Reading Madhouse by Rob Thurman

If you thought the Dresden files weren't gory enough but you wanted more character development than Simon Green's shorter novels, you may want to check this series out. 

• More concentrated horror. Yech.
• More gross and drippy things.  'Nough said.
• A higher body count.  Yuck.
• Way more bad language and bad attitude.  Amusing.
• A more fragile main character.  He may be half-demon, but he gets the crap beaten out of him regularly; his older brother is the real butt-kicker in the family. Also, he has even more family issues than Dresden.  Really.
• Some interesting but not all that savory side-characters.  Way more R-rated than Dresden.
• Characters making hard and sad decisions. It's tough watching them get hurt and making poor decisions with consequences they'll have to deal with.

Of course, I find myself comparing these to the Dresden files, and they are found wanting because they are more horror than I really care for and because the world isn't as complex and because the characters aren't as well-developed.  However I'm not really being fair. If I really want to fairly compare this third book to Dresden, I would need to compare it to the third Dresden files book, and I do remember that, though I got a kick out of the first three Dresden books, I wasn't hopelessly hooked until #4 was exponentially better than 1-3 (and #5 was better than that). 

In conclusion, I'm going back to read #1 and 2 in this series, and then maybe I'll make another review of how I feel about it.  If I don't throw up.