Strange Practice

Pros: fun characters, interesting story, quick read

Cons: repetition

Greta Helsing is a modern day human doctor who treats the supernatural. When she’s called to a vampire’s house for an emergency, she discovers that a mysterious group is hunting ‘creatures of evil’, a group that might be connected to the ‘rosary ripper’ murders plaguing London.

I enjoyed this book a lot. The characters were quirky and entertaining. I liked that a few of them were familiar from older literary works. The mythologies for the different creatures were a mixture of common folklore with a few twists to make them different and fresh. I particularly liked the interpretation of angels and demons presented. The author did a fantastic job of making the ‘monsters’ feel very human and empathetic.

There’s a particular scene with Greta that I absolutely loved. Most urban fantasy novels have literal kickass female characters, so it was nice reading a book with a female protagonist who doesn’t know any martial arts, who’s terrified by horrific situations, but who manages her fear and is able to act despite it. It was wonderful reading about a woman who didn’t beat anyone up and who relied on her friends to help her when things got tough.

I was somewhat surprised that the core protagonists didn’t warn the supernatural community of their danger, specifically Greta’s patients and employees. I also found it strange that everyone in the group seemed to learn the same information separately - at different times - rather than pooling what they’d learned (or asking more questions of the group that had encountered the antagonists).

There’s a fair amount of repetition. Several conversations simply repeated information learned earlier.

On the whole, this was a fun, fast read. I’m very curious to see what adventure Greta has next.

Van Helsing is a household name as his battles with the undead and strange are well-known. Makes sense his descendants would carry on the tradition of being involved with the supernatural albeit in a different way. Dr. Greta Helsing operates a clinic in an entertaining urban fantasy using London as the backdrop in this first of a new series that has her involved with a serial killer.

Vivian Shaw created an interesting world with a unique premise that will have you anxiously waiting for the sequels. Expect the unexpected as it is definitely different than your protypical urban fantasy which makes the storyline and surprises all that much sweeter as you travel through a side of London unfamiliar to most.

Shaw picked a wonderful teaser to end her novel on to hook you into continuing with her series but even before you arrive at that the dry British humor, extensive examination of good versus evil and an eclectic cast will have you wanting more from this supernaturally chilling page-turner. As good as her plot is, the real meat is in her character work and this is where Shaw’s talent shines through the best as she assembled an array of humans of monsters for your fantasy pleasure.

A creepy mystery, an unusual doctor, and supernatural creatures aplenty, Strange Practice was a fun and fast-paced first installment in a series that's certainly one I can foresee adding to my list of UF favorites.

A regular doctor by all appearances - and diplomas, Greta Helsing and her practice are anything but. While she technically could make a practice treating patients of the human persuasion, Greta is following in her father's footsteps and treating only patients of the supernatural variety. From ghouls with depression to mummies in need of actual working toes, Greta sees them all. Working only with supernaturals comes with its own set of difficulties for a number of reasons, the primary being that the human population is unaware of such creatures living among them. Having no real set of reference materials and books to aid in figuring out how to treat such creatures comes with a price - Greta relies solely on folk tales, fairytales, and legends to understand the various creatures' habits and anatomical workings. Sometimes it's easy, such as the case of a depressed ghoul; sometimes it's not so easy, as in the vampyre who isn't healing after being stabbed by a weird, burned monk human-not human thing. Every day is different as a supernatural doctor, and Great wouldn't have it any other way.

The mystery in Strange Practice was decidedly creepy with the weird human-not-human-who-the-heck-knows monk people. Convinced that every supernatural creature is a sin, a slight in the eyes of God, the merry band of monk-folk are hell-bent on eliminating all supernaturals around London. Needless to say, with only a few doctors in the know concerning the creatures, these are busy times in the Helsing clinic.

Many parts of Strange Practice were quite dark, which is exactly the way I like my urban fantasy, but Shaw managed to insert quite a bit of humor which lightened the tone throughout. Her characters were so quirky, especially Fastitocolon and Ruthven, and I especially liked the deep friendships each of the characters had with one another, and especially what they shared with Greta.

All told, Strange Practice was a dark and quirky first installment in a new urban fantasy series. Fast-paced and fun, with a creepy, twisty mystery, I highly recommend it and will definitely be following the series for as long as it runs.

Many thanks to Orbit Books, Vivian Shaw, and Netgalley for the free copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased opinion.

What an original beginning to what I'm sure will be an amazing fantasy book series! We meet Dr. Greta Helsing (family dropped the Van generations ago) in the middle of the night making a house call...at a vampire's house...to treat a vampyre...so obviously she's not the typical GP. Oh, sure may carry a black bag and dole out antibiotics, but her patients lean more toward the supernatural side of things. Of course, when events take a turn for the worse, they too have more of a paranormal attitude.

It's quite obvious Shaw has delved into some deep research; either that or she has some far-reaching interests. Her author story states that she enjoys reading up on various topics, and I think that has certainly come in handy here. Just the creation of a formulation of an herbal toxic concoction alone is impressive. She has two Tolkien references, one extremely important to the storyline. I found myself bookmarking literary allusions to follow up on. Some I've read years ago; some I've heard of.

Of the characters Varney seems quite human. He's "melancholic", he has a crush, he feels like he doesn't belong. He wants to be liked and loved. Cranshaw, on the other hand, I found rather annoying. He's supposed to be a researcher and perhaps curator of a museum, but his speech is abhorrent. He's like a little brother poking the other characters on the shoulder all of the time for attention. I think I understand why he was written this way, as he is pivotal to the denouement and needs to be a bit weak-minded. Greta's partners in her practice, Dezda and Anna, I also found worth knowing. I'm hoping they become more prominent as the books are published.

What I'm taking away from this read, apart from the enjoyment factor and the need to read ANOTHER fantasy series, is the ubiquitous good vs. evil plot-this time the good being not always who one thinks it will be and the evil easily feeding off fear or hatred that can be found inside people because of the differences they don't understand. Those differences are evident when speaking of werewolves or mummies, but they aren't so different when we are speaking of Jews or gypsies, the handicapped or mentally ill, the homeless or unemployed. Think on it.

Strange Practice is a delightful story of an overworked doctor who treats the supernatural denizens of London. Humour, horror, romance, action and religion are deftly woven together to create a thoroughly engaging novel.

A fun dark fantasy novel about healing all sorts of supernatural creatures. A lot of fun!

Dr. Greta Helsing runs a private clinic for some of London’s most unusual clientele. London’s supernatural, from vampires to mummies, ghouls, banshees, witches, and various in-between things, are Greta’s patients. Called to the aftermath of an attack on a vampyre, Greta and an unlikely team band together to stop an ancient monastic order, targeting both monster and man, before these monks fully terrorize its citizens and raze the city to the ground.

This is an absolutely wonderful supernatural thriller. It is full of humor, witty and extensive good/evil discourse, and contains a cast of fabulous monsters. My only reservation was that I occasionally found myself lost in circular, detailed explanations of moralistic, divine, or clinical issues and believe these could have been more clearly presented. Dry, British humor comes perfectly from the vampires, a fatherly demon fills the emotional needs of the main character, and troubled ghouls accompany the funny, compassionate, and entirely relatable character of Dr. Greta Helsing. I predict this supernatural series will acquire quite the following as it continues. Well-written and delightfully light I already look forward to the coming troubles the team will face (and the development of budding romance!) in the next installment.

That was quite a bit different as I expected, but in the end I quite loved it. It's a different sort of urban fantasy - well to be honest it was what I expected a different book to be like (SHAMBLING GUIDE).

Greta is at first a bit too clinical for my tastes, but those around her warm her up quite a bit. Fass, Ruthven, Varney and Cranswell, to name the important people for this book. There's also Anna and Dez, who I hope we see more of going forward and the Ghouls were surprisingly interesting for all that the image freaked me out a bit.

Greta is of age with me, which was a nice change of pace for an urban fantasy heroine (who seem to all favor the mid-20s range) and I appreciated that her duty to her calling is what grounded her. It stressed her out, forced into odd hours and weird situations that she wasn't always fully prepared for, but in the end its what she needed in her life to feel as if she had meaning.

At times Varney got on my nerves with his "I AM SO PITIFUL AND HOW CAN YOU STAND TO BE NEAR ME" - he envies Ruthven for the ease to which he moves in the world, but also seems repulsed by the fact Ruthven isn't as despairing as he. His inner monologue at times almost seemed spiteful as he listed all the ways Ruthven was both a better man and worst monster than he.

The monks were very chilling; viscerally so as our nominal heroes could not really grasp the why of them. Religious fanatics are evermore, you'll find them throughout history in every civilization and religious sect. Sometimes its as innocent as someone who desperately wants to believe and is taken advantage of (as one such monk finds here) and other times someone sees it as their ticket to power (as another monk seems to be). Shaw blends both ways and throws in the supernatural for fun (though truthfully, even without the preternatural side, I could very well see a group of fanatical extreme religious sorts behave this way).

There's a lot of humor here, some of it dark and some of it dry. I found Fass' friend Sam to be truly delightful and surprisingly the Ghouls were quite interesting. While some of the creatures here are well known (Vampires namely, though werewolves and mummies get name-dropped and discussed), there are some who don't often appear in fiction as anything other then personality-less monsters. Through Shaw's eyes, as the book is predominantly centered on what goes on around her with occasional digressions to the others, we see these creatures as just another kind of species. The Ghouls have a complex social system as we learn, Mummies have an interesting hierarchy to themselves and the battle between good and evil is basically a bureaucratic juggling act with neither side particularly wanting to win because who wants that kind of paperwork?

Overall I really enjoyed this jaunt on the weird side of London and the teaser at the end for the next book has me eager for more!