Thirst No. 4 : The Shadow Of Death By: Christopher Pike (Book Review)

 (((This review will contain spoilers)))

Summary:

Alisa is a five-thousand year old vampire, stronger and more cunning than her adversaries. But now she's trapped in the body of a newborn vampire and at the mercy of a terrible thirst. Worst of all, she's facing enemies whose fierce desire for domination grows ever stronger. The immortal race the Telar is threatening to release a virus to decimate humanity. But Alisa and her friends can't take down the Telar on their own, and they must turn to the mysterious organization the IIC for help. But the IIC has secrets of its own and may have ulterior motives. With two rivals and no one to trust, Alisa must rely on her dark side to defeat them. But it could cost her life, or her soul...

Body transference is not a new concept within this series. We saw examples of it when it came to the followers of Set, however, Sita being in Terri's body was something that no one saw coming. We always associated body transference as being something evil which is very much so with how Sita was able to take over Terri's body. (This will make sense in a moment). One thing that is truly brilliant about Pike is that the little details that seem so insignificant become to be such an integral part of the story and understanding the 'mystery' behind everything. I love it when stories come full circle and things fall into place. So many authors leave things unanswered but with Pike he intelligently ties things up while also leaving new unanswered questions that make us want to read more. 

There has always been mention of good and evil in this series but Pike took it a step further and actually had the devil play an integral part of the story. But before I can deep dive into that I need to explain how it all came to be. IIC and the Telar have a lot more in common than what was originally thought. The Telar were able to achieve immortality and most of their power by psychically linking together and tapping into a higher power. Being linked together they were able to achieve immortality for all the Telars including the new generations, have advanced weaponry and technology. Essentially, this higher power they tapped into gave them secrets in return for sacrifices. Yes, the Telar at first had pure intentions but of course absolute power corrupts absolutely. The original Telar were being destroyed by a younger generation of Telar that wanted all the power and control for themselves. Their 'higher power' were familiars or in other words demons that were attached to Telars who were part of the Source. With each sacrifice the Source made they became more and more powerful. 

The IIC became powerful in a similar manner. They originally came up with the Array, hundreds of children with psychic ability but the Cradle was made up of children who were born during a specific time and place because it was found that by controlling those variables they can pre-determine the characteristics and psychic abilities of the children. Their 'higher power' was Tarana and with him came familiars of the same nature that got attached to the children and with each sacrifice they did, they became more powerful. 

I knew Sita wouldn't be stuck in Terri's body forever. First off, she notices that her body was healing and in this world if the body is healing then a miracle is about to happen, two; her body gets stolen which we discover at a later time it was done by Umara (Matt's mom), and three; it's Sita. Crazy shit tends to happen when it comes to her. 

With the Telar's virus about to be released to decimate humankind as we know it, Sita has to turn IIC for some help. And Umara is the key to have everything fall into place. Umara was the young woman who stole Sita's body and eventually helped Sita return to her body through ancient rituals. The only reason why the Telars were still immortal was because Umara; the last surviving original Telar was alive. She was the last remaining link of the originals and once she is gone then the link is finally broken and the Telars immortality is no more.

Sita ended up remembering what happened to her when she died. She ended up going to limbo and being judged. Unfortunately, she ended up letting her guilt (the most useless emotion) sway the scale to the point she damned herself but she made a deal with  Tarana that if she killed the light bearer that she would have more time on Earth. She did end up killing Umbria, the remaining members of the source and she released the virus in the IIC building so all the children making up the cradle would perish and die.

There was a reason why Shanti was almost too kind. She was a worshipper of the devil and he used Shanti to spy on our little scooby gang. The devil was the infamous Tarana who was the great power behind the Cradle and was the one who did the coding for the Cradle's internet program which we still have left to discover more of but essentially, the program was activated and made the remainder of our little group fugitives using the internet. Sita threw a huge fucking wrench in the devils plans but we all know that's not the last time those two will face each other. 

I'm thrilled that Pike brought up the fact that guilt is a useless emotion to have. Guilt holds us back and we can't change the choices we have made and the actions of our past but we CAN change our future. Stop dwelling on what you could've done and focus more on what you can do. Once Sita had her epiphany, she realized she was the one holding herself back and was finally able to have a conversation with Krishna. With the way the conversation ends with Krishna it's obvious that Sita's story will continue and I hope we get an epic ending!

Rating:

I am going to give Thirst No. 4 5 stars on 5. I really enjoyed this book! It was intricate, interesting and there's definitely a lesson to learn. Take away all the vampire/ mythical stuff and we're left with valuable lessons. Guilt will only hold you back. Acknowledge what was done but move forward trying to always put your best foot forward or else you're not living to your full potential. As well, having blind faith in the wrong person can be detrimental. Having faith is good but we have to be careful who we choose to have faith in or else they can take us on a ride through hell.