The dead girl turned her head toward them. A cracking sound like ice braking rent the air. The girl’s eyes were still closed, but she opened her mouth, a dark maw in her ashen face. Kevin averted his gaze to the ceiling. Robbie has somehow managed to widen his eyes even further.

“Don’t panic.” Sam fought to hold June in place. “Kevin, cover her up!”

Kevin grabbed the sheet and threw it back over the girl’s face. She still moved underneath, turning her head from side to side. Thens he spoke.

“Assssssssk.” The sounds resembled air escaping a balloon. Not a human voice. Hollow and emotionless. Dead.

“What is this?” June demanded. “What the hell?”

“It’s an oracle,” Sam said. “The Oracle of the Dead. They know things the living don’t.”

“An oracle. She’s gonna tell the future?”

“Oracles don’t tell the future. They give counsel. But you can only ask one question, and then the spell is broken. You have to act quickly.”

I should say first of all that I don’t normally read steamy romances, and since a big part of the story falls into this environments, I’m afraid a have to confess it didn’t’ really do anything for me.

But fortunately, other elements of the story are more SF, more adventure and even more mysteries, and I enjoyed these quite a lot.
I really enjoyed the society depicted in this novel, where paranormal people exist, live in among normal people and are discriminated against and feared. This is ground for a political plot which is the best part of the story, in my opinion: the establishment on one side, the rebels who want integration on the other, and all kinds of people in between.

June, the protagonist, is a siren, someone who can control people with the power of her voice, which is an idea I really like. I’m afraid she’s not the character I liked the most, but hey!

An enjoyable read, even for people (like me) who don’t really enjoy all the aspects of this story.

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In post is part of the Thursday Quotables meme. If you want to discover more about this meme and maybe take part in it, head over to Bookshelf Fantasies