A slyly engrossing tale that deftly combines fantasy and horror elements.
A town becomes beset by evil forces in this debut fantasy.
Norick is a place apart. A thousand leagues north of civilization, the town sits alone in a vast wilderness—and its inhabitants like it that way. They’ve grown rich off the resources of the land, though in time they’ve forgotten to keep an eye on the shadow-filled woods that surround them. As they begin celebrating the centennial of the town’s founding—a one-night festival of free food and beer—something untoward is unfolding on the fringes of the community. A magistrate finds a blackmail letter affixed to his door, demanding that he meet someone in a grove in one hour. A fisherman discovers that some of his tools have been stolen. The town’s oldest resident, a woman present at its founding, is behaving strangely, warning of a coming storm. A mother suffering from a vision tells her 10-year-old daughter: “It’s coming” and “You need to run.” Norick’s only defense is the Town Guard, a less-than-professional police force run by Capt. William Breeve. William has been a barely functional alcoholic since the death of his wife and child. Does he have it in him to save Norick from the enemy who is coming? Unfortunately, neither William nor Norick has much of a choice. In this series opener, Kruse’s prose is tight and brooding, summoning suspense out of Norick’s nighttime alleyways and forests: “The hour of chaos had come. William felt the horror of it then, but also the thrill. The world itself had gone mad—suddenly, irreparably mad. Everything was coming undone, loosening, the order of things cleaved apart.” The blend of horror and fantasy is an appealing one, and the author hops effectively among his large cast of characters. The story takes its time revving up, but once it gets going, it becomes a true page-turner. Since more books in the series are planned, perhaps inevitably readers will be left with the sense that Kruse has saved a lot of the good stuff for later. Even so, Norick is a fun place to visit for a while.
A slyly engrossing tale that deftly combines fantasy and horror elements.Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73306-941-0
Page Count: 380
Publisher: Fire's Edge Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A smart and highly original work of modern fantasy.
After the events of Book of Night (2022), Charlie Hall is forced to hunt down the perpetrator of a terrible massacre.
Charlie Hall is the Hierophant: It’s her job to be tethered to a powerful, independent shadow—a “Blight”— and hunt down other Blights for the Cabals, the heads of their respective shadow-magic specialties. The Cabals use the difficult job of Hierophant as a punishment, but Charlie agreed to take it on so she could be the person tethered to Vince, aka Red, the Blight who posed as a human and ended up dating and falling in love with Charlie. The Cabal leaders used magic to steal the part of Red’s memory that contained his relationship with Charlie, and so Charlie is determined to steal Red’s memories back. And she needs to move fast, because if Red doesn’t remember loving her, he just might be OK with Charlie being killed if it means his own freedom. Meanwhile, Mr. Punch, a terrifying Cabal leader who specializes in using shadow magic to possess other people’s bodies, has a job for Charlie: He wants her to find the culprit behind a terrible massacre that was attributed to a cult. He suspects that the people were actually killed by a Blight, and he doesn’t want the Cabals to face the blowback if the truth becomes public. Mr. Punch could do terrible things to Charlie if she fails, but if she succeeds, he’ll help Charlie and Red be free of the Cabals for good. The sophomore novel in a series is always tough, but this sequel proves that the second book can be even better than the first. Black turns the screws on the magical world she set up in Book 1, creating complicated political motives between Charlie and the Cabal leaders and making the question of what it means for a shadow, like Red, to have their own consciousness more interesting. Veteran con artist Charlie makes some truly brilliant moves, especially toward the end, where the last few chapters have one terrific surprise after the other.
A smart and highly original work of modern fantasy.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781250812223
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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