Tag Archives: Book Reviews

September 19, 2024 · 1:00 am

One Day at a Time: A Review of Unloveables

Book cover for Unloveables by Liz Boysha. Image on cover is a chalk drawing of a rat who is standing on its hind legs and has a sad expression on its face. This is a simply drawing, like something a child or an adult who is not an artist would draw. The background is black and looks like a chalkboard. Title: Unloveables

Author: Liz Boysha

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: August 18, 2024

Genres: Science Fiction, LGBTQ+, Romance

Length: 98 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

After the apocalypse, after the Megadrought, the Great Floods, after the Water Wars, the TriPlague, the Midwestern Firestorms; after the Superricane that wiped out the entire East Coast, after the Refugee Crisis and the Great Migrations and whatever wars they fought over that… In a remote corner of what was once Colorado, some people are still just trying to survive.

Content Warning: A fatal car accident. Homophobia. A character who has migraines but no medication for them.  Climate change that makes finding enough food, water, and shade difficult. Brief references to childhood abuse, a past rape, and violence.

Review:

Survival is the name of the game.

A lot of post-apocalyptic fiction focuses on strong, able-bodied adults who either already have the skills they need to survive or are able to quickly learn what they don’t already know, so it was refreshing to read about teens, one of whom is disabled, managing to survive in such an environment for so many years. There were other aspects of the two main characters’ identities that are also underrepresented in this genre, although I think it’s best for other readers to discover most of them gradually just like I did. I enjoyed getting to know Rat thought this was pretty realistic sketch of what kids who grew up in such a dangerous and unpredicatable environment could be like.

With that being said, I would have liked to learn more about the unnamed protagonist. He wasn’t even willing to share his real name with Rat or the audience, much less answer the multitude of other questions I had about his personality and upbringing. While this made sense when I considered how traumatized he was, it also meant that this reader never got to know him as well as I hoped I would. He always flitted around the edges of the conversation and was happy to share tips for finding food or water but never wanted the conversation to drift into anything deeper than that. It would be nice to learn more about him in any sequels that might be written in the future as I only felt like I could describe him in the most general terms by the time I finished reading this.

The romance was subtle and handled nicely. I have not read many romances about two asexual characters before, so I gently stepped away from my preconceived notions of what that might be like and waited to see what would happen. I appreciated the fact that both characters were willing to talk about such things openly and knew what they wanted out of a relationship even though neither one was at all expecting to fall in love when they first met. That’s exactly how I like romance tales to unfold.

Unloveables has left me eager to read more about these characters.

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September 12, 2024 · 1:00 am

A Review of Into the Weeping Waters

Book cover for Into the Weeping Waters by Lee Murray. Image on cover shows a young, pale woman with long, straight dark hair standing up and looking down at her feet. She’s wearing a flowing white nightdress and appears to be standing on the bed of a river or lake. She is submerged in the dark, murky water and is standing near what appears to be wreckage from a crash of some sort. It looks more like a large machine than a boat, though, so maybe it was dumped in the water? You can see a few large wires coming out of this device whatever it is as well as a piece on it that looks like a wagon wheel or possibly a motor of some sort. Title: Into the Weeping Waters

Author: Lee Murray

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: August 21, 2024

Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Historical

Length: 36 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Taking the train home for Christmas eve, McKenna’s mentor, the Māori prophet Rawiri Temera, is plunged headlong into a ghostly adventure.

Content Warning: Death, emotional and physical trauma, a train accident, and a few brief descriptions of severe injuries. I will not share any gory details, but I will need to discuss these topics in my review.

Review:

Not all tragedies can be avoided.

The rules for how ghosts behave in this world intrigued me. Somehow they knew exactly what they could and couldn’t do from the beginning without anyone explaining it to them. There were a few logical hints about how they came to this knowledge, but I think it’s best to leave the logistics of it for other readers to figure out for themselves. Not every paranormal tale spends much time thinking about what it might be like to be a ghost or how clearly the recall their previous lives, so I appreciated the fact that this one did.

I would have liked to see more plot development in this short story. There simply wasn’t much of it, and what was shared wasn’t explained like it  could have been even in a piece of this brief length. It almost felt like reading a few pages of a full-length novel instead of something that was intended to be a standalone work. That is to say, I liked what I read, but it ended too quickly for me to feel satisfied with what the narrator had to say about what happened.

Some of the most interesting scenes were the ones that described the aftermath of the crash. It was chaotic, of course, but the author also took the time to describe the little moments that could be seared into a person’s brain forever after experiencing such an event. Trauma can be like that sometimes, and I appreciated the way this was written. It was a little gory in a few places, but I could tell that was done to paint a vivid pictures of the horrors Rawiri was witnessing instead of to simply shock the readers.

As a quick aside before I finish off this review, this was set on Christmas Eve but it did not have a Christmas feeling to it at all. If anything, choosing such a typically festive time of the year for it only made the accident more heartbreaking.

Into the Weeping Waters made me shudder. 

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September 5, 2024 · 1:00 am

A Review of In These Pieces – A 9/11 Short Story

Book cover for In These Pieces - a 9/11 Short Story by Sean McDevitt. Image on cover is a photo of a white rose lying on part of the memorial to the victims of 9/11. Several names are etched into grey stone in this memorial. Otto Casper is one of them, and you can also see the names Caro Voskirillan and Alexandra. The other names are too blurry to read. Title: In These Pieces – a 9/11 Short Story

Author: Sean McDevitt

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: September 8, 2016

Genres: Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 22 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

A visitor to the 9/11 Memorial in New York City does exactly what a tour guide tells him NOT to do; the result is an unexpected insight at the heart of a dark tragedy.

Content Warning: references to 9/11, grief, terrorism, and deep regret.

Review:

Remembrance is for everyone.

It makes me smile when authors write stories about characters while sharing as few details about them as possible. I never knew basic information about this protagonist like their name, age, race, sex, sexual orientation, disability status, or other common identifiers that might be used to introduce someone to an audience, and yet I still felt as thought I might recognize them if I passed them on the street. Their passion for history and New York was so strong that I could imagine the joy on their face as they visited their favorite spots there and soaked in all of the sights they had never seen in person before. That is not an easy thing to accomplish, but it sure makes the reading experience better.

While I do not expect as much plot and character development in short stories as I do for longer works, I needed more of both of these things here. The final scene ended without wrapping up some important questions I had about why the narrator behaved the way they did and how the spirit world deals with terrible acts of injustice that cannot be otherwise remedied. This is something I’m saying as a reader who liked the premise and storyline in general and would have loved to give it a higher rating. There was a lot of good material here, but it needed more development in my opinion.

With that being said, there was a strong sense of justice in this tale that I found satisfying. I can’t go into too much detail on this subject without sharing spoilers, but this is definitely something to check out if you’re in the mood for characters to feel the repercussions of their choices in life and learn lessons about the things they have done that were not helpful or kind. Sometimes it’s nice to dig into fiction that has such a strong correlation between actions and consequences in its world building as those are not always necessarily things one can easily or reliably find in the real world.

In These Pieces – a 9/11 Short Story was interesting.

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August 29, 2024 · 1:00 am

A Reason for Everything: A Review of Tin Foil Hat

Book cover for Tin Foil Hat by Lisa Shea. Image on cover shows a closeup photo of some slightly rumpled tin foil. Title: Tin Foil Hat

Author: Lisa Shea

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: October 3, 2019

Genres: Horror, Contemporary

Length: 18 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

It’s another lonely night in a crowded bar, and even Marissa’s margarita is stale. Everyone at Ralph’s is staring at their smartphones like brain-dead zombies.

But when she learns the about insidious damage that all those cell phone signals, stacked up on each other, can do to a human brain, she knows she has to take action. Because the headaches, memory loss, and insomnia were only the beginning.

* * *

Tin Foil Hat is a psychological horror suspense short story. My horror stories explore the frailty of the human psyche – how tenuous our grasp on reality can be. They delve into how alone each of us really is, as we navigate the short, brief flicker of life we are granted. My stories focus on the psychological aspects of fear and do not contain overt gore. They are suitable for teens and up.

This short story is part of my series: Lisa’s Dark Gripping Short Tales. You can read the short stories one at a time if you wish – each is available as a standalone ebook. If you prefer, you can get each set of nine short stories compiled together in ebook or paperback format. The title of that compilation is, naturally enough, Lisa’s Dark Gripping Short Tales (1, 2, etc.) I offer full discussions of each storyline on YouTube, for those who wish to delve deeper into the plot and meaning behind the scenes.

Content Warning: Paranoia and memories of past sexual abuse. I will discuss these topics briefly in my review.

Review:

Nothing is more important than feeling safe, right?

One of the most memorable portions of this short story had to do with the facets of Marissa’s personality that were slowly revealed over time. My first impression of it her was soon replaced by a deeper and more thorough understanding of her strengths and weaknesses, from her dedication to her work to how susceptible she was to information that she did not bother to verify. I’ll leave it up to other readers to discover more about her, but I thought she was well written and an interesting collection of both positive and negative character traits just like the rest of us!

The twist at the end that explained why Marissa avoided other people so regularly involved a very sensitive topic that I think is heavily overused in fiction, especially when it comes to the challenges women and girls face in life. This isn’t to say that it is an unimportant subject in any way, only that it’s something I’ve read about so often that my interest immediately wanes when it pops up yet again. I was set to give this a four or five star rating before that scene happened, and I did think the rest of it was thought provoking. By all means give this a chance if you don’t have the same aversions I do. Reviews are subjective, after all, and what I strongly dislike might be exactly what another reader was hoping to find.

With that being said, I did appreciate the way the author explored the importance of developing and retaining sharp critical thinking skills, the dark side of conspiracy theories, and how much damage urban legends  can cause to one’s mental and physical health. The Internet is not always a bastion of truth and scientific accuracy, after all, and there are people I know personally who have fallen for all sorts of dangerous misinformation about a wide variety of topics. No, there was not a hidden political slant to this tale. The warning it provides applies to people from any point on the political spectrum who have ever been tempted to believe something without evidence.  Honestly, that could be just about any of us at one point or another!

Tin Foil Hat was my first introduction to Ms. Shea’s work, and I am looking forward to seeing what else she has written.

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August 22, 2024 · 1:00 am

The Perfect Job: A Review of Pathways to Bolingbrook

Book cover for Pathways to Bolingbrook by William Brinkman. Image on cover shows a realistic drawing of two young women, one black and one Asian, gazing intently at the viewer. They are wearing long-sleeved dark shirts and jackets and look dressed for cool weather (or maybe a zombie attack!)Title: Pathways to Bolingbrook

Author: William Brinkman

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: February 27, 2022

Genres: Fantasy, Mystery, Historical

Length: 26 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Two desperate women search for answers in this gripping Urban Fantasy double-header.

Miriam craves escape from her dead-end life in Iowa City. A stranger’s offer could make her dream come true… or plunge her into a nightmare.

Sara, reporter for a struggling paper, stumbles on a cryptic recording—one she doesn’t remember making. Could uncovering the truth destroy her career… or her family?

The quiet suburb of Bolingbrook masks dark secrets. Stories about local paranormal activities fill the pages of the local tabloid, Bolingbrook Babbler. Are they just tales or terrifying truths?

Will Miriam embrace a dark path? Will Sara risk everything to expose a secret?

Review:

It takes a special sort of person to accept such dangerous and thankless work.

I enjoyed getting to know Miriam and Sarah in this introduction to their world. They were both intelligent and resourceful women who had already accomplished quite a bit with their lives before being approached by a mysterious man with the sort of job offer most folks will never be aware even exists much less have a chance to try for themselves. While they didn’t meet each other here much to my surprise, I could see a lot of similarities between their personalities that made me wonder what they’d think about each other at some point in the future when the plot does bring them together.

While I totally understand that this was written as an introduction to a series, it would have been nice to have more conflict. Almost all of it was devoted to introducing the two protagonists, briefly describing what their lives had been like so far, and giving hints about why they might decide to take on these new roles. Yes, it was interesting and completely necessary to have all of that background information, but it also meant that the characters didn’t have much to wrestle with during the brief time I knew them. I would have loved to see how they both handled some sort of small problem that could foreshadow what to expect from them in the future.

With that being said, I did enjoy the world building and little snippets of foreshadowing that occurred. Bolingbrook honestly sounds like a rough place to live, but it also seems like it could be full of wonderful surprises for Sarah and Miriam. My hope is that this will provide them plenty of conflict in later instalments as I thought there was a lot of promise here that hadn’t quite been realized yet.

Pathways to Bolingbrook was interesting.

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August 15, 2024 · 1:00 am

A Review of Tiny Forgotten Wishes

Book cover for Tiny Forgotten Wishes by Janky Fluffy. Image on cover is a drawing of a human brain made with a pink pen or marker. In the upper right hand corner is a smaller and less vibrant drawing of a single pink rose. Title: Tiny Forgotten Wishes

Author: Janky Fluffy

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: June 20, 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal

Length: 58 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Little Defective Things: Mother and Father must protect their ordinary daughter from the evils of perfectionism.
Forgotten Toys: She is not a toy and must save herself.
A Pretty Apocalypse: Social media causes the kingdom’s collapse.
Hair Like Starlight, Eyes Like Dreams: A man has a near-death experience and meets an angel.
21 Broken Christmases: The Grim Reaper is a woman and is in charge of more than just death.
Leftover Food for Wellness: A troll meets humans for dinner.
Salt’s Real Kiss: The magic man promises beauty for a price, and Salt refuses to pay.
Of Butterflies & Ghosts: Bobby enters the rundown funeral home and discovers the truth about his wife.
Another Curse of Unlimited Wishes: The genie falls in love.
Her Turquoise Reunion: She survived the most brutal school with kindness.
Tiny Songs for Nocturnal Beings: The ghouls come for their yearly feeding.
Fleeing Monsters: Emelia must survive the monsters. But who are the real monsters?

Content Warning: Death, a cult, ableist characters. I won’t discuss any of these topics in my review.

Review:

Think of this collection like a sampling platter of different worlds and characters. A nibble here and there may fill you up.

Trolls aren’t very common in modern fantasy stories from what I’ve observed, so “Leftover Food for Wellness” piqued my interest. Figuring out why someone would purposefully seek one out in this day and age didn’t take very long, but it did give me food for thought as the arrogant main character made one bad decision after the next. I’ll leave it up to other readers to discover what those choices were and how they turned out for him, but I liked seeing his reaction to getting his wish. There’s definitely something to be said for making wishes come true…even the ones that never should have been made in the first place.

As intrigued as I was by the premise of “A Pretty Apocalypse,” the plot holes in it made it difficult for me to remain invested in what was happening. Social media has downsides to be sure, but I wasn’t convinced that this alone could cause society to collapse. While all of the stories in this collection were purposefully written to be short and sweet, this was one of multiple examples I thought would have been better if there had been more time to explain what was happening in them.

“Another Curse of Unlimited Wishes” was refreshing. Of course genies should have the chance to fall in love the way humans do! There were a few fun twists in this one which was a little surprising given how short it was. I will tip my cap to the author for pulling that off and for finally making the genie the main character of this sort of tale. That doesn’t happen often enough in this genre for my tastes, so I was glad to see it here.

Tiny Forgotten Wishes was my first introduction to this author’s work, and I look forward to reading more in the future.

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August 8, 2024 · 1:00 am

For the Sake of Knowledge: A Review of Grim Future

Book cover for Grim Future by Nick S. Nicholas. Image on cover shows the silhoutte of an adult human standing on a hill after dark. They can see part of the sky illuminated either by yellow and purple northern lights or by the last vestiges of sunlight as dusk ends and night begins. Or maybe it’s caused by both! It is too dark in this scene to show the age, sex, or race of this person other than their adult stature. So imagine yourself there if you wish. Title: Grim Future

Author: Nick S Nicholas

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: June 24, 2024

Genres: Science Fiction

Length: 31 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Grim Future is a short story with the feel of an Indiana Jones meets the Mummy vs Space Invaders! Alec Kennedy, his love interest Rhonda Williams, and their expedition team’s leader Nathan Gray embark on an adventure to Egypt, hoping to discover an artifact that elevates them and their university sponsors into the international archeological spotlight. What they find will change the world in a way they never expected…

Content Warning: Murder, Sexism (I will discuss the latter briefly in my review)

Review:

Tombs are a window to the past. What sort of past that might be is an entirely different question altogether.

The character development was handled nicely. Alec’s self-absorption and difficulty with noticing subtle changes in his social environment quietly influenced every decision he made, and I was curious to see how he’d react to this expedition given that he was working in a group and would have to share the glory if anything of note was discovered. This was a pattern that repeated itself with other characters, too, whose flaws only made them more interesting to me because of how important they were to future plot twists. While I can’t say that I particularly liked most of the characters here, that is not a bad thing by any means. Honestly, unlikeable people can be the best options for certain types of storylines, and this is one of them.

While I could make an educated guess about what they were seeking, I do wish the ending had been longer and included more details about the antagonists’ motivations for behaving the way they did. The beginning and middle portions were so well written that I was surprised to see things suddenly be wrapped up the way that they were. There was a lot of space here for exposition, and I would have happily given a much higher rating if even if a paragraph or two of it had been added to explain what their precise goals were.

With that being said, I loved the way Mr. Nicholas turned certain science fiction tropes about female characters and what their roles should be in this genre on their head. I was a little concerned about where this was headed at first based on Alec’s one-dimensional approach to interacting with his love interest,  but I’m glad I kept reading anyway. Just because things appear to be one way in the opening scene does not at all mean they will still feel the same way in the final one. Keep that in mind as you read if your initial reaction is the same as mine was.

Grim Future was a wild ride.

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August 1, 2024 · 1:00 am

A Review of Among Mirages

Book cover for Among Mirages: A Short Story by Billie Dean Shoemate III. Image on cover shows a drawing of a ship mast and a tattered sailed against a blackish-purple sky. It is past dusk and night has almost completely fallen, so precious little else can be seen in this image. Title: Among Mirages

Author: Billie Dean Shoemate III

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: October 8, 2020

Genres: Paranormal, Contemporary, Historical

Length: 33 pages

Source: I receive a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

The crew of the ship tell preposterous stories. Stories of dry land, of other ships that sail the ocean. Of vast cities populated by people. Odd visions. Blasphemies that would get a person tossed into the ocean. Still . . . those on the crew talk in hushed tones. Something about the ocean is haunted, and it has something to do with this ship in particular.

Billie Dean Shoemate III puts a new twist on an age-old story. The story of a ship that, when the reader figures it out, has been terrifying sailors for centuries. ‘Among Mirages’ will breathe new life into a tale that has always been told by seafaring people . . . and always will be.

Content Warning: Religion (an amalgamation of various types of Christianity).

Review:

Certainty isn’t everything.

I loved Martin, the doubtful narrator of this piece. Honestly, I would have had the exact same questions about where the ship came from and why they kept seeing things their captain insisted did not exist if I were in his shoes. The tension between observable facts and religious certainties in this universe was handled beautifully. Regardless of your thoughts on religion in general, there is a lot of food for thought here for anyone who has ever found an inconsistency in their own belief structure and puzzled over it.

This was inspired by a popular nautical legend that I wish had been shared in more detail in the last few scenes. I ended up looking it up online as I was only vaguely familiar with the stories associated with it and did not know in advance that this was going to be the theme. The storytelling would have been tighter in my opinion if a few sentences explaining this legend had been included for the sake of other readers like me, but I do look forward to hearing dissenting opinions from people who were similarly unaware of this legend and did not have my same experience here. Writing reviews is subjective, after all. What didn’t quite work for me might be perfect for someone else!

The twist at the end was excellent. I enjoyed going back and taking note of clues that were shared earlier on in the timeline I hadn’t exactly known how to fit together earlier, especially when it came to the purpose of this ship. It’s difficult to go into much detail without sharing spoilers, although I appreciated the way the author talked around the subject until it was time for the big reveal…much as I am attempting to do now! This isn’t an easy thing to accomplish, but it sure makes for an entertaining reading experience when it’s done as smoothly as it was here.

Among Mirages made me wish for a sequel.

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July 25, 2024 · 1:00 am

The Other Side of the Coin: A Review of A Fairy Tale Murder

Book cover for “A Fairy Tale Murder” by Dulcinea Norton-Smith. Image on cover is a close-up photo of assorted jelly beans. Their colours include black, orange, yellow, purple, green, light green, and red. Title: A Fairy Tale Murder

Author: Dulcinea Norton-Smith

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: May 11, 2011

Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Retelling

Length: 14 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Kids are always good and witches are always bad right? Wrong you idiot! Step inside A Fairy Tale Murder and discover the grisly truth.

Content Warning: Child neglect and abandonment. I will not go into any detail about this in my review.

Review:

So much depends on how you define the phrase happily ever after.

I strongly recommend going into this without reading any spoilers about it ahead of time. This is one of those cases when the plot twists work best, at least in my opinion, if the reader hasn’t been tipped off about them in advance and is hopefully surprised by everything they are about to read. What I can say is that I enjoyed looking at a famous fairy tale from a new perspective. Character development wasn’t something that most of those stories spent a lot of time thinking about, so there is a lot of room to explain why certain characters from them behaved the way they did and how their choices could be interpreted in many different ways if you finally have all of the information instead of only some of it. Kudos to the author for using this approach to breathe fresh life into something so well known.

As much as I liked the premise, I struggled with the plot holes. There were multiple instances of characters either not communicating with each other or not thinking through the rational consequences of their actions. It was understandable when the kids did it as they were traumatized and their brains were still developing, but seeing adults do the same thing so often was hard to figure out. If only a few more scenes had been included to help explain why the characters consistently made decisions that that they should have thought twice about. I so desperately wanted to give this one a higher rating!

Dympna was such an interesting protagonist. It made me smile to read about the details of her life that might have been exaggerated just a little in order to make this feel more magical. Then again, maybe everything happened exactly as she recounted and she was simply someone who broke all sorts of rules about what life in the Middle Ages was like! There is definitely something to be said for leaving such things up to the reader’s imagination and not giving us strict input about how we should interpret them.

A Fairy Tale Murder was a creative look at an old classic. Now I must end this review before I accidentally give any clues as to which one I’m talking about! 

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July 18, 2024 · 1:00 am

Supernatural Business: A Review of Iago Wick and the Vampire Queen

Book cover for Iago Wick and the Vampire Queen (Lovelace & Wick #1.5) by Jennifer Rainey. Image on cover shows a black and white drawing of a woman wearing a late 1800’s style dress and a large, floppy hat. There is a small ruffle of fabric around her neck as the dress covers up every bit of her torso and arms and much of her neck, too. This drawing is surrounded by a drawing of a Victorian-style floral frame that has been drawn on top of a red, wallpaper-like surface. Title: Iago Wick and the Vampire Queen (Lovelace & Wick #1.5) by Jennifer Rainey

Author: Jennifer Rainey

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: August 30, 2017

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Historical, LGBTQ

Length: 79 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

As a demon, Iago Wick has made quite a career out of conjuring mischief and mayhem in the name of Hell, but this time, perhaps he’s gone a bit too far.

After deliberately foiling the plans of a spoiled vampire—all in the name of fun, really!—Iago discovers that the vampire in question is no ordinary bloodsucker. She’s the newly-appointed matriarch of one of the oldest vampire families in America, and she’s very angry.

Soon, Iago is caught in a war with the vampires and their cyborg servants. Will he settle his score with the clan of bloodsuckers or will Iago find himself at the mercy of the Vampire Queen? What precisely is the matter with those strange cybernetic servants, anyway? And most importantly, will Iago ever get the smell of garlic out of his clothes?

“Iago Wick and the Vampire Queen” is a 17,000-word short story prequel to The Lovelace & Wick Series.

Content Warning: Murder and kidnapping. I will not mention these topics in my review.

Review:

Supernatural business is nothing to mess around with.

I enjoyed the quiet and unassuming small town setting. Honestly, the residents of Marlowe probably wouldn’t have believed what was going on behind closed doors in their sleepy community even if one of the main characters had decided to reveal their true identities to everyone. Peaceful places are a good option for hiding in plain sight, and I liked the way the author showed the many ways in which awful deeds can done right under the noses of people who think they know all of the local gossip already.

This novella had a dry sense of humor that I struggled to connect with due to the terrible things that were simultaneously happening to so many of the human characters. I’d read about either one of these things on their own, but the combination of them simply didn’t work for me as a reader. It felt a little too flippant to move between an edgy joke and another description of the ways in which vampires harm the humans around them. This is a subjective piece of criticism, of course, and I’m sure there are a lot of readers out there who love this sort of dark writing style. I’m simply not one of them, and I found myself wishing I could stick to the more lighthearted elements of the plot and skip over the rest.

With that being said, Iago’s personality was such an interesting one. There was a strong, sharp sense of danger surrounding him due to the fact that he’s (obviously) a demon and therefore not exactly the most wholesome fellow around. He had his own moral code that often didn’t match up to what a human might consider a reasonable or kind thing to do, but I did admire the way he stuck to it no matter who or what might have tempted him to break the rules of hell just once.

Iago Wick and the Vampire Queen was a playful read.

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