Christine Lynn Herman

This was a creepy, awesome atmospheric read. A town in upstate New York that has four founding families with magical powers and the ability to defend the townspeople from “something” that isn’t clearly defined but kills and maims and comes to characters in visions and dreams. “The Gray.” Justin, one son of a founding family is supposed to be the savior—too bad he was born without powers. Violet, a girl from a founding family has moved back to town with her mother—and everyone show more is under strict orders not to tell her anything about what lurks in the woods. Then there is the possibility that some in town may not be willing to go along with the way things have always been. Just great stuff!

This isn’t a Halloween book, necessarily, but would make a wonderful spooky read for that time of year. I loved the way the small-town feel of this book creeped into every scene, from old, lingering friendships that were intimate in some ways and bore old hurts in others. Harper, May and Isaac were wonderful side characters. As we get further in and the mystery is slowly explained, the tension only rachets up further. Violet bears deep scars from the loss of her sister, Rosie, and powers that she didn’t know she possessed might hold the key to changing past events… but not without consequences. Delightfully told.

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader. show less

Sometimes a book niggles at you at every turn, causing you to do the Pick me Up Put me Down game- begging to be read in spurts...

Sometimes it snags and scratches at your patience- repeatedly begging to be thrown across the room at high velocity...

Sometimes it firmly grasps your attention with lyrically verbose writing and promises of better things yet to come...

AND

Sometimes it sticks to you like an industrial strength glue that seems impossible to break free from until the very last word is show more read and the spell is broken...

This book definitely falls squarely within the latter group. It was a creepy, mysterious ride. It wasn't elegant prose, gut-punches in the feels, high octane action or epic battles (although the faceoff at the end was pretty cool) that had me hooked. What had me happily stuck was the ever pressing need to know more... constantly asking "what the heck is going on?" and "What will happen next?".

Christine Lynn Herman sprinkled breadcrumb clues throughout, feeding my greed...my need to know ever more. It was suspenseful, slightly disturbing and the pacing was great. The world building and character development were solid. There were juicy town secrets and Power Plays by both Suped up Humans and Creature alike. Speaking of the dastardly creature... it actually made me second guess who I thought the true monster was at one point BUT in the end it was VERY apparent. There was a modicum of melodrama and the ever popular who did what to whom Blame Game. There was also a lot of "It wasn't me, I'm too righteous for such actions" and finger pointing all around. Reading this little town's deep dark secrets felt illicit. This is definitely how I picture town life in a tiny, non diverse, exceedingly eccentric, homogeneous, Tradition-centric town.

Overall: Was this book Epic? No. Was it deep and poetic?? Also no BUT it was satisfying through and through and I liked it, I really did!

*** I was given a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review *** show less

This is an interesting story concept, but the execution really, really would've benefited from some nuance. All the adults are evil! All the protagonists are angst buckets with no hope in their lives for anything good! All the ordinary citizens are inept prey for the monster!

The whole book felt stagy, as if instead of wandering around a real place with real magic and real people, I was stuck on the set of a teenage melodrama watching actors running their lines and crying on demand. Nothing show more seems to have developed organically—not the town, not the friendships, not the power dynamics or the characters' reactions. Instead, they read as if the author has set them in place just so before cranking the story into motion, each piece given just enough "history" to lend it verisimilitude.

And if the world isn't real, why should I care what happens to the automatons clattering around in it? Why should I have sympathy for their flaws and foibles instead of feeling annoyance at their careless decisions, so conveniently ticking the clockwork of the plot along? What are the stakes? Go ahead, set the monster free...I think I'd rather enjoy watching it destroy everyone before exiting stage left to ominous chords of organ music.... show less

This book was alright but not amazing, because the characters were not quite complex and villainous enough to carry the story.
They were all interesting, but I felt like their feelings and motivations were revealed too early and through telling instead of showing. I would have liked their fears and plans to show through their actions as the book went on rather than summed up in their first chapter. Chapter 1 literally states that Alistair wants to survive, make his family proud, but most of show more all does not want to die and have his brother grieve for him. Great motivation, but this would have been so much better if it was shown instead of summed up.
And for a competition for trained villains and killers, all of them had too many qualms about actually killing. I wanted all four protagonists to be darker to live up to the title! The current story about four teens who are just scared and conflicted and dutiful to their families was not bad in any way, but this book was advertised as something else.

Then there's the tournament. It was the kind of plot and action I wanted, but I felt like I did not know enough about this game or its rules to be truly invested. What exactly does this magic do? How many varieties are there? What are the limits? What is the difference with High Magick? There are Relics and Landmarks whose function and importance I did fully understand until later in the book.

In general, I felt like this book had so much potential, but did not use all of it. This is a world in which there is press and a media spectacle? Isobel was chosen by newspapers, so clearly they have a big influence. There are jeans and punk music and commercial airlines. People nobody knows protest against this tournament. I was hoping all these elements would be integrated a bit more. And there is a book that is banned for drawing the higher government’s attention to the town. The excerpts of it were so great at setting the scene and the world! By the end I was more invested in the mystery of that book than anything else.
The Isobel and Alistair romance felt so dumb and forced? I might read book 2 if those two don't end up together. show less