen angel feasting on local high school students, a horde of Bacchants blowing in from Vegas with their special brand of deadly decadence, and a dangerously sexy Celtic goddess of fire vying for his attention, Atticus is having trouble scheduling the witch hunt. But aided by his magical sword, his neighbor's rocket-propelled grenade launcher, and his vampire attorney, Atticus is ready to sweep the town and show the witchy women they picked the wrong Druid to hex
 
MP3 CD, Unabridged
Published June 7th 2011 by Brilliance Audio
ISBN: 1441870075 (ISBN13: 9781441870070)
series: Iron Druid Chronicles #2
(Goodreads)

 

Review:

I was Tweeting with Kevin Hearne one evening about how much I loved Hounded.  We discussed Hexed and how awesome the narrator was.  I agree that Luke Daniels is amazing.  And, on Hearne’s recommendation, I ordered the Hexed audiobook.
 
I am in love with the Iron Druid series.  I want to move someplace where multiple spouses and literary-human unions are legal and marry this series.  I think my wife would understand.
 
I am having an incredibly difficult time figuring out how to write this review.  Hexed is at one time bloody, irreverent, kooky, poignant.  It’s so full of contradictions that this could be the longest review ever written.  I mean EVAH!
 
About three weeks have passed since we left Atticus in Hounded.  And like any action-packed novel worth it’s weight in gold, Hexed gets Atticus in trouble real fast and real bad.  It doesn’t slow down from there.
 
Another contradiction in this book is how poetic and beautiful it could be.  The encounter with the Virgin Mary is spectacularly gorgeous.  I like that Hearne intermingles the deities and that he’s respectful in how he deals with them.  In a book so full of humor and sarcasm, it is nice to see that some things are off limits.
 
The most extreme element of the story was the sex magic.  You know this is a dude’s book and this proves it.  I won’t ruin it, but it’s  disturbing and kinda funny at the same time.
 
Something unique about the Iron Druid series that I give major props to Hearne for is that there is no “mist” or “fog” or anything that keeps mortals from seeing the immortals.  I like that Atticus has to use whatever is at this disposal, whether a cloaking spell or the mental-wiping-powers of a vampire to try to explain what the mortals have seen.  It’s fun to see what kind of trouble Atticus gets into and how he works his way out of it.
 
So, to keep this from being the Epically Long Review of Epic, I’ll summarize my feelings here: Hearne blends clever storytelling with irreverent humor, adds in some sword fights, blood, little bit of sexy, and you’ve got the Iron Druid series.  If you haven’t read Hounded or Hexed, move them to the top of your TBR.  Now!
 

5 Trees: Epically awesome.

Get to reading,

*No one was hexed during the writing of this review*