A delightfully gruesome story that will continue to haunt readers long after they reach its end.
The effects of trauma, depression, anxiety, and human suffering manifest as literal monsters in this series starter from SF/fantasy author Anthony.
The story follows three remarkable characters from very different walks of life who have one thing in common: They’re haunted by terrible creatures called “Leviathans,” brought forth by extreme traumatic experiences and mental illness. Ellie Jameson is a school janitor who’s hounded by a giant Slender Man-esque Leviathan that destroys her family, causing a mental breakdown that forces her into state-mandated therapy; during on session, she can still hear the monster’s “rasping breath” and “feel its cold and smell its nauseating stench.” Sam Morris is a struggling advertising executive whose Leviathan manifests as a giggling, creepy little girl begging him to “come play” and victimizes family members and colleagues in Sam’s vicinity during times of extreme stress. Joshua Fielding is an 8-year-old with an alcoholic mother who has an abusive boyfriend; the youngster’s Leviathan emerges as a giant “Monster Dog” that follows him to school, where he tries to avoid prying questions from teachers and friends. Although the characters are from separate worlds, their stories begin to overlap as Ellie and Sam prepare for an upcoming event of horror and mayhem and Joshua encounters his Monster Dog for the first time. Debut author Anthony, a registered nurse, effortlessly interweaves together elements of mythology and dark SF to create a world in which trauma’s harm is far more than mere metaphor. The plot is consistently engaging, displaying an understanding of genre tropes, and the author shows a skill for storytelling that surpasses that of some more established authors. Most notable is Anthony’s ability to smoothly move between each character’s point of view, which not only gives the reader a complete story, but also a proper basis for understanding the detailed world the author has built in these pages.
A delightfully gruesome story that will continue to haunt readers long after they reach its end.Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2022
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 366
Publisher: Leschenault Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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
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
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