Please note, Eye of the Sh*t Storm is the third book in The Frost Files series. If you haven’t read books one and two what follows may contain some minor spoilers. Consider yourselves duly warned. Don’t come running to me later saying I didn’t mention it!
Teagan Frost might be getting better at moving sh*t with her mind – but her job working as a telekinetic government operative only ever seems to get harder. That’s not even talking about her car-crash of a love life . . .
And things are about to get even tougher. No sooner has Teagan chased off one psychotic kid hell-bent on trashing the whole West Coast, but now she has to contend with another supernatural being who can harness devastating electrical power. And if Teagan can’t stop him, the whole of Los Angeles will be facing the sh*tstorm of the century…
When we first meet Teagan Frost, way back in The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind, I recall she made quite the entrance. Jumping/falling from the top of a skyscraper without the aid of a parachute, never mind a safety net. Her latest adventure, Eye of the Sh*t Storm, begins with similar levels of excitement. We immediately find our plucky psychokinetic heroine in the midst of a Terminator 2-esque chase through the storm drains of Los Angles. A local biker gang is not best pleased with young Teagan and her plans for their large stash of narcotics. I’ll say this for Teagan, she has mad skills when it comes to finding herself knee-deep in trouble.
Teagan remains a bit of a mess throughout. Her power continues to grow, but this seems to be matched by her ability to make poor decisions in the heat of the moment. Don’t get me wrong, Teagan always has the best of intentions. The problem is that things don’t often turn out the way she planned. I love how Teagan has grown more and more sure of herself as a super-powered human while still retaining the vulnerability and uncertainty in every other aspect of her life. It would be so easy for her to become overconfident, but the reverse has happened. It’s almost as if the extra burden of her secret is chipping away at her already fragile mental state.
Over the course of the last three novels, the staff at China Shop have evolved to become a weird little dysfunctional family for Teagan. Reggie, Annie and Africa are the replacements for the siblings she lost as a youngster. The dynamic between Teagen and Annie is particularly well observed. There is a whole love/hate thing going on that only ever happens between those who have a genuinely close bond.
It’s not all about the characters though, Jackson Ford has a keen eye for action. Eye of the Sh*t Storm sure doesn’t drag its heels. Chases, fights, explosions, floods, lightning strikes, crystal-meth induced hallucinations and everything in between. You may find yourself having to try and catch your breath. There is a genuine cinematic quality to the writing that I enjoyed. There are set pieces that are so well defined and executed they are easy to visualise. I seem to recall reading something about the possibility of a television show based on the books. I hope this series does makes the jump to the screen at some point. There is a boundless sense of potential in Teagan’s universe. I’m sure it would be awesome.
The novel ends with a WTF revelatory moment. Any author who manages to make me exclaim “What!!!” when I get to the final page of a book deserves extra credit for their hard work. Teagan Frost had better return and it had better be soon. There are some burning questions that really need answering.
This novel, and by extension the series so far, has been great fun. Jackson Ford is clearly having a ball and his enthusiasm for the characters and plot continues to remain infectious. I find myself awaiting each new instalment with barely contained excitement. If you haven’t checked this out already, I strongly advise that you do so.
Eye of the Sh*t Storm is published by Orbit and is available now.
Normally at this point in a review, I’d recommend some sounds to accompany the book in question. It’s usually something instrumental and often a soundtrack to a movie or game. I’ve gone a different direction this time. The album I’ve selected is something that I think Teagan herself would like. She is all about rap music so I’ve chosen the 2004 album Weapons of Mass Destruction by Xzibit*1.
*1 I should stress my knowledge of the rap genre is woefully limited. It’s just he gets mentioned in the book so I thought choosing a random album from his back catalogue was a good place to start. The title seemed suitably appropriate as well. If Teagan and her fellow enhanced humans aren’t weapons of mass destruction, I don’t know who is.
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