Strange Practice

De: Vivian Shaw

Narrado por: Suzannah Hampton

The first book in a delightfully witty fantasy series in which Dr. Greta Helsing, doctor to the undead, must defend London from both supernatural ailments and a bloodthirsty cult.

Greta Helsing inherited her family's highly specialized and highly peculiar medical practice. In her consulting rooms, Dr. Helsing treats the undead for a host of ills: vocal strain in banshees, arthritis in barrow-wights, and entropy in mummies. Although she barely makes ends meet, this is just the quiet, supernatural-adjacent life Greta's been groomed for since childhood.

Until a sect of murderous monks emerges, killing human and undead Londoners alike. As terror takes hold of the city, Greta must use her unusual skills to stop the cult if she hopes to save her practice and her life.

Praise for the Dr. Greta Helsing Novels:

"An exceptional and delightful debut, in the tradition of Good Omens and A Night in the Lonesome October."―Elizabeth Bear, Hugo-award winning author

"Shaw balances an agile mystery with a pitch-perfect, droll narrative and cast of lovable misfit characters. These are not your mother's Dracula or demons."―Shelf Awareness

Dr. Greta Helsing Novels
Strange Practice
Dreadful Company
Grave Importance

Reseñas de la Crítica

"In Vivian Shaw's Strange Practice, a charmingly unusual doctor and her charges keep the city of London from grave danger. In the process, they peel back the covers of familiar (and according to them, somewhat "libelous") stories to find that reality - especially with the undead - is more poignant and complex than it seems at first glance. An excellent adventure."—p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Calibri; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}span.s1 {font-kerning: none}Fran Wilde, award-winning author of Updraft, Cloudbound, and Horizon

"Strange Practice is written with elegance, wit, and compassion. The prose is gorgeous, the wit is mordant, and the ideas are provocative. Also, there are ghouls."—p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Calibri; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}span.s1 {font-kerning: none}Laura Amy Schlitz, Newbery Medal winner

"A satisfying and surprising read, with rich imagery, nuance, and real compassion for its characters--give Strange Practice a shot!"—Elliott James, author of Charming

"An exceptional and delightful debut, in the tradition of Good Omens and A Night in the Lonesome October."—Elizabeth Bear, Hugo-award winning author

"A darkly delicious adventure featuring a quirky new heroine. Strange Practice breathes new life into the undead."—James Bennett, author of Chasing Embers

"Shaw's lively debut introduces a great cast of characters who should sustain this new series for many volumes to come.... Shaw brings her Victorian monsters into the modern age."—Library Journal

"Shaw balances an agile mystery with a pitch-perfect, droll narrative and cast of lovable misfit characters. These are not your mother's Dracula or demons ... Strange Practice is a super(natural) read."—Shelf Awareness

"An appropriately dark breath of fresh air."—Booklist

"Readers will look forward to more of Greta's adventures. An imaginative, delightfully droll debut."—Kirkus

"A book to settle into. A warm quilt of a thing that's made for curling up with ... I miss this newest Helming already."—NPR

"This book is a joy to read, unlocking every bit of delicious promise in the premise."—B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog

"What a splendid adventure this is - Dr. Greta Helming is a brilliant character, world-weary doctor on-call at all hours, sorting out the ills of the undead and trying to run her Harley Street practice without drawing too much (or any) attention to her patients from the living world ... a splendid new urban fantasy series."—Espressococo

Please put in noticeable BREAKS!!

This novel is a delight! Truly enjoyed the story as well as all the characters-very intriguing & fun!
The narrator did a fabulous job with one exception- OFTEN I couldn’t tell when the scene CHANGED. The narrator, or more probably the editor, did not put any noticeable pauses/breaks between scenes. Quite literally you would be transported from one dramatic cliff-hanger to a banal scene in one sentence. I was CERTAIN I missed something! No, change of scene. Happened enough to be distracting, which is a shame because the story is very enjoyable & the narrator does an awesome job otherwise!

Listen at reduced speed!

A really enjoyable book. Wonderful world building, a fantasy that feels real. The Characters are the real draw, really interesting and captivating.
I saw reviews about the strange editing and pacing but got the book any way. I began to regret it immediately as the narration was actually as difficult to follow as other reviewers had stated. But reducing the listening speed to .75 fixed most of the problems, and it didn’t sound slow at all. Makes me wonder if they sped it up in post for some reason. Get the book, it’s great. I highly recommend.

Supernaturals being more human

I quite like it when that happens. Stories where characters not human are also not overblown. Vampires and ilk, ghouls and demons - lots of them about in different shades of human. The way they are written about makes them sound almost pedestrian, but in an interesting way. Add to that a female protagonist who is only as silly as everyone is allowed to be. The flow is slightly erratic. My attention sort of waned when there was too much thinking by various entities even during a phase that was evidently raring for a certain pace. The narration by Ms. Hampton is clear and lucid.

Different

Reading a story about kind, sometimes funny, eccentrics monsters vampires and demons was not really my cup of tea. I found the whole theme a bit pretentious. There was also unnecessary profanity that didn't seem to match characters very well.

Good premise, great character, painful slow climax

overall the story was fairly good and I really enjoyed the characters, however the climax was so painfully slow and drawn out that it lost one star for the review. it literally took three chapters for the author to get to the point. I nearly gave up and didn't finish. And then by contrast the ending seemed rushed. Greta, Ruthven and the Ghouls are great characters though. I might consider a sequel.