In UNHOLY GHOSTS, there is no possiblity of god, God, or gods. There is only Fact. The Fact that ghosts rose up from the ground and killed millions of people, and only the Church of the Real Truth had the tools to save people from them. 
 All other religious denominations fell by the wayside, all of them have been proven wrong by the Church. Governments have collapsed and now The Church rules the world. They have final say on everything. They are absolute. 
 The atmosphere of a desperate hopelessness in everyone in this book is almost palpable. The illusion that the afterlife is something pretty is gone, and life seems only barely removed from the hell that is waiting for us all in the afterlife. This permeates the book, through and through, especially through the eyes of Chess. 
 Chess Putnam, a Debunking Churchwitch, travels around the city disproving hauntings for the Church. If the haunting proves to be real however, she banishes the ghost. 
 Chess is a flawed character, a needy drug addict with a penchant for recklessness that hails from a long line of foster family sexual and physical abuse. Chess is a wonderfully complex character with issues. 
 Eventually, her drug problem lands her in steep debt with her drug dealer, Bump. All debt will be forgiven, he says, if she just debunks or banishes the ghosts at a local unused airstrip for him. Not only will the debt be forgiven, but she will be able to buy her drugs much cheaper, he says, since she will have secured an easier transport route for them. A win-win situation, if she should succeed. If she doesn't, well... 
 This book was AWESOME. I have the urge to go out and buy the rest of the series right now. I feel a bit obsessive about it. It is dark, but not dark enough that I wouldn't want to obsessively read them one after another and then read them all - all over again. 
 I loved that Stacia Kane did not have Chess conqueor her addiction in this book. In fact, her addiction lands her in very hot water. A lot of her motivation comes from her addiction - as it would with any addict. But, Chess has depth beyond that. She doesn't like getting close to people because of her past, and I look forward to the day she breaks though those walls. I hope we will get to see her break her addiction eventually, sometime in the series, but I doubt it will be anytime soon. That kind of thing is a long, long, painful process. I also loved that Chess knows and admits that she's an addict. She definitely hates herself in some ways. Yet she is supremely confident when it comes to her skills as a Debunker, and her magic skills. 
 I loved Terrible too. He was my favorite character because he transforms from scary muscle man that works for Bump to someone with far more depth. Stacia Kane portrays this in increments, slowly. Very skillfully done. 
 All in all, I'm impressed, and I have a new favorite series. Highly recommended.