An often engaging, if formulaic, supernatural story of an unlikely couple racing to defeat an ancient evil.
A descendant of a vampire hunter unexpectedly finds herself falling in love—with a vampire.
In a scene set 255 years before the main plot of Clark’s debut novel, Cain, the fearsome progenitor of all the world’s vampires, is cornered by the operatives of the Order, who are dedicated to protecting humanity against such fanged creatures. However, the complete destruction of Cain is beyond the Order’s capabilities, and he lays a curse on the Order’s leader, William Langdon, promising that all of the human’s descendants will die by Cain’s hand. The time frame then shifts to the present day, when one of those descendants, a young woman named Avery Langdon in Big Rapids, Michigan, is saved from a vampire by her friend Rose, a current member of the Order. Later, Avery meets a very attractive and mysterious stranger named Talon Campbell at a bar: “Any other woman in her position would have had her knees turned to jelly and her brain to mush at the sight of his grin.” Talon, it turns out, is a centuries-old vampire, but he hates and hunts his own kind. The two meet just as a revenant Cain and his minions are working to assemble a collection of supernatural objects that will allow them to effectively reinvent vampires—by removing their legendary vulnerabilities and rendering them nearly indestructible. Fans of modern vampire tales will find much of this one to be intensely familiar; it particularly calls to mind the adventures of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Buffy Summers and her centuries-old vampire beau, Angel. That said, Clark travels this well-trod ground with considerable narrative energy and a keen ear for dialogue. Her weakness as a storyteller, however, is her lack of subtlety. The heroes are unbelievably good, with few shades of gray; the villains are nothing but evil; and the plot developments tend to be telegraphed. Still, the book remains an appealing page-turner, even if the events on some of those pages are rather predictable.
An often engaging, if formulaic, supernatural story of an unlikely couple racing to defeat an ancient evil.Pub Date: March 2, 2020
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.
In this long-awaited fifth installment of Shannon’s Bone Season series, the threat to the clairvoyant community spreads like a plague across Europe.
After extending her fight against the Republic of Scion to Paris, Paige Mahoney, leader of London’s clairvoyant underworld and a spy for the resistance movement, finds herself further outside her comfort zone when she wakes up in a foreign place with no recollection of getting there. More disturbing than her last definitive memory, in which her ally-turned-lover Arcturus seems to betray her, is that her dreamscape—the very soul of her clairvoyance—has been altered, as if there’s a veil shrouding both her memories and abilities. Paige manages to escape and learns she’s been missing and presumed dead for six months. Even more shocking is that she’s somehow outside of Scion’s borders, in the free world where clairvoyants are accepted citizens. She gets in touch with other resistance fighters and journeys to Italy to reconnect with the Domino Programme intelligence network. In stark contrast to the potential of life in the free world is the reality that Scion continues to stretch its influence, with Norway recently falling and Italy a likely next target. Paige is enlisted to discover how Scion is bending free-world political leaders to its will, but before Paige can commit to her mission, she has her own mystery to solve: Where in the world is Arcturus? Paige’s loyalty to Arcturus is tested as she decides how much to trust in their connection and how much information to reveal to the Domino Programme about the Rephaite—the race of immortals from the Netherworld, Arcturus’ people—and their connection to the founding of Scion, as well as the presence of clairvoyant abilities on Earth. While the book is impressively multilayered, the matter-of-fact way in which details from the past are sprinkled throughout will have readers constantly flipping to the glossary. As the series’ scope and the implications of the war against Scion expand, Shannon’s narrative style reads more action-thriller than fantasy. Paige’s powers as a dreamwalker are rarely used here, but when clairvoyance is at play, the story shines.
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9781639733965
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A touching novel about loss with a magical and mystical flourish.
A young man helps the living and dead meet one last time under the full moon.
Japanese bestseller Tsujimura’s quiet novel follows a mysterious teenager known as the go-between, who can set up meetings between the living and the dead. An introverted woman wants to meet the television star with whom she has a parasocial relationship. A cynical eldest son hopes to visit his mother about their family business. A devastated high schooler fears she is responsible for her friend’s tragic death. And, finally, a middle-aged workaholic finally feels ready to find out if his fiancée, who disappeared seven years ago, is dead. Each character has a uniquely personal reason for seeking out the deceased, including closure and forgiveness, as well as selfishness and fear. Imbued with magic and the perfect amount of gravitas, there are many rules around these meetings: Only the living can make requests and they can only have one meeting per lifetime. Additionally, the dead can deny a meeting—and, most importantly, once the dead person has met with a living person, they will be gone forever. With secrets shared, confessions made, and regrets cemented, these meetings lead to joy and sorrow in equal measure. In the final chapter, all of these visits—and their importance in the go-between’s life—begin to gracefully converge. As we learn the go-between’s identity, we watch him struggle with the magnitude and gravity of his work. At one point, he asks: “When a life was lost, who did it belong to? What were those left behind meant to do with the incomprehensible, inescapable loss?” Though the story can be repetitive, Tsujimura raises poignant and powerful questions about what the living owe not only the dead, but each other; and how we make peace with others and ourselves in the wake of overwhelming grief.
A touching novel about loss with a magical and mystical flourish.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9781668099834
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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