Review courtesy of AllThingsUrbanFantasy.blogspot.com

It’s never a good sign when you start reading a book and seriously think that the printer mixed up the pages, but that was the only conclusion I could come to during the first 60 pages of Original Sin. Come to find out that Allison Brennan actually started this series with a short story DELIVER US FROM EVIL in the 2007 anthology What You Can't See.

If you read this book and find yourself as frustrated with it as I did, consider skipping ahead to page 60 and read the seven pages of Moira’s flashback explaining her history with her mother and her role in the coven etc. I don’t know why the author didn’t include that passage much earlier in the story as very little makes sense without that background information.

The most powerful witch in the world has spent her life searching for the Book of Knowledge in order to summon the Seven Deadly Sins, embodied by powerful fallen angels, from the bowels of Hell to do her bidding. The only one capable of stopping her is her daughter Moira. Original Sin opens with Moira plagued by horrific nightmares full of human sacrifices and on the run from her mother as she seeks out information to kill her. Aided by the priest who is the closest thing to a father she’s ever known, a demonologist (and his sheriff girlfriend)who blames her for the death of his brother, and the mysterious Rafe, Moira the the only hope the world has left.

I really wanted to like this book. A lot of reviewers who I typically agree with loved it. Me not so much. The writing is fairly generic and the beginning of the book frustratingly unclear in terms of character motivations. But even later on when certain things were explained, the story was needlessly complicated. Fiona, Moira’s mother is constantly talking about killing her daughter, yet when she gets the opportunity she decides to come back later!?!

And as is typical of thrillers, there are a lot of characters and POV’s going on in this book, often several per chapter. Sometimes this works, sometimes not. Guess which one Original Sin is? Perhaps if the characters had been more sharply defined they would have made more of an impact, but I read this entire book in one day yet I couldn’t remember who was who without flipping back again and again.

One unique aspect of the world building in Original Sin is that Magic, in and of itself, is categorically evil. Witches are likewise bad without exception. Well, except for Moira who has shunned her powers.

There is also a lot of Biblical references and Catholic theology tweaked and borrowed from here, as well as the traditional concepts of Heaven and Hell. I’m not a Catholic so I can’t comment on how accurate any of that is.

Overall, Original Sin is a bloated thriller with paranormal trappings and a slew of flat characters. The dialogue is occasionally cringe worthy, the action sequences relentless without seeming to advance the story, and the romance (little that there is) forced. Not exactly a glowing endorsement. I’m giving this book 2 bats out of 5 only because this book qualifies more as ‘not good’ as opposed to simply ‘bad.’

Sexual Content: One vague, brief sex scene. One extended and graphic sex scene

My Rating: 2 out of 5