A lighthearted road novel that doesn’t shy away from the inherent darkness of vampire life.
In Parker’s horror comedy series starter, a novice vampire struggles to adjust to her new reality.
“Be steely.” That’s what Sugar Bernstein’s boyfriend Curtis always told her, and it’s advice that she needs more than ever, now that her life has been completely upended. Curtis is dead; Sugar’s no longer a Manhattan condo-dwelling ad executive with a penchant for shopping, wine, and mani-pedis; and her close-knit Jewish family is far away. Now, jobless Sugar both travels and resides in a Sprinter van, avoiding people and sunlight because she’s a vampire—the effect of a bite from Alexandria, also known as She-vil, a “vamp who lives on hate.” Alexandria constantly intrudes into Sugar’s dreams; while awake, Sugar struggles to feed herself by killing small animals. Also, her twin brother keeps trying to get her to attend his daughter’s bat mitzvah, which is inconveniently scheduled for the daytime. She does find some aspects of “V-life” more appealing: She lost a few pounds that she wanted to shed, and sometimes she manages to fly; when she falls, her broken limbs heal quickly. She also discovers a chain of RV parks that cater to an undead clientele, and that vampire sex is fantastic. Still, Sugar grapples with guilt—especially when it comes to her boyfriend’s untimely death at Alexandria’s hands. She’s increasingly aware that a possibly fatal showdown with Alexandria is inevitable. Over the course of the novel, Parker delivers a winning paranormal tale with quirky details. One fanged couple that Sugar meets, for instance, lives in a converted ambulance, and readers find out that even vamps care about gas mileage. Sugar is an inspired creation who’s relatable and quick-witted, and Parker excels at witty banter, especially between Sugar and her twin. Still, there’s an effective undercurrent of seriousness: Human companionship is off the table for Sugar, who’s forced to take lives to keep hers. The first person she deliberately kills is loathsome, but she can’t help but feel moral revulsion—and sadly, there’s no turning back.
A lighthearted road novel that doesn’t shy away from the inherent darkness of vampire life.Pub Date: June 25, 2024
ISBN: 9798986205137
Page Count: 322
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Soapy, suspenseful fun.
A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.
Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.
Soapy, suspenseful fun.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227325
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.
A medical student is assigned an overnight shift to observe a Long Island hospital’s psychiatric ward and help with emergencies. You’d never guess what happens next.
Amy Brenner isn’t even interested in psychiatry, the one medical specialty she’s never considered for her own career. Nor is she interested any more in Cameron Berger, the classmate who ended their relationship so that he could spend more time studying, and she’s not pleased to learn that he’s switched his rotation with another student so he can spend some of the next 13 hours persuading Amy to rekindle their romance. Predictably, Cam will be the least of Amy’s troubles. Apart from Dr. Richard Beck and nurse Ramona Dutton, everyone else on Ward D is much more dangerous, from elderly Mary Cummings, whose knitting needles aren’t plastic but sharpened steel, to William Schoenfeld, who’s stopped taking the medications that were supposed to silence the voices telling him to kill people, to Damon Sawyer, who’s confined in Seclusion One and can’t possibly escape, unless a power outage neutralizes the locks. Most threatening of all is Jade Carpenter, whose close friendship with Amy ended eight years ago when Amy turned her in for what ended up being only one of a whole series of thrill crimes. McFadden measures out the complications, revelations, and betrayals with such an expert hand that readers anxiously trying to figure out whom Amy can trust as her goal shifts from ticking off a toilsome requirement to surviving the night may well end up wondering whom they can trust themselves. And isn’t provoking that kind of paranoia what medical thrillers are all about?
A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227271
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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