Book Review: Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw

Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw
Length: 320 Pages
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal
Rating: 5 out of  Stars

"It was the adder that stung King Arthur's knight at Camlann, starting the last battle. It rode in the hearts and minds of those who set fire to the Library of Alexandria. When the Mongols took Baghdad in 1258 and the waters of the Tigris ran black with ink from ruined books and red with blood from ruined men, ninety thousand dead, it feasted."

When it comes to all sorts of fantasy, whether it be Urban Fantasy, High Fantasy, (I would even maybe throw in Paranormal Romance), I know exactly what I like, and exactly what I don't like. Maybe it comes with the territory, as fantasy tends to be my favorite genre to both read and write, and I can be very, very picky with it. So when I picked up the first book in the Greta Helsing series, and it was everything I wanted and more, I was ecstatic! During these days of COVID-19, Politics that threaten people's very lives, and, for me, spells of depression and OCD, Strange Practice is like a warm, beautiful light at the end of the tunnel. It was funny, thrilling, and heartwarming.

Greta Helsing has inherited the, strange indeed, family practice of being Doctor to London's array of fantastical creatures, from Vampires (and Vampyres, don't forget the Y!) to Weres to Ghouls and Banshees, and calls many of them friends, like Lord Ruthven, of John William Polidori's "The Vampyre" fame, and Fastitocalon, who has been a friend of the family for so long she worries it would be rude to ask him just what exactly he is. When Sir Francis Varney, he of the Victorian penny dreadful "Varney the Vampyre", shows up at Lord Ruthven's with a strange wound, Greta is called around to Ruthven's lush Thames Embankment home to check it out. The wound is puzzling, and Varney isn't healing normally, and even stranger, he claims to have been attacked by men dressed as monks, chanting about devils and evil. When Greta makes the connection between the monks, who have strangely glowing blue eyes, and the deaths plastered all over the news at the hands of the "Rosary Ripper", who has struck fear into the hearts of Londoners, they soon find themselves up against something as powerful and old as the universe itself.

I just adored the worldbuiling in this novel, and thought it was all such a refreshing take. I also loved how Shaw bucked a lot of the tropes of these sort of characters, like with Lord Ruthven, who is charming, fun, and social, as opposed to the more typical depressed and solitary Varney. The relationships between the characters is truly the heart of the story, and if you love tales of found family, paranormal characters told with a great sense of humor, and a dash of horror, I would highly recommend (to be honest, I'm recommending it to about everyone) Strange Practice!