Review: ‘iHunt’, by David A Hill Jr

Published By: Independently published 

Publication Date: 11th August 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9781522077435

Format: Kindle & paperback

Price: £3.85 or £11.54 (paperback)

 

 

 

 

 

Blurb

It’s like Uber, but for slaying monsters!

Lana is a monster hunter. She kills vampires, werewolves, demons and all the other terrifying creatures of the night. She doesn’t do it because she’s the chosen one. She doesn’t do it because it’s her duty. She does it because working one job just doesn’t cut it for a millenial in Southern California.

She takes contracts using iHunt, an app which freelance monster hunters use to find profitable prey. It’s like Supernatural meets Uber, Buffy meets Airbnb, and sadly, Blade meets Fiverr.

Lana’s story is about making ends meet, about economic anxiety, and about what a person’s willing to do to pay the bills. It’s a equal parts horror, dark humor, slice of life, and social commentary on the gig economy.

She deals with the same problems other millennials face: begging the landlord to extend your rent due date until the next paycheck comes, dating guys not concerned about their partners’ orgasms, dating women who have to sleep all day because they burn in the sun, the cost of clothing you need to replace because you got into a fight with the undead, and trying to explain that the security footage where you’re killing a guy is actually a viral social experiment to advertise your new film. You know, normal millennial issues. I’m sorry, I meant to say #millenialissues. Gotta get those views!

My Review

Lana Moreno is broke. The rent is late, all she has in the kitchen are pop tarts and beer. She has a day job working at a resort for next to nothing, and a part time job hunting monsters. Twenty-first century poor taxes and a gig economy are screwing her over. The monsters keep trying to kill her. The cost of illicit blood transfusions is just terrible and she’s running out of illegal drugs to medicate herself.

Then she gets the gig of a life-time. $5,000 a kill for baby vampires. Easy money. Or it should be, until vampire politics gets involved, her bank cards get stolen, and the IRS block her bank accounts.

The plot was great and I think that throwing in contemporary references to political events and to the reality of life for poor women of colour and everyone trying to make a living in the ‘gig economy’ of insecure employment in the US at the moment adds to the story.

I really enjoyed this book, it was easy reading for a quiet afternoon. It was so good I had to re-listen to Small Town Murder because I missed everything, so absorbed by the book was I. I enjoyed the development of the characters and their relationships. The plot was entertaining and the ending satisfying. If you liked Buffy, this is just the book for you.

5/5