An indelible cast fuels this wildly entertaining, supernaturally enhanced detective story.
In Susman’s urban fantasy sequel, a private investigator assists a ghost who is bound to him and in serious danger.
Korean-American shamus Jae Kim has connections in “Wolftowns.” These walled-in neighborhoods were built decades ago all around the United States, including in Chicago, where Jae lives. Their original purpose was to confine extranormal people, or “extras,” including werewolves, vampires, and other shape-changers. Jae is human, but his boyfriend Czoltan is a werewolf activist fighting for the rights of extras. While Jae can’t shift forms, he does have a special ring and a corresponding spell for binding a ghost; these come in handy when a staggeringly loud “screeching” practically overtakes Chicago’s Wolftown. This caterwauling is the product of Penny, a recently-deceased 17-year-old who, like many ghosts, can’t remember specific details about her death. She also isn’t very happy about being bound to Jae, who can converse with her in his head (if she doesn’t manifest, others can’t see or hear her). Jae now has the legal responsibility of turning Penny over to her next of kin, but that doesn’t stop a Bureau of Extranormal Affairs agent from demanding that Jae give up the (bound) ghost. Penny fears the BEA and wants the detective to take her to her enigmatic friend Marta, but she’s otherwise frustratingly mum. The agency unquestionably wants something from her and is likely behind the people assaulting and shadowing Jae and threatening his loved ones. Jae, working with Captain Yumi Hachimura of Wolftown’s peacekeeping force, digs into the BEA and the mystery of a late teenager, who may know too much.
Susman here, as in the series’ opening entry Unfinished Business (2022), deftly fuses a detective story with the supernatural. Although this installment rarely strays from Jae and Penny’s mutual dilemma, shape-changers pop up throughout the narrative, and the author showcases a variety of mythologies and folklore, from the Indigenous American thunderbird and the Mesoamerican nagual (were-jaguar) to the serpent-like Naga of a number of Asian religions. The discrimination the extras suffer is analogous to that experienced by real-life marginalized groups; the narrative acknowledges the need for more sensitive nomenclature (“multimorph” is suggested as a potential replacement for “extra,” which implies only humans are “normal,” and the term “remained person” is considered preferable to “ghost”). Series hero Jae is a sharp, intuitive, and likable detective with relatable personal problems. The supporting cast is equally engaging; Penny has a tendency to whine or childishly ignore Jae, but she’s a brand-new ghost who’s just learning what she’s capable of. Czoltan makes for a sympathetic and devoted boyfriend, and Yumi, a yuki-onna (Japanese snow spirit) is a wonderful, strong character to have on Jae’s side. They’re all entangled in a mystery that ends with a satisfying resolution and hints at another sequel.
An indelible cast fuels this wildly entertaining, supernaturally enhanced detective story.Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2024
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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