First off: I tried to read STRAY, the first of Rachel Vincent's Shifters series, and put it down about halfway through, equally disgusted with the main character and her love interest. I haven't felt the slightest desire to return to the Shifter books but I was impressed with Vincent's talent enough that, combined with the very interesting premise of BLOOD BOUND, I decided to give it a try. And I have to say, all other thoughts aside, none of the things that frustrated me about STRAY were present in BLOOD BOUND.

BLOOD BOUND is fascinating and very dark. It presents a world full of people with Skills who live underground, most of them bound by nefarious means to cruel mafia lords. And while the Skills themselves sound pretty cool at first - Trackers can track people, Seers can see the future, etc. - they cause more harm then good. Vincent has played out the implications of these nifty superpowers to the point of creating a terrifying dystopia, and the best case in point forms the fulcrum around which the rest of the novel turns: at the age of twelve, the heroine, Olivia, and her three best friends all swore a vow to help one another whenever asked for the rest of their lives. The presence of a Binder in their group made the vow binding, and permanent. Sounds great, right? Nope. The vow ruined their friendship, and very nearly their lives.

When Olivia's friend Anne knocks on her door and demands that she drop everything in order to find and murder the person who killed Anne's husband, Olivia has no choice but to agree. She has a very difficult time negotiating, or even hesitating. If she resists for long enough, she dies. And actually, I thought Anne was the weakest link in the whole novel. Anne is the least sympathetic grieving widow/protective mama that I've ever had the displeasure to encounter in a book. Her husband's body is barely cold on the floor but the first thing she thinks to do is force Olivia into an immoral act, despite her protests? It's gross, and when Olivia calls her on it, asking Anne to at least take some time to reflect, this is Anne's reply: "I would rather have this whole thing over with before I go pick up Hadley. I don't want to have to think about this while I'm trying to decide how best to explain what happened to her father without scarring her for life." Ugh! So smug and self-righteous. I hated Anne.

Anyhow: the real take home point there is that most of the characters, even the villains, are at least a touch more sympathetic.

So Olivia is off to find the dead husband's killer, in the company of the old flame she's suffered much to protect. They work out their old issues only to discover that bigger ones have risen up in the meanwhile. They find the killer only to get some unpleasant news about what his real goal was, and who he worked for. Again and again, those nifty Skills that ought to make the world a better place just turn the screws tighter and make things worse.

I ended up finding the story and the relationships really compelling. But...I'm going to spoiler tag this. I'm not giving away anything specific, but my impression of the end (view spoiler)[The conclusion really hit me like a sucker-punch to the gut. Such a devastating cliffhanger. After having gotten all excited about this new series I turned the last page thinking: nope, I don't want to read about that, it will be too awful. Who knows if I'll be able to resist temptation but, man, I am not a happy camper right now. (hide spoiler)]. Aside from that, anyhow, BLOOD BOUND is worth a try.