A remarkable cast of characters guides readers across a terrifying but compelling landscape.
After inadvertently plummeting to Hell, a man must pass all nine of its levels to make it back home in Mitchell’s debut fantasy novel.
Daniel Strong’s hike up Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina isn’t just to take in the scenery. The former Army soldier–turned–university student plans to propose to his girlfriend, Kristine Groves, at the summit. But inside a cave, he finds a peculiar stone that somehow opens a hole in the ground into which he falls. Once reoriented, he sees a place that doesn’t quite look like Grandfather Mountain and quickly runs into ghostlike “shadow-man” Beau and soul-harvesting, reptilian-eyed demon Charles. Beau, whose job is to help dying people cross over to their afterlife, thinks it’s his fault Daniel is now down below. He shouldn’t be, since he’s still alive—something that Charles picks up on right away. Rather than take Daniel to a “soul trial,” in which a judge would determine what specific Hell (out of nine) would be his eternal home, Charles opts to take him to Satan, which is the best chance Daniel has of returning to Earth. That means going through all nine Hells that make up the underworld until they reach its ruler. Beau, lending assistance however he can, tags along while ever skeptical Daniel just wants to see Kristine again. The trio drop into pit after pit on their volatile journey, putting them face to face with any number of demons. Unexpectedly, however, the greatest threat is Azrael, the Angel of Death, who may be hunting Daniel simply to kill him.
Mitchell’s tale is a pronounced contemporary take on Dante’s Inferno. The levels here are the same as the circles of Hell, starting with Limbo and passing through Gluttony, Heresy, and others. There are recognizable characters as well, including ferrymen Charon and Phlegyas, along with such demons as Asmodeus and Azazel. This book, which closely follows Daniel, Beau, and Charles on their trip south, moves at a steady beat since the three have no reason to linger in any of the Hells. This affords plenty of room for meticulous character development; Daniel, for example, has serious anger issues and is the first person to swing in confrontations. His link to humanity and his earthly home is the Holy Spirit, which functions essentially as a disease in Hell and which he may lose if he lets his rage completely take over. Although each of the trio battles his own inner turmoil, they also bump heads with one another, especially as Beau insists that demon Charles can’t be trusted. Their dialogue rarely feels like banter; it’s more about keeping Daniel alive until they reach the next pit of Hell. The author concisely depicts the group’s perpetually treacherous path, including the Heretics’ Yard in the Sixth Hell: “Radiation pressed into his flesh like countless invisible knives….stone buildings billowed smoke from windows and cracks.” The novel features a satisfying wrap-up with a hint of perils to come.
A remarkable cast of characters guides readers across a terrifying but compelling landscape.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2022
ISBN: 979-8986987811
Page Count: 299
Publisher: Descendant Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The series’ snarky noir vibe might be dwindling, but there’s something of substance in its place.
This is wizard Harry Dresden’s yearlong mourning period for Karrin Murphy, the woman he loved.
If you keep upping your protagonist’s powers throughout a series, then you must balance the scales by increasing the number and strength of their enemies—as well as seriously messing with their personal life. Over the course of the Dresden Files, Harry Dresden, Chicago PI and now one of the most powerful wizards in the world, thought his first love was dead (she wasn’t), sacrificed his half-vampire girlfriend on an altar to save their child, lost another girlfriend when they learned she’d been mind-controlled into their relationship, bound himself into servitude as the Fae Queen Mab’s Winter Knight, and, for the length of an entire book, thought he himself was dead (he wasn’t). But nothing has hit quite as hard as the death of Karrin Murphy, the former police lieutenant who was his quasi-partner, friend, and, after a slow burn across many books, lover. Chicago is in a terrible state following a battle with Ethniu the Titan and her Fomor army, and Harry is doing his best to confront the monsters, dark magic, and anti-supernatural prejudice running wild amid the slowly rebuilding city. He’s also trying to save his half brother Thomas from two different death sentences, train a new apprentice, and juggle a relationship with Thomas’ half sister Lara, the dangerously seductive vampire Queen Mab is forcing him to marry. But he’s doing all this while nearly crushed by grief that threatens his judgment and disturbs his control over his magical powers. Butcher really makes you feel the dark, depressive state Harry exists in as well as the effect it’s having on his friends. Despite all that happens in it, this book is a pause as well as a setup for the series’ planned conclusion, an epic conflict with the eldritch creatures known as “the Outsiders.” It’s a tough, redemptive pause that could be a real drag, but thankfully, it’s not, because Butcher shows balance, too: Even as the crises pile up, so do the help and goodwill from unexpected sources.
The series’ snarky noir vibe might be dwindling, but there’s something of substance in its place.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9780593199336
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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