The city of Brackenshaw, USA descends into chaos after an ancient curse is inadvertently unleashed. Now, a band of misfits must fight to survive the nightmare. Meanwhile, a gifted detective is dispatched by an enigmatic agency that specializes in the paranormal.

I'm going to be honest. I almost stopped reading about halfway through. The opening is very strong, with some demon stuff happening on a slave ship but then it kind of goes off the rails a bit. There are characters, I won't bother going through them because they are essentially the same. Basically, the 'misfits' described in the synopsis are criminal morons but not likable morons. I hated most of the characters in this book and just wanted them to die. The dialogue is full of crass humor, stereotypical dialects, and racial slurs, with little to no character development. Also, the city is walled off? I don't know why because it was never really explained.

Alright, so why three stars? Because, once the character of Eshe was introduced, the book turned around for me. She's interesting and original. As the clear protagonist of the planned series, I will read the next books simply because of her. Also, the curse in this book is fresh and well done. I actually really loved the descriptions of the effects of the curse. The ending was also fun and set up the continuing series.

Anyway. I went with three stars because there were parts of this book that I really hated and parts that I really loved.