It's surprising to me that the legendary Thirteen Hallows aren't used more often in fantasy novels. 
 So at first I was excited to hear that Michael Scott (NOT the one on "The Office") had produced an urban-fantasy thriller that revolved around these legendary items. Unfortunately, the actual novel is less than impressive -- Scott pelts us with torture-porn gore and repetitive confrontations with the sadistically evil villains. The whole bloody mess ends up being boring and depressing instead of exciting. 
 In World War I, thirteen children were entrusted with the Thirteen Hallows of Britain, ancient artifacts of power. Now someone is hunting them down, murdering them, and taking the Hallows. Sarah Miller becomes involved when she rescues an old lady from a mugger, allows her to stay the night, and comes home the next day to find that her family has been cruelly murdered. The police suspect that Sarah herself snapped and killed them. 
 And soon Sarah finds herself in possession of Dyrnwyn, a legendary sword that craves blood. And with both the police and these mysterious bloodthirsty foes pursuing her, she must find the old woman's nephew Owen, and give the broken sword to him. But soon both they discover that something more horrifying than they can imagine is threatening the world. 
 "The Thirteen Hallows" is a very bipolar book -- sometimes we have a classic British fantasy, only for it to suddenly swing into oceans of gore and bloody body parts. Kids get murdered. Old people are carved to bits. It's a very disturbing read, but that could have tied in nicely with the ancient, darker tone of the Hallows. It could have been awesome. 
 Unfortunately, Scott just pelts us with an unending stream of SHOCKING! gory deaths, torture, and Sarah and Owen scampering around like frightened rodents. Any thin shreds of plot are drowned by how incredibly repetitive the book is, how comically pulpy Scott's prose is, and by the over-the-top gratuitous sex'n'violence that never seems to stop. Eventually you just get numb. 
 Also, Scott seems uncomfortable with writing a female main protagonist OR villain. At first it seems that the villain will be the witch Vyvienne, only for her to end up a second fiddle for her husband. Similarly, the protagonist Sarah ends up becoming a sidekick for Owen. What gives? 
 It doesn't help that none of the characters have a lot of dimension. Owen is the only really interesting character, since he seems the most real -- and he's also the character who gets the least development. Sarah is a wilting little flower whom everybody treads on, so it's hard to really identify with her. 
 And the villains are evil. Really evil. Totally evil. They are sadistic fiends who enjoy carving up old ladies just for yucks. In case you didn't get how EVIL they are, they have no redeeming characteristics or motives -- it's all just because they're EVIL. Because all evil people are sadists with no redeeming characteristics! Have you figured out how evil they are? 
 "The Thirteen Hallows" was a book overflowing with promise, but it ends up a leaking squishy mess of blood, guts and naked body parts. The sword Dyrnwyn may drink blood, but this book will suck it right out of you.