Blood of My Blood (I Hunt Killers Book 3) - Thriller Novel for Crime Fiction Fans - Perfect for Mystery Lovers & Book Club Discussions

HOLY CANNOLI! I freaking LOVED this! I had to force myself to read this book VERY SLOWLY because I was loathe to say goodbye to some of the most incredible characters I've come across in fiction, both good and evil. I have to send huge thank yous and hugs to my book soul sisters The Twinjas who got me reading this series. Again, I'm really not into serial killer-type stories, but this series just hit all my happy buttons.Before I get to the crux of my review, I feel the need to wax a bit poetic as to why Connie, as a black heroine in YA (and in an interracial relationship with the hero) matters. Actually, she's why DIVERSITY MATTERS. She matters because it only takes a casual stroll through the YA section of any bookstore to see a serious absence of diversity. The covers alone tell the ugly tale--that despite changing demographics, the mainstream publishing industry still finds itself catering to a diminishing market. They know the country is becoming increasingly multiracial/multiethnic, but are hamstrung on how to reach that market (without alienating the dinosaurs, lol). They also see themselves bleeding money to smaller publishing companies and e-book publishers who ARE speaking to the changing readership, and yet they continue to see the world through a myopic racial lens.Connie is a well-crafted, non-stereotyped, fully-actualized heroine of color, written by a White male who obviously has a diverse circle of friends (or was willing to educate himself. Some of us think he may have a Black significant other, lol). Contrary to some complaints, I never saw her as being "othered". That might hold some weight if she was the only character of color, but she wasn't. Lyga's New York actually reads like the realistic and diverse New York too many authors (and television shows) seldom get right.As a reader perhaps unfamiliar with Black hair styles and care, one discovered Connie slept in a hair bonnet to keep her braids from frizzing up. Little details like this helped, in my opinion, to create a realistic character who CANNOT ever be mistaken for a default white girl (which sadly happens quite a bit when authors are oblique in their descriptions--look at the brouhaha over Rue of The Hunger Games). Yes, we as readers know that Connie and Jazz are an interracial couple. For some it matters. For them it doesn't, but the outside world makes it matter. We also see Connie as young woman in peril who has to use her wits to escape (and I could craft an entire essay on that). In a media where the images of Black women are reduced to sexless mammy figures, baby mamas or sexually irresponsible video vixens, it's a breath of fresh air to revel in the positive complexity of Black womanhood. Connie, along with Howie (another character-type seldom seen in YA) is truly ride or die, but also able to exist without giving up on her dreams. She sees Jazz for who and what he is. I have to wonder if some of the discomfort with Connie has to do with her NOT falling into that media-fueled stereotype. That she's so much like many other intrepid Caucasian heroines. She's brave, intelligent, a bit rash (which was how she ended up in mortal danger). She's no one's sidekick, but on equal footing with both Jazz and Howie.Speaking of Howie. Another character we seldom see in fiction. A hemophiliac treated as a typically overhormonal teenaged boy. Howie doesn't let the disease define him; he's got Jazz's back no matter what it costs. Howie has few filters on his thoughts, but I liked that about him. He's in danger and yet the snark rolls right off him without missing a beat. And yet, little details such as his incessant bruising are realistic reminders of who he is without detracting from his overall character.Maybe someday, YA (and genre fiction in general) will actually start looking like the rest of the world. Until then, I'm going to celebrate ANY positive and thoughtful depiction of marginalized characters. Especially when they're done this well.Okay, now to the review.Some books I hate to see end, but know enough that they have to. I will miss Jazz, Connie and Howie. I won't be missing Billy Dent or the other crazy psycho killers in the series.There's hints of past sexual abuse, so be warned.By the way, I know it's terrible of me, but I just can't help smirking at the demise of that rat Doug Weathers. If there was one character who deserved to get his, it was this guy--the hack journalist who made Jazz's life hell.This was a book I had to read in small doses. The intensity and the horror (though implied, not graphic) were still hard to handle at times. There were times I cheered Jazz's escapes; other times he scared me with how closely he was mirroring his father. That, I think, was the point. Just how much of who we are comes from our parents? Can we alter that makeup? The title Blood Of My Blood is terrifyingly apt. Jazz is a likeable yet very tortured hero (not the faux-angsty type so beloved of most YA/NA). He has the capacity for goodness yet also knows it doesn't take much to ride that razor's edge of evil. He's aware in a way many young adults aren't forced to be. After all, his father's one of the most prolific serial killers to ever live.Thankfully, Lyga didn't write some happily-ever-after type ending after all the horror. Jazz will obviously spend his life struggling to not become the product of a very twisted upbringing. Howie may eventually get laid, lol. And Connie will eventually get her own television series...okay, one can hope.