Review: Hounded

Title: Hounded
Author: Kevin Hearne
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Fantasy


See it at Goodreads


The first novel in the original six-book Iron Druid Chronicles — introducing a cool new funny urban fantasy hero.

Atticus O’Sullivan, last of the Druids, lives peacefully in Arizona, running an occult bookshop and shape-shifting in his spare time to hunt with his Irish wolfhound. His neighbors and customers think that this handsome, tattooed Irish dude is about twenty-one years old—when in actuality, he’s twenty-one centuries old. Not to mention: He draws his power from the earth, possesses a sharp wit, and wields an even sharper magical sword known as Fragarach, the Answerer.

Unfortunately, a very angry Celtic god wants that sword, and he’s hounded Atticus for centuries. Now the determined deity has tracked him down, and Atticus will need all his power—plus the help of a seductive goddess of death, his vampire and werewolf team of attorneys, a sexy bartender possessed by a Hindu witch, and some good old-fashioned luck of the Irish—to kick some Celtic arse and deliver himself from evil.


Hounded was perhaps a mistake for me. Not in the bad way you’re thinking when I say this. What I mean is that I had a digital copy provided by the publisher, and after starting the book, I quickly realized it would’ve been a lot easier if I’d perhaps had a paperback or perhaps even an audio edition (as much as I hate the idea of audio books, I’m starting to slowly warm up to the idea of one day giving them a try). The reason why is there is a lovely pronunciation glossary in the beginning and with the digital book, I just couldn’t always keep going back to it.

Luckily, I knew how to pronounce most of the difficult words due to my own Irish heritage, and I worked my way the best I could through the ones I couldn’t. I probably butchered those. Haha. Either way, I feel this is one of those reads you just need a physical or audio edition in order to get the right flow going. Otherwise you may feel lost, or tripped up at times through the pronunciations of people, places, things, etc.

Moving on from that…. I found Hounded to be a refreshing and unique urban fantasy. I loved the Druid story line and use of Irish mythology, as well as the blend of other supernatural beings. It wasn’t perfect. I found a lot of telling through the story when I wanted more show. And sometimes the dialogue felt a bit forced and flat. But, it was a page turner with a lot of action and a well-crafted story that I found myself really enjoying. There aren’t too many Irish mythology stories out there, and I couldn’t help but smile from the first page through the last at this.

The real star of Hounded was not Atticus in my opinion. It was Oberon. Anytime there was a scene with Oberon, I was laughing out loud at his wit and sarcasm.

Hounded is an exciting and fun read. I look forward to reading the next book to the series in the near future--which I will have a physical or audio copy instead. ;)