As a massive outbreak of supernatural Visitors baffles Scotland Yard and causes protests throughout London, Lockwood & Co. continue to demonstrate their effectiveness in exterminating spirits. Anthony Lockwood is dashing, George insightful, and Lucy dynamic, while the skull in the jar utters sardonic advice from the sidelines. There is a new spirit of openness in the team now that Lockwood has shared some of his childhood secrets, and Lucy is feeling more and more as if her true home is at Portland Row. It comes as a great shock, then, when Lockwood and George introduce her to an annoyingly perky and hyper-efficient new assistant, Holly Munro.
Meanwhile, there are reports of many new hauntings, including a house where bloody footprints are appearing, and a department store full of strange sounds and shadowy figures. But ghosts seem to be the least of Lockwood & Co.'s concerns when assassins attack during a carnival in the center of the city. Can the team get past their personal issues to save the day on all fronts, or will bad feelings attract yet more trouble?
Danger abounds, tensions escalate, and new loyalties form in this third delightfully terrifying adventure in the critically acclaimed Lockwood & Co. series.
Review:
I’ve had a weird journey with these books. I fell in love with the audio versions of book 1-2 on my very long road trip to Chicago with my husband and dog. We basically didn’t want to leave the car because we had to know what was going to happen next. Then sadly, after downloading book 3 on the Libby app, we found ourselves with a new narrator. We could not get into it! Why switch narrators? Why???? We get that these things happen, but sadly then we switched book series and kind of somehow forgot about this series until I saw a trailer for the show on Netflix!
I wanted to re-read from the beginning because reading the book is different than listening to the book while driving and some time had past. My wonderful husband gifted the whole series to me for Christmas. It was my goal to finish all of them before the show came out…..That did not happen. I finished the first two, which I had already listened to. Then, watched the show, which thankfully only covered the first two books. And I have to say, I was mostly impressed with Netflix… hope they keep making more.
Now, I’m finally up to book 3, a story that’s totally new to me, and I think this is my favorite in the series so far. SO much happens in it that I feel like I’m still wrapping my head around it all. Lucy’s powers grow even more. There’s a new girl in the group who’s an assistant who actually tidy’s up the house….more on this later. There’s definite romantic tension entering the plot. And there are several big jobs the characters go on, all of varying degrees of importance to the overarching plot. I also have to throw in that Lucy and the skull/ghost in the jar are developing a closer bond, which I find interesting and at moments hilarious.
The only element to these books that I don’t like is the ever slight element of sexism. When listening to them, I was confused about the time period. The sexism and maybe British turn of phrase made me think they took place decades ago, but nope. They take place today, just after a ghostly disaster took place. And maybe that ghostly disaster turned things in a negative direction for women? Like if girls aren’t fighting with swords to the death along with the boys, then they must be expected to clean houses? And maybe it’s just part of Lucy’s character, but I really hated the antagonism between her and Holly. It felt so icky….Like I kept wanting them to support each other, not put each other down….
All that aside, the plot in this book was the best so far. There really was never a good moment to put the book down. The suspense was crazy. There was an ending that kind of punches you in the gut. And I’m itching to start the next book already. Also, some of the ghost stuff was so creepy, I’m almost afraid for what Netflix can do with this. All in all, it gets a 9/10.
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