DNF at 18% - I may return to this but for now it feels like a less fun version of SOULLESS.

Melissa Olson is a pretty reliable urban fantasy author for me -- snarky, world-weary female protagonists who are saving themselves from messes they didn't get themselves into. I listened to this as an audiobook, and it was very diverting even though I am more than a bit burnt out on reading at the moment; I ended up sitting in the car listening to the end.

This one specifically is about Scarlett Bernard, who is a null -- a very rare power who nullifies the magic that makes the supernatural what they are when they enter her radius. And in LA, she works as a cleaner, someone who is called to the scene when a supernatural makes a mess that needs to be wiped away before the mundanes find it. Except this time, she made it to a grisly scene far too late to clean it up -- and this time she might be in over her head.

It's a little hokey sometimes, but that's kind of an artifact of the subgenre. I honestly really enjoy urban fantasy; it tends to be a good reset button, easy to listen to or read, cotton candy, and sometimes incredibly snarky and sarcastic. This one's a bit less in the humor department, but I loved it anyway. ( )

The universe constructed is very promising and I look forward to seeing more from this author. My main problems with this book was that it bounces between points of view inconsistently. ( )

This was an entertaining, quick read and there's a lot to like about it. I especially appreciate the absence of hormonal teenage behaviour by adult characters.

The backstory of vampires, werewolves and witches is okay, I wasn't particularly excited about it. Some things about the general setup of the story need a lot of suspension of disbelief, but that's mostly all right.

I like that the story is told from the perspective of those low on the supernatural food chain, and I like that Scarlett is not the chosen one to save the world(TM), although I didn't really understand why she was the lowest of the low with her powers. She's also a super rare urban fantasy heroine: actually acts clever most of the time and uses her common sense, she has one-night stands and sees nothing wrong with that, she doesn't let her love life take over her whole life.

Most of the secondary characters I found interesting and believable in an urban fantasy-way, especially the vampires. Scarletts housemate is refreshing and funny with a hint of tragic, and it's great to see the old, powerful boss-vampire to actually behave like one (most of the time) and not fall in love with the heroine and act like a homone-controlled teenager because of it.

The love triangle is not my favourite trope, but it was done okay here, and the characters behaved like the adults they are, which made me happy. Problematic romance tropes were pleasantly absent.

Pacing is good and the plot is interesting enough.

All in all, this is more of a 3-star-book, but since it didn't do so many of the things that usually annoy me to no end in urban fantasy novels, I have to give it a fourth star, simply because I am so happy about that fact. ( )

Melissa Olson has achieved something quite unique, she's added a brand new type of supernatural to the, by now normal, mix of vampires, werewolves and witches. Scarlett Bernard is a Null, she creates dead spots for magic. In her presence, vampires and werewolves become human and witches cannot cast spells.

This is a truly odd, negative, super power. It doesn't turn Scarlett into an apex predator but it does give her some protection from them. She lives in a niché where she can be used by the various super natural factions to clean up messes, usually deaths, without being a threat or being threatened. She is valuable because she helps keep the "Old World's" secrets.

At least, that's how we see the world at the start of the story.

The plot places, Scarlett in a situation where she has a deadline to prove she had no involvement in some gruesome killings or face execution. The twists and turns of the plot are perfect for building a picture of the supernatural world while making it satisfyingly difficult to figure out who is guilty of what.

I enjoyed the fact that Scarlett, because her powers are essentially negative, couldn't just use muscle or magic to solve her problems, she had to use her brains and rely on her friends. This made the whole story more engaging.

Circumstances have thrown Scarlett together with a freshly promoted plain-clothes LAPD officer, Jesse Cruz. He is new to the "Old World" and becomes the device through which much of the exposition is done. He is also a very moral person (hey, if you can accept that LA has vampires, werewolves and witches, then is a moral LAPD officer such a stretch).

I didn't like Scarlett very much at the start of the book. She seemed glib, superficial, numb as well as null and I didn't much care what happened to her. As the book progresses, two things change, Scarlett's back-story of trauma, guilt and exploitation is revealed and,partly in response to Jesse's reactions to the Old World and partly as she slowly realizes that she actually has some friends, Scarlett takes stock of her life and her attitudes and starts to make changes.

By the end of the book, I was interested in Scarlett and the world she lives in and ready for another instalment.

"Dead Spots" was an entertaining read that had some problems with pace and perhaps a little too much exposition, but which appealed to me because of its flashes of originality and the intelligence and pragmatism of Scarlett Bernard. ( )