Book Review: 'Dusgadh Essence of Life'

A Chilling Supernatural Horror (4 stars)

In this first book in Margaret A. Daly's 'Awakening' series not only does the story’s hero, Ember, face a horrific series of attacks, she faces a worse series of revelations about her real identity. As the story is told in the first person, we learn each emerging truth as Ember does. For her and us nothing is what it seemed. This layering of violence, emotion, and a deeply compromised reality makes this a compelling dive into the supernatural. 

Our engagement with Ember would have been stronger if Act 1 had been given over to her earlier normal life. We’re thrown immediately into her struggle against occult surprises at every turn. By seeing and sympathizing with her as a normal young woman we’d have felt even deeper the onslaught of occult forces. 

That aside, the portrait of ruthless evil in the book is very powerful. It overwhelms, exploits, and physically and emotionally ransacks its victims. This is very convincingly and chillingly portrayed. I was very drawn into seeing how Ember would fare against such horrific treatment. 

From the Book Description:

Ember Malloch has no idea her life is about to get turned upside down. Besides the fact that she sees the dead on occasion, she lives an ordinary mundane life. 

Her sister warned her not to provoke the spirits, but Ember has a mind of her own and she defies Becky at every turn. Now, her life as she knows it will be changed forever, as an unbridled strength is unleashed upon her. She will have an awakening like no other as she learns her past, and discovers who she is.

Book Review: Sidney Williams' 'Night Brothers'

Exemplary Horror Thriller (5 stars)

Night Brothers - A Vampire Novel is a chilling blend of straight-up occult horror with the pacing and excitement of an action thriller. The pace accelerates smoothly and in the story’s latter stages moves to its climax at breakneck speed. Alison and Travis have settled down to manage a small-town newspaper when mysterious and lethal animal attacks start occurring. Parallel with that we are shown Navarra’s occult practice, controlling animals to attack residents as cover for her taking their blood to continue her life-in-death. In the story’s middle she takes an interest in Alison, and this unfolds in a superbly controlled manner redolent of such spiritual horror as Henry James' Turn of the Screw. 

Most impressive was the detail and backstory given for all the characters, even relatively minor ones. It’s done with deft and swift economy, never impeding story flow. I realized as I read this how much more powerful mystery and action in any genre become when the reader is given a fuller picture of each character. Thus do character motivation, desire, regrets, preferences, fears, and all the panoply of human emotions percolate in the background as the action unfolds. That said, the story has a multiple protagonist, an ensemble of characters who work together opposing the antagonist, Navarra, and those retainers she gathers about her. Usually I prefer a single heroic protagonist, but this approach works well here.

The story exhibits a rare blend of physical horror, the psychological horror of Navarra’s selective control of minds, and the spiritual horror of her origins, especially in the lengths she’s gone to over the centuries to maintain her line.