The Asynchronous Live Blogging: Strange Practice

Well hello there, reader.

It's a lovely 9:30 am, Elementary is on in the background, and I'm here with Vivian Shaw's Strange Practice. I'm currently on chapter 11 and I want to finish it today so I can read the sequel.

Strange Practice is a book I've been meaning to pick up for a while now, since I follow the author on tumblr. It's an urban fantasy, building off of the grand tradition of London based penny dreadful monster stories. It's delightful so far, a great little murder mystery with characters I like. 

Anyway, on with the show.

So far we know kind of what is doing to murder but the characters don't. Let's see how this unfolds.

Oh, and spoilers for the end of Strange Practice

__

Okay, it's 10:20 now, and I've finished chapter 11. No real thoughts yet, other than the ones I've already had. We aren't close to the final confrontation between our mains and the murder monks who are trying to kill them, but our excommunicate is awake. There are also a few gems, such as:

Lord Ruthven, casual Dracula

Greta takes an agnostic view in a world that has a confirmed Heaven and Hell of some type

Vivian Shaw knows eyes glowing in the dark is literally the scariest thing in the world

and mentions of "excitingly dangerous neck biting."

Also it's starting to look like Greta and Sir Francis, the other vampyre (with a y) might end up together and I don't want this. It's not super likely they're going to be an item, but the possibility is there.

On to chapter 12.

__

The plot continues to thicken. It's 11:30, our excommunicate monk is now unpossessed by the blue glow, which incidentally lives in this:

Mercury Arc Rectifier

Either way, Varney gets groceries without incident, Ruthven and Greta find more about our murder monks, and Fass continues to be a good egg. Fass also talks about how magic in this universe works, in brief. It's some good, contained world building. Through his explanations we also get an in universe reason why Heaven and Hell aren't going to interfere in the plot, which is always a difficulty when you introduce omnipotent beings into your story, even obliquely. I'm liking this story, is the take away. It's very hard to put down.

Chatper 13, ho.

__

It's 1pm and shit has gone down in this chapter. The crew has decided to go smash the rectifier. A crew with two vampires in it. Against something that puts out UV radiation. They are fully aware of this fact and just. Doing it anyway. Love these two vampiric clowns. Anyway, while they're off storming the evil monk HQ, Greta stays behind to look after Halethorpe the monk. Then the rest of the monks set Ruthven's house on fire. Greta escapes with the ghoul-noncombatants living in Ruthven's cellar and the other ghouls go defend the house.

I'm worried that the plan of smashing the rectifier will not work since there is an ancient evil entity living in there. Oh, and it looks like Greta might return Varney's feelings. They had a moment (tm). I'm resigned to them getting together at some point.

Chapter 14 here we come.

__

Hoo boy, found the climax of the story. So the ghouls lead Greta to the breaker box that controls the rectifier, the rest of the gang get either stabbed, can't get near the UV light, or are mind controlled by it. I think Fass might be dead. which I'm very sad about. I liked that guy. But, Greta turns off the light and Cranswell hits it with a sword and it screams a lot so I think it's dead. Yay....

It was a short chapter and Samael shows up at the end, who Fass knows and who is a demon. I think the Head Demon, actually.

I also took a short break for lunch, which was delicious.

On to chapter 15, the second to last chapter.

__

It's a cool 2:20pm. This chapter is the wrap up of what just went down. Samael, the Devil, resurrects Fass which I am super jazzed about. He also tells our crew that the entity is a leftover part of creation that grew a brain cell. An evil brain cell. Anyway, Samael is taking it with him to hell. Cranswell bums a smoke from the Devil himself, Greta has a brief stare down with the Devil, and then he takes Fass back down to hell for some spa treatment and relaxation. Also I think Fass and Samael are dating?? It's unclear.

On to the last chapter. I'm very excited.

__

The story wraps up with Varney helping Ruthven get his house repairs rolling, goes on a shopping spree with him, and then gets roped into going to Greece for the epilogue. Ruthven also promises to buy Greta all the new stuff she needs for the clinic. Nobody was seriously hurt so it's happy endings all round. In the epilogue in Greece Fass comes back from his trip to the hell spa, and Ruthven encourages Varney to court Greta, spotted going to stores of the diaphanous nightgown type.

And that's the end of that story. I enjoyed to tone a lot, reader. I can't wait to start the next one.

Hopefully you also enjoyed this little experiment, reader. I'm not sure I'm going to do something like this again soon. Honestly, it's more suited to a video medium. 

Happy reading. Until next time 🎃