So, a recent trip to the Book Loft piqued my curiosity about David R. Slayton's Adam Binder series, but they didn't have the first book in the series. Thankfully, the library did, so I'm now able to review White Trash Warlock having finished it.
So, our main character here is one Adam Binder, currently of Guthrie, Oklahoma, and the trailer court he lives in with Aunt Sue. As we meet Adam, he's busy trying to claim a hexed pool cue enchanted with bog iron and a saurian bone. (That there are fantasy creatures running around is the first big reveal.) Sam ends up talking to Tanner (who's Dad bought him the cue at a pawn shop in Denver) and winds up making out with him. (Adam being gay is the second big reveal.) Mind you, they guy who Tanner beat at pool prior to the make out session turns out to be what Adam thought was an extinct Saurian, which leads to Adam bargaining with the lizards to spare Tanner.
This takes up about 3 chapters, then the meat of the story gets going, as Adam's successful brother, Doctor Robert Binder of Denver, texts Adam out of the blue because Robert's wife is evidently possessed. Robert doesn't particularly believe in or perceive the preternatural, but after finding his wife pushing a baby carriage around with a demon baby inside, he's forced to call his brother.
Adam is justifiably upset about hearing from his older brother, since older brother had him institutionalized in high school. However, Adam does wind up driving to Denver on the advice of Aunt Sue.
When he gets there, we find out about an entity floating over Denver that eats Magick, and has begun causing problems for both the humans and the other less involved in this layer of reality species. Adam also manages to bind himself with a cop he just met, and find out his ex BF the elf is still around.
Honestly, this was an engaging read that I really enjoyed. I loved the idea that reality is a sandwich, with humanity being the bologna in the middle, and elves, leprechauns, gnomes, etc existing in the mayo and lettuce. I enjoyed the idea that the Watchtowers changed anchors and presentation depending on where you were. (In Oklahoma, they're various plains landmarks; in Colorado,m they change based on the mountains.) About the only thing that bothered me was the alternating focus characters. While Adam is the main character, Robert/Bobby becomes the focus a few times. For me at least, that the narrative exchange was at random intervals bothered me.That's a minor gripe.
It really fit the bill of what I was looking for in reading material at the moment.
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