A darkly imaginative thriller featuring plenty of sharp characters and emotional complexity.
A teen becomes an apprentice to a murderous fanatic with an incredible power in this supernatural novel.
Jack Harper was 7 years old when she first killed a person. In his mansion’s basement, Cyrus Harper instructed his adopted daughter to use a butterfly needle on Roland James’ neck, bleeding him out. And yet later that night, Roland was alive and well. Cyrus has a power, coming from a secret source, that can resurrect the dead, heal the sick, or simply rejuvenate the weary. He’s decided to raise Jack alongside his own son, Alex, while building an organization dedicated to “devolution, chaos, and the downfall of innocence.” By destroying innocence, Cyrus may “ascend” beyond the mortal confines of humanity. Throughout her teen years, Jack learns finer things, such as playing the piano, but also how to kill remorselessly. She comes to learn that Cyrus’ power draws from a living being locked in a hidden basement chamber. Eventually, Cyrus wants 17-year-old Jack to help oversee his burgeoning flock of devotees that he assembles from the needy and homeless. She sees in action a monstrous supernatural force that disintegrates those who have betrayed Cyrus. Jack has never imagined turning against her father figure. But his ultimate plan to destroy innocent life is so shocking and violent that she decides she must stop him. In this series opener, Barlow breathes life into an exceedingly dark fantasy that should leave readers terrified of the outcome. Key to Cyrus’ power is an oblong red box that coughs up black stones marked with the name of whoever has pivoted from the cause. The author’s delightful game, then, is to help her protagonist outmaneuver this box. Jack, meanwhile, uses heroin to forget the faces of her victims. The prose captures the dismal truth of being in an abusive relationship with lines like “Reality was a bit like a funnel, and all of it led to Cyrus.” Thankfully, Jack meets a wise woman named Margaret Whilhelm, who says: “There are things in the world that make you more you than your origins.” A savvy finale adds several new pieces to the game board, making the sequel unmissable.
A darkly imaginative thriller featuring plenty of sharp characters and emotional complexity.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-64428-053-9
Page Count: 238
Publisher: Rare Bird Books
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A reasonably charming urban fantasy that could have used a more rigorous edit before primetime.
The latest in a series of rereleases from a prolific fantasist’s previously self-published works is a contemporary spin on the fairytale “Godfather Death.”
Viola Marek is an aswang, a shapeshifting vampire from Filipino folklore. She’s also a Chicago real estate agent trying to sell a mansion even while the ghost of its last owner, Thomas Edward Parker IV, is doing his supernatural best to block the sale. In a desperate attempt to earn her commission, she hires Fox D’Mora, Death’s mortal godson, to use his connection to get the ghost to leave. Unfortunately, Death is unavailable: He’s been kidnapped, and to get him back and prevent a worlds-spanning catastrophe, Fox, Vi, the ghost, and assorted other supernatural creatures will have to enter a high-stakes gambling game that usually only immortals can play…but rarely win. The story begins with an unusual blend of myth, fairy tale, and cosmology and inevitably descends to an almost unbearable level of sentimentality, which is simultaneously a refreshing change from Blake’s usual tableau of self-involved, selfish characters who seem driven toward tragedies of their own making. Blake could definitely do a better job at showing the love between characters rather than merely telling the reader that they’re in love. She also has an unfortunate tendency to skip potentially intriguing bits of backstory if they don’t immediately drive the plot along, which is why readers never learn anything about Fox’s childhood and what it was actually like having Death as a parent. Nor does she explain why only two of the four archangels, Gabriel and Raphael, play outsize roles in determining the order of the cosmos, while Uriel and Michael are nowhere to be seen. Bits of anachronism—like the use of a rubber band as aversion therapy 200 years ago or the presence of a magical wristwatch from a time long before watches were common—might be intended to be Pratchett-style humor or chalked up to magic? It’s hard to tell what’s intentional and what is simply careless. Now that Blake has a traditional publisher, perhaps the editors of her future novels will guide the author to address these issues when they arise.
A reasonably charming urban fantasy that could have used a more rigorous edit before primetime.Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2023
ISBN: 9781250892461
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally...
Yale’s secret societies hide a supernatural secret in this fantasy/murder mystery/school story.
Most Yale students get admitted through some combination of impressive academics, athletics, extracurriculars, family connections, and donations, or perhaps bribing the right coach. Not Galaxy “Alex” Stern. The protagonist of Bardugo’s (King of Scars, 2019, etc.) first novel for adults, a high school dropout and low-level drug dealer, Alex got in because she can see dead people. A Yale dean who's a member of Lethe, one of the college’s famously mysterious secret societies, offers Alex a free ride if she will use her spook-spotting abilities to help Lethe with its mission: overseeing the other secret societies’ occult rituals. In Bardugo’s universe, the “Ancient Eight” secret societies (Lethe is the eponymous Ninth House) are not just old boys’ breeding grounds for the CIA, CEOs, Supreme Court justices, and so on, as they are in ours; they’re wielders of actual magic. Skull and Bones performs prognostications by borrowing patients from the local hospital, cutting them open, and examining their entrails. St. Elmo’s specializes in weather magic, useful for commodities traders; Aurelian, in unbreakable contracts; Manuscript goes in for glamours, or “illusions and lies,” helpful to politicians and movie stars alike. And all these rituals attract ghosts. It’s Alex’s job to keep the supernatural forces from embarrassing the magical elite by releasing chaos into the community (all while trying desperately to keep her grades up). “Dealing with ghosts was like riding the subway: Do not make eye contact. Do not smile. Do not engage. Otherwise, you never know what might follow you home.” A townie’s murder sets in motion a taut plot full of drug deals, drunken assaults, corruption, and cover-ups. Loyalties stretch and snap. Under it all runs the deep, dark river of ambition and anxiety that at once powers and undermines the Yale experience. Alex may have more reason than most to feel like an imposter, but anyone who’s spent time around the golden children of the Ivy League will likely recognize her self-doubt.
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally dazzling sequels.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31307-2
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
© Copyright 2023 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.
bookshelf
