I HATE this book! Everything about it is terrible. I feel cheated of my time and robbed of my money.The plot is a simple one. In fact this would've served better as a novella because 300 pages was too many for what little was in them. And grammar nazis will have a fit, running out of red ink before they turn the last page.For a supposedly lethal hunter and fierce protector of the world against monsters and demons imprisoned behind a veil, Maxine Kiss was a pansy-assed pussy. I'm sorry for my crass language but I'm so Mad. She asked everyone questions and whether they be friend or foe she never received a straight answer. Meaningless riddles are not an answer. She threatened but never followed through. ("You try anything, you even think about standing up, and I will have you shitting out of your dick so fast you'll beg me to rip it off." ~ Best threat) She just accepted these non-answers and moved on. To my frustrated consternation this happened repeatedly all the way through the book:Maxine encountered someone, they talk some shit and do a lot of implying, she'd question them, they'd deflect or give some vague and incomprehensible response. Kick some ass, woman! Where's this fierce warrior that's supposed to "save the world"? Because frankly if you're our saviour, then kill me now. Pathetic. And what the hell was she doing with someone like Grant? They live by such fundamentally different philosophies. Maxine kills the things that go bump in the night and Grant "saves" them. Slightly naive of him, if you ask me. Also, I'm not discriminating against the disabled here but if Maxine was going to settle down with anyone, shouldn't it be with someone who has the ability to run for his life? Otherwise, they're just cannon fodder. There's no way for him to keep up with her or effectively fight by her side. His flute would be no match for angry demon hordes. I found none of the characters likeable, unless you count homeless teen Byron who was turned into a pitiable creature. Maxine was unkillable. It was absurdly cartoon-ish the way she was run over by a bus and got right back up again, completely unharmed. I wonder if she's hardy against poison and disease. Please, someone try it.For someone slapped with a violently pro-active personna she did absolutely fuck all. All growl and no bite. The original premise was a good one but unfortunately it was poorly executed. By the end I still didn't fully understand what had changed from the beginning. It's taken me four excrutingly long months to finish this and that's with skimming.On the 12th April I said:"Iron Hunt sucks! I will congratulate anyone who managed to finish it. Those who gave this book 5 stars is not my friend. I've just offended 181 people but I don't care. I hate every character so far except maybe this homeless teenager who's probably just a flash in the pan. It's frustratingly slow and sparse on the background details. Good bits are few and far between. It's a challenge read so I have to finish. Stupid challenges."I stick by this statement but to any future friends who may have rated this 5 stars, I'm sorry but we may just have to go our separate ways.
 - Marjorie M. Liu)
