READING: Working Stiff by Rachel Caine

Working Stiff by Rachel Caine

Publication date: August 2nd, 2011
Published by: Roc
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy, Crime
Rating: 4,5/5

Bryn Davis knows working at Fairview Mortuary isn't the most glamorous career choice, but at least it offers stable employment--until she discovers her bosses using a drug that resurrects the clientele as part of an extortion racket. Now, Bryn faces being terminated--literally, and with extreme prejudice.

Wit the help of corporate double-agent Patrick McCallister, Bryn has a chance to take down the bigger problem--pharmaceutical company Pharmadene, which treats death as the ultimate corporate loyalty program. She'd better do it fast, before she becomes a zombie slave--a real working stiff. She'd be better off dead...

Being a huge fan of Rachel Caine, I was really surprised(and dissapointed)at seeing Working Stiff having such low ratings. I shamefully admit that was the reason I avoided reading WS sooner. I didn't want to face the fact that Caine might actually have written something other than fantastic. Fortunately, I didn't have to, because Working Stiff was awesome!

OK I get it. Maybe not so many people want or need to know about the funeral home business. It's morbid and in generally not what you want to read on a nice, Sunday morning. But, to put simply, who cares? The story is not about the funeral home or how uncomfortable it makes you feel. It's about the characters and the semi-crime, semi-urban fantasy story behind it. 

One of the reasons I love Rachel Caine's books is their characters, and how she makes the reader care about them, no matter how bizarre or unrelatable they are. You are with them, you root for them every step of the way. You care enough to want to finish the book and find out what ultimately happened to them, how they ended up. I don't know how she does it, but my hat's certainly off to her. 

As for the story, it was original, interesting (funeral home included) and complex. That's why people didn't seem to like it, I suppose. I love complex stories, though. Aren't you guys bored of the same stuff being repeated over and over again? Don't you yearn for something different? If yes, go and pick up Working Stiff. You won't regret it.

And don't let the bad reviews out there mislead you :)