The Darkest Heart

Sonja Blue #5

by Nancy A. Collins

Nancy Collins' new addition to her vampire books is a complex tale of a female vampire that seems to have a split personality. Sonja Blue's "inner demon" is a vampire that is ruthless and demands human blood and great sacrifice. This personality takes control, and Sonja dreams the events in nightmares that she discovers are real.

Genres: Horror, Vampires, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Fantasy, Fiction, Supernatural

183 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Nancy A. Collins (born 10 September 1959) is a United States horror fiction writer best known for her series of vampire novels featuring her character Sonja Blue. Collins has also written for comic books, including the Swamp Thing series, Jason Vs. Leatherface, Predator: Hell Come A Walkin and her own one-shot Dhampire: Stillborn.

Collins was born in McGehee, Arkansas, United States. She lived in New Orleans, Louisiana in the 1980s; after time in New York City and Atlanta, Georgia she settled in Wilmington, North Carolina in the late 2000s.

Collins has written twenty novels since 1989, many of which refer to and directly include races of creatures the author calls Pretenders, monsters from myth and legend passing as human to better hunt their prey.

Collins has also written a number of highly acclaimed Southern Gothic short stories and novellas, most of which are set in Seven Devils, Arkansas, a highly fictionalized version of her hometown.

Most recently, she has focused her attention onto the Golgotham urban fantasy series,published by Penguin. Golgotham is the 'supernatural' ghetto of New York City, where creatures from myth and folklore--including witches,shapeshifters,leprechauns and centaurs--live and work in uneasy alliance with mankind.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this installment in the Sonja Blue series, but I think I might be about done with reading these for now. They are really quite dark, and Sonja will never be allowed as a character to emerge from that darkness or transcend it--it's who she is.

[vk chompooming · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been reading the stories of Sonja Blue since I was a child. These books predated the internet so I made it a mission to read the series after I found out that there were more than 4 books. The Darkest Heart was a fun read. Nancy A. Collins has created a wonderful dark world worthy of a movie or tv deal. I was not enamored with the ending of this book, so 4 stars.

[teacupsandunicorns · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun and violent read. I cringe at some of the violence and skip some of the words in the terrible fight scenes,lol. The ending was cool. Lady madonna will probably give me nightmares and make me scared of pregnancies and babies,lol! That was so messed up!

Love Sonja. The other monsters we learn about are cool. I wish Chaz would make another appearance. He was fun even as a ghost.

But now that she’s integrated with the Other I feel like the transition should be smoother—or no transition at all, so she can calm upon the strength whenever she chooses and have it still be “her” and not the other taking over. Imo, that was the whole point of the killing of Morgan and the three gold goddess monster thing was about. So I’m confused that it seems like we jumped a little backwards in time or don’t acknowledge this shift in Sonja’s character evolution.

I still like it and wish to finish the series.

[Maetta · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the only Sonja Blue book that I've read. Now I see it's the 5th book and need to catch up on the others. The writing is fantastic! The scenes are written to make my skin crawl. There are some nasty vile "Pretenders". This book is a series of vignettes beginning with Judd who succumbs to being a renfield of The Other, a fatal mistake for his life and his soul. The next sets are about another vampire hunter, Jack Estes, with a sad family history. Sonja tries to maintain her distance but forces collude to get her involved in Jack's troubles with Lord Noir.

Superb!

[Estevam (Impish Reviews) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why she retconned she being finaly okay with her, if fucking fido exists in this book she should still be the destroyer and should not have to still fight the other, jesus. This author is pretty good but by god she likes to fuck up character development.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 5th (and so far, final) novel in the Sonja Blue series is one of the best. Collins is an underappreciated writer of horror and urban fantasy with a straight forward writing style that draws the reader into the story.

[Kenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

hm....2.5 stars rounded up maybe? I trudged through this one for the sake of completion, but it doesn't do anything new compared to the other 4 previous novels. the romance side plot-thing also was a total miss for me. wayyyy too forced and sudden.

[Crymsyn Hart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome. As always.

[John Bruni · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know, when it comes to sexy vampires being detectives, bounty hunters, hit-women, etc., I tend not to enjoy it mostly because it's been done so many times. However, Nancy A. Collins pretty much started this trend, and she's still the best at it. This is an incredibly fun read, especially the short story that kicks us off. Sonja Blue is a wonderful character because even when she's not letting the Other take her over, she is capable of committing really horrible acts. Yet she's still got a sympathetic heart, and she tries to make up for these horrible acts. I really enjoyed the character of Estes, even though he's essentially a cliche. I think it's because he's a cliche times a thousand that I really had fun with him. Noir is the most interesting character, though. I would love to see more from him in the future. However, the character that I think is going to stick with me the most is Lady Madonna. To say anything about her here would be criminal. You have to discover her for yourself. Once she's in your head, she is NEVER leaving. My only problem with this book is its open-endedness. Not that it's mysterious or anything like that. I mean that nothing gets resolved, and judging from the afterword, Collins has no interest in resolving it. I don't know if she did anything with the series after this (I'll have to do a little hunting), but if this really is the end, it's kind of disappointing. Aside from that, it's a really good book, and I highly recommend it.

[Rich]

WANTED,Sonya Blue #4

[Metagion]

Great book, but somewhat of a cliffhanger...shame that Ms. Collins isn't writing anymore in this series, but who knows?