Too bleak for readers on the hunt for adolescent vampire love, but it’s just right for those who like their supernatural...
A teenage orphan enters a world of magic and vampires to learn of her enigmatic origins and her newfound powers in Kell’s (Mandate of Blood, 2012) supernatural thriller.
Sixteen-year-old American Indian Phoenix Arizona was named after the city in which she was found, abandoned as an infant by her parents. She doesn’t know that she’d been born with the mark of the Prime Evil and that her mother left her behind to stop men from kidnapping her. But she’s all too aware of strange markings on her skin that expand every year on her birthday into twisting lines like intricate tattoos. She also has dreams of taking the form of a wolf and speaking to a spirit who claims to be her birth father. When Phoenix holds a dream catcher someone sent to the antiques shop where she works, she has a vision of a young boy being killed by a warrior. This dream catcher, it seems, has a power that people are willing to kill for, from Mafioso types to vampires. Phoenix’s father tells her that she can release her ancestors from a curse, but first the girl must protect herself and her friend Nathan from those itching to get their hands on the dream catcher. Phoenix also learns that she is capable of much more than turning into a wolf. This dark tale delves into more violence than the typical YA novel: Phoenix is sexually assaulted more than once, and the battles and deaths are decidedly bloody. Similarly, Phoenix is more poised and mature than her teenage years might suggest, especially regarding her romantic entanglements. She’s enchanted by vamp Richard, but she understands that she has deeper feelings for Nathan, whom she’s known for years. Kell delivers plenty of action, including numerous scenes of Phoenix, Richard and Nathan evading or fighting humans and monsters alike. Phoenix’s escape from two evil vampires at a club is particularly memorable. Kell saves answering certain mysteries until late in the novel, providing a satisfying finale while leaving room for a sequel or prequel.
Too bleak for readers on the hunt for adolescent vampire love, but it’s just right for those who like their supernatural stories with more bite.Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2013
ISBN: 978-1492733089
Page Count: 224
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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