Well-crafted horror-fantasy stories that ponder what could happen if one doesn’t let the dead rest in peace.
Andreas presents a collection of modern fairy tales, set in a unique fantasyland in which elements of ancient Egyptian legends spill into the present time.
In a frame story, the unnamed narrator—the servant of the book’s tile—presents his situation to readers directly, in a tone that’s appealingly reminiscent of a Choose Your Own Adventure book. He’s stashed away a collection of jars containing souls yet to be “tried”; later, the servant says, his master will take them to a “sacred place,” where “they will each be given an equal chance to plead their innocence, clear their names, and live forever, unscathed. The guilty, alas, will not be so fortunate.” Readers meet each soul in the seven stories that follow—cautionary tales of humans meddling in ancient magic. In “The Apprentice,” Adom Mahmood is a priest’s apprentice in ancient Egypt who can’t ignore that the pyramid workers are being denied a safe passage into the afterlife. In this opening story, Andreas introduces readers to several terms and concepts referenced throughout the collection––most importantly, the Duat: the underworld. Although readers will know each protagonist’s fate before the stories begin, the author has an incredible ability to hook the audience. The tension and momentum never dwindle, and the frame story fades away as one reads of amateur bug collector Colin Stigman, whose collecting of specimens foreshadows his own destiny in “Dermestidae”; ill-fated couple Guinevere Nelson and Jared Alexander, who lead opposing armies into the kingdom of the gods in “Where Hallowed Horses Roam”; and little Theo, who makes a deal for a bag of chocolates in “Sleight of Hand.” Throughout, Andreas offers tales of gods (with explanatory notes at the end of the book), employing vivid imagery that effectively clarifies why ordinary people might leave the world behind for something more extraordinary: “The man’s onyx eyes flickered yellow as the ceiling fan above them cut through the room’s bright UV light, making them look like two buzzing bumble bees.”
Well-crafted horror-fantasy stories that ponder what could happen if one doesn’t let the dead rest in peace.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Although it lacks the surgical precision of Slaughter’s very best nightmares, this one richly earns its title.
More than a decade after a Georgia man is convicted of a monstrous double murder, an uncomfortably similar crime frees him and resets the search for the guilty party.
In Clifton County, home to the Rich Cliftons and the other Cliftons, the disappearance of teens Madison Dalrymple and Cheyenne Baker during the Halloween festivities hits everyone in North Falls hard. Working with her father, Sheriff Gerald Clifton, Deputy Emmy Lou Clifton hears the clock ticking down as she races frantically to get leads on the two friends, who’d been secretly plotting to take off for Atlanta after some undisclosed big score. As a longtime friend of Madison’s mother, Hannah, Emmy hopes against hope to find the missing teens before they’re both dead. By the time Emmy’s hopes are dashed, two unpleasantly likely suspects with strong attachments to underage sex partners have emerged, and one of them ends up in prison. In a bold move, Slaughter jumps over the next 12 years to the case of Paisley Walker, a 14-year-old whose disappearance catches the eye of retiring FBI criminal psychologist Jude Archer, who promptly crosses the country to come to Clifton County and take charge—um, that is, consult—on this heartrending new investigation. Emmy, suddenly and shockingly deprived of counsel from the parents who’ve supported her all her life, doesn’t get along any better with Jude than with the larger circle of Cliftons and the Clifton-Cliftons. But together they identify one new suspect, then another, before a shootout that arrives so early you just know there are still more surprises to come.
Although it lacks the surgical precision of Slaughter’s very best nightmares, this one richly earns its title.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2025
ISBN: 9780063336773
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 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
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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