This book was reviewed via Netgalley

 

Hungry Ghosts is third in S Blackmoore’s Eric Carter series. Our opening finds Eric cutting a swath through Mexico, looking for Tabitha, erstwhile ally & sometimes foe. A zigzag of connect the dots puts him back in Mexico City, in the heart of Santa Muerte worship.

 

From Mexico City, Eric, Tabitha in tow, heads into Mictlan with the goal of settling his differences with Mictlantecuhtli. Once in Mictlan, Eric faces many of the trials the dead themselves do. Along the way, he meets an old enemy, one eager to make use of Eric’s particular gifts. To make matters worse, using magic in Mictlan is changing Eric faster than he’d like. Eric’s in a desperate race to find Santa Muerte and Mictlantecuhtli before time runs out.

 

Okay, so, all three books together tell the story of the awesome spiritual alchemy transformation that Eric is undergoing. In the first, the death of his sister is the Calcination event, stirring his rage. By the end of Hungry Ghosts he has reached the Putrefaction/Fermentation stages This is the ‘dark night of the soul’ so often thought as the lowest point in a person’s life. It is the death of one state of being and the chrysalis to the next, where all that you have learned of yourself through the previous alchemic stages work their potent changes. You will not be the same when you emerge. Being in Mictlan, one of the lands of the dead, and equipped with a unique power, he gets the extra ‘privilege’ of experiencing the trials of the dead, aiding his alchemic transmutation.

 

This book was by far my most favourite. It was very focused and driven. I enjoyed the tour of Mictlan. I’m not as up on Aztec mythology, so these books have been enlightening for me in that respect. I do so hope Eric gets to travel to Xibalba in the future, or another less well-known land of the dead.
????? Highly recommended, especially for fans of Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid series and Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series.