An entertaining romp, blending stylish storytelling and creepy carnage.
Supernatural husband-and-wife detectives—he’s a vampire, she’s a werewolf—take down paranormal perps in this rollicking horror fantasy.
Goodridge’s yarn opens in 1914, when New York police detective Madison Cavendish teams up with clairvoyant milliner Seneca Sue SunMountain (the police commissioner’s wife swears by her prophetic visions) to investigate the disappearance of a Broadway singer. Their encounter with the prime suspect, a tentacled, magenta-colored monster from the cosmic void, gets them killed and then reborn as vamp and lycanthrope, blessed with immortality, super-strength, and a primal bloodlust that they rein in with hyssop-oil tea; cementing their bond is their shared experience as light-skinned Black people passing as white in a racist society. After forming a private detective agency, their cases include a series of attacks by a were-hyena, which may implicate novelist Zora Neale Hurston and other figures of the Harlem Renaissance; a magic box containing a dangerous Persian demon that’s desperately sought by New York’s occult circles; and a vicious “blue devil dog” terrorizing West Virginia. Later chapters set in the 1960s and 70s feel grittier: Madison fights in Vietnam, where he slaughters dozens of Vietcong soldiers and spies a strange woman who hovers in the air and feasts on the corpses of the men he killed. The author sets a vivid, teeming fictive world of oddball characters and lurid creatures against an atmospheric portrait of Black New York and Harlem from their Jazz Age glory to the bleak 1970s era of heroin and street crime. With its juxtaposition of Madison and Sue’s usually affectionate banter and monster-of-the-month adventures, the novel often feels like a mash-up of The Thin Man and Ghostbusters. Goodridge’s elegant prose alternates between the jauntily picaresque and darker, gorier vibes when Madison and Sue unleash their beastly natures (“Sue, crouched over Octavius on hands and knees, ripped at his neck to the point of separating the poor soul’s head from the rest of his body”). The result is good, scary fun.
An entertaining romp, blending stylish storytelling and creepy carnage.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9781957224411
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Current Words Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A compelling and skillfully written end to a thrilling fantasy series.
In the final book of Corland’s dark fantasy trilogy, a ragtag band works together to liberate a colony and dethrone tyrants.
A group of spies, thieves, and murderers, united by a common goal of ending the treacherous rule of King Joon of Yusan, regroup after a bloody battle claims the life of one of their own—the banished Yusanian prince, Euyn. However, there’s little time for Mikail, Aeri, Sora, and Royo to mourn. Bounty hunters and assassins are after them, in part because they now possess three of five legendary Relics of the Dragon Lord. Mikail, who’s just found out that he’s the last surviving member of a royal family, wields the Water Scepter of Wei, while Aeri, King Joon’s daughter, holds the Sands of Tim and the Golden Ring of Khitan. The remaining relics—the Flaming Sword of Gaya and the Immortal Crown—remain with King Joon, who’s desperate to have all five to wield a great deal more power. Meanwhile, the cruel Count Seok, who once indentured Sora, has usurped the throne of Yusan. The group has two goals: overthrow the king and liberate the Yusanian colony of Gaya—Mikail’s homeland—so that it can again be a thriving, independent realm. The relics are powerful tools in combat, but using them is adversely affecting Aeri and Mikail’s health. They need allies, but trusting strangers is a dangerous gamble. Corland’s final book in her Broken Blades trilogy is a relentlessly thrilling and action-packed dark fantasy featuring memorable characters, intense battle scenes, romance, and a satisfying conclusion. Alternately narrated by Aeri, Mikail, Sora, Royo, and their long-lost friend, Tiyung, readers benefit from watching the story unfold through the perspectives of each compelling, well-drawn character. The author’s passion for the fantasy genre shines through in the novel’s richly detailed worldbuilding, including vivid descriptions of landscapes and palace layouts, as well as its exploration of magic. Readers will also delight in the sardonic humor sprinkled throughout, as when Mikahil narrates, “Rune thinks he fathered Seok’s son. Truly, the nobility of Yusan has too much time on their hands.”
A compelling and skillfully written end to a thrilling fantasy series.Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781649379153
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
