A darkly comic, compelling, and critical tale about family and the never-ending grind.
In this debut satire, a newly promoted demon struggles to possess an innocent girl on Earth and fulfill a prophecy.
Karen Floyd’s job is in Hell. She works at the Nakara Corporation, which provides internet, cable, and cellphones for Hell’s lost souls. But she gets a welcome promotion when her “sick box” pops up in the earthly realm. This box filled with spiritual items was the last thing Karen saw before dying. Now, thanks to a garage sale, the box resides with the Matthews family and offers a direct route from Hell to Earth. Karen’s new project is possessing the body of 5-year-old Mallory, which, as it happens, is the start of a prophecy foretold years before the protagonist reached Hell. She fights to control her unpredictable travels between realms; her slowly materializing form on Earth; and Mallory herself. But when someone capable of exorcisms enters the Matthews family’s circle, the little girl’s bizarre behavior (for example, blaming things on her invisible friend, Karen) may ultimately send the demon back to Hell as a failure. Fries’ entertainingly flippant tone makes Hell comparable to Earth. But differences are hard to miss, as Hell’s average denizen has horns and a “long red swishing tail” and faces perpetual dangers, like random zombie hordes. This engaging story fuses gory moments with plentiful humor, from lowbrow (flatulence, human or otherwise) to just plain silly (the demonic greeting of “Hell low”). At the same time, Fries smartly lampoons women’s treatment in the workplace; a co-worker patronizingly calls Karen “baby” and “your hot self,” and it’s clear that sexual harassment claims never move beyond the paperwork. As her offbeat adventure continues, Karen earns sympathy, often seeing her sister, Alice, in young Mallory. Karen is also somewhat mysterious since readers initially don’t know much about her, most notably what she did on Earth that fast-tracked her to Hell.
A darkly comic, compelling, and critical tale about family and the never-ending grind.Pub Date: Dec. 31, 2021
ISBN: 9798793854405
Page Count: 348
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2022
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
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.
A fantasy adventure with a sometimes-biting wit.
Tress is an ordinary girl with no thirst to see the world. Charlie is the son of the local duke, but he likes stories more than fencing. When the duke realizes the two teenagers are falling in love, he takes Charlie away to find a suitable wife—and returns with a different young man as his heir. Charlie, meanwhile, has been captured by the mysterious Sorceress who rules the Midnight Sea, which leaves Tress with no choice but to go rescue him. To do that, she’ll have to get off the barren island she’s forbidden to leave, cross the dangerous Verdant Sea, the even more dangerous Crimson Sea, and the totally deadly Midnight Sea, and somehow defeat the unbeatable Sorceress. The seas on Tress’ world are dangerous because they’re not made of water—they’re made of colorful spores that pour down from the world’s 12 stationary moons. Verdant spores explode into fast-growing vines if they get wet, which means inhaling them can be deadly. Crimson and midnight spores are worse. Ships protected by spore-killing silver sail these seas, and it’s Tress’ quest to find a ship and somehow persuade its crew to carry her to a place no ships want to go, to rescue a person nobody cares about but her. Luckily, Tress is kindhearted, resourceful, and curious—which also makes her an appealing heroine. Along her journey, Tress encounters a talking rat, a crew of reluctant pirates, and plenty of danger. Her story is narrated by an unusual cabin boy with a sharp wit. (About one duke, he says, “He’d apparently been quite heroic during those wars; you could tell because a great number of his troops had died, while he lived.”) The overall effect is not unlike The Princess Bride, which Sanderson cites as an inspiration.
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781250899651
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2026 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.
