Polterheist is the fifth book in the Esther Diamond series by Laura Resnick. It was first published around 2012 by Daw Books while I listened to the audiobook published by Graphic Audio and narrated by a full cast. This is a Paranormal comedy with mystery, ghosts and romance on the side.
Esther has a very Merry Christmas as Santa’s elf in a supermarket owned by a strange and dysfunctional family while strange things starts to happen. Scared children claiming to see a Santa who wanted to eat them. Esther is attacked by a singing tree and a singing bear, while someone is stealing from the family so the police is called in. Esther calls in her old friend Max, and other friends from previous books to fight of what she thinks is a ghost, but is it so easy?
In this book, many previous characters are back such as Esther’s black ex-boyfriend Jeff, the hitman Lucky and other characters that will hint on the previous books. Though I enjoyed seeing the characters from previous books, only Lucky and Jeff got any part in the story while all others nods to the previous books just seem to be there to make you nostalgic of the previous books. Though I enjoyed the call back, I must wonder why some of them where there such as the drag queen from the first book and the goth girl who was one of the crazy fans from the fourth book. They served little purpose on the plot.
There is comedy in the series, so that is a check. The mystery felt a bit… Stuffed. I felt like the author had no idea what to do so she just pressed in a haunting, and several heist on the side with mafia in the background. It felt a bit much, too many things seem to happen and left little time for the mystery to be explored. The story is just about Esther running around until she is attacked by the answer.
I also found that some of the jokes are getting old, such as Esther always getting jobs that demands her to barely wear any clothes, or her and Lopez arguing about the supernatural, Lopez not believing in the supernatural. The author keeps using the same joke, but when you have fifth teen running jokes you repeat for each book such as Max not looking a day over 70 years old. Which was funny the first time, but that joke is used in every book, twice in this book and I’m tired of listening to it by now. The jokes that were there, that were new, did make me laugh I just noticed that the author often tell the same jokes in every book and though one or two running jokes might be funny, but repeating of that joke must be done carefully or it starts to wear off.
The story doesn’t, according to me, feel as strong as the fourth book. There wasn’t much lore and feels more like a Christmas special which isn’t necessarily bad, but since the Christmas special is presented like a book in the main series instead of a sidestory, I worry that the author might be starting to run out of ideas which is why she reuse much from previous books.
The romance is… Well, they seem to be back together… or not… and I stopped caring a long time ago. I don’t read this book because of the romance so I won’t be so bothered by the author having them get together only to rip them apart again, but I would wonder if those who like the romance in this book actually is satisfied by how the author is writing out this so-called romance.
Overall, I thought the book was entertaining, but messy. The author tried to write in so much but forgot the focus of the story. If someone asked me what the main purpose of this plot was, I would have a hard time answering because of how much the author has tried to throw in, leaving all of the plotlines underdeveloped. I cannot give it a higher than 6 out of 10, but I can understand if someone would really dislike this one. It felt like a half-assed idea that needed a few more sketches to be good, but maybe you are like me and just want a lighthearted and humor filled story that can brighten my day and this one succeeded doing so it might be for you in that case.
With Kind Regards
Senefer.
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