A grim but thoroughly enjoyable tale set amid urban horrors.
In Arginteanu’s debut novel, supernatural forces run rampant in 1980s New York.
The book opens on a nostalgic note that quickly turns dark: Teenagers Carl and Anthony are wasting time in a Staten Island area called the Dump (“a landfill that you could see from space”) in the pre-internet era: “Nowadays, Staten Island teenagers are glued to smartphones and huddled in cool, dark hideouts, like albino bats,” notes the third-person narration. “Nowadays, if no one's posted it online, it’s not real.” When their play fight becomes suddenly serious, Anthony is gravely wounded when his head hits a rock, and Carl, prompted by an insistent voice in his head, leaves his friend to die.The voice belongs to a supernatural being named Preta, who goes by the name of Pete and “promises the world but delivers only misery.” Pete is a servant of a being who calls himself “the man downstairs,” who’s tied his corporeal form to a dive bar called Azazel’s Public House, where profits are measured “not in dollars and cents but in increments of misery.” Carl wonders if the fact that he’s hearing Pete’s voice means he is going insane, but others hear Pete as well, including a young woman named Gina who, over the course of the novel, displays an aptitude not only for hearing Pete’s evil suggestions, but for resisting them as his elaborate plans escalate to their climax. Arginteanu’s prose throughout is vivid and colorful, and he keeps his narrative bubbling with interest by filling it with a large cast of well-defined characters, from barmaid Holly, who “wore her long blonde hair in braids and carried herself like a mighty Valkyrie,” to Dr. Clancy, who'd “notched countless neurosurgical triumphs and suffered fewer disasters than most.” The author does a remarkably skillful job at mixing casual brutalities of life with the uplifting qualities of existence that stubbornly persist—although, perversely, readers may find themselves rooting for Pete above all.
A grim but thoroughly enjoyable tale set amid urban horrors.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9798846651418
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Devoted series fans will appreciate the added pieces to this expansive narrative puzzle.
After 500 years, the Grief of Ages is a distant memory—until dragons hellbent on destruction begin to wake again.
In this relatively brief prequel to the epic The Priory of the Orange Tree (2019), the kingdoms of Virtudom have experienced centuries of relative peace. Marosa Vetalda, the Princess of Yscalin, spends her days behind castle walls under the gaze of her overprotective father, awaiting the date when she’ll be wed to Aubrecht of Mentendon, her ticket to freedom. While the book’s main focus is initially on the political threads weaving the Western kingdoms together, the frailty of best-laid plans is exposed when evidence of the reemergence of draconic beings reaches castle ears. These tales often come from the cullers who make their living slaying these creatures, and who are often blamed for intentionally waking them for profit. No one alive remembers the Grief of Ages, so no one’s prepared when Fýredel, the great High Western dragon, surfaces from the volcanic mountain that towers ominously over Yscalin’s capital city of Cárscaro. What follows is the backstory of how the devoted Yscali kingdom comes to shift allegiance to Fýredel and his master, the Nameless One, a main catalyst to events in The Priory. Overall, this book reads more like history lesson than fantasy adventure, but the sheer terror that befalls the Yscali people as they face Fýredel’s pure evil is both powerful and relevant. Marosa’s plight further solidifies her as a hero worth remembering; her strength and defiance shine through as hope for the future she’s dreamed of slowly flickers out.
Devoted series fans will appreciate the added pieces to this expansive narrative puzzle.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781639736010
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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