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Thorns: An Urban Fantasy Adventure
Finn Silvers survived a contract with a powerful demon. Surely, he can handle whatever working at a pizzeria dishes out.
A new city, a new job, and new friends; that’s what Finn expected to find when he moved in with his aunt. He didn’t anticipate the new romance, another ingredient to his new life. But Finn has made some mistakes that aren’t easily overlooked, so things might boil over before they’ve begun to even simmer.
If that’s not enough, a new drug called Thorn has taken hold of the city, threatening to ruin his peaceful, pizza-filled days. Finn’s already dealt with enough calamities for one lifetime, but he’ll have to decide whether to ignore this one and hope things get better, or stick his hands into the fire and risk waking up a part of his past he’d thought he left behind.
Are some things better left sleeping? Finn must decide, because he isn’t about to give up after his first slice of a normal life.
A new city, a new job, and new friends; that’s what Finn expected to find when he moved in with his aunt. He didn’t anticipate the new romance, another ingredient to his new life. But Finn has made some mistakes that aren’t easily overlooked, so things might boil over before they’ve begun to even simmer.
If that’s not enough, a new drug called Thorn has taken hold of the city, threatening to ruin his peaceful, pizza-filled days. Finn’s already dealt with enough calamities for one lifetime, but he’ll have to decide whether to ignore this one and hope things get better, or stick his hands into the fire and risk waking up a part of his past he’d thought he left behind.
Are some things better left sleeping? Finn must decide, because he isn’t about to give up after his first slice of a normal life.
285 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 8, 2024
2 people are currently reading
12 people want to read
About the author
Walt S. Williams
1 book2 followersWalt S. Williams is the pen name of Will Stalcup, Virginia-based urban and high fantasy author. Born and raised in the DC suburbs, Will spent his childhood devouring any fantasy media he could get his hands on. At the age of thirteen, his elder brother introduced him to National Novel Writing Month. This proved to be a watershed moment in his life, as for the first time, Will attempted to produce something fantasy-related, rather than consume.
After earning a degree in computer science from the College of William & Mary, Will got a job teaching English in Japan, where his love of writing truly flourished. Since returning from his time abroad, Will spends as much time as possible putting pen to page and crafting the sorts of stories that inspired his lifelong love of all things fantastical.
After earning a degree in computer science from the College of William & Mary, Will got a job teaching English in Japan, where his love of writing truly flourished. Since returning from his time abroad, Will spends as much time as possible putting pen to page and crafting the sorts of stories that inspired his lifelong love of all things fantastical.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 1, 2025
NON-SPOILER REVIEW:
What I liked:
+ This book is an easy read! I devoured it all in one day!! Story drops you right into what seems like a normal setting until the first reference to an established government organisation (one we obviously don't have IRL) smacks you right in the face as a clever reminder that this is an urban fantasy. Very good setup that introduces a lot of mystery and unanswered questions about our protagonist, with just enough detail drip-fed to the reader to keep you interested and playing detective as you read.
+ This book was written with a lot of empathy and this shows through the protagonist's interactions with different characters of various backgrounds. Considering the book's commentary on rough upbringings and how our environment/community can shape us to make decisions both good and bad, this slow-to-judge perspective on life is an admirable philosophy and one I enjoyed taking away from the book.
+ The magic system was very intriguing and I enjoyed the idea of matching personality traits to power traits – It helps the reader make connections and imagine the situations in the book with decent accuracy, even when the full system and key information hasn’t been revealed yet. It’s very interesting to imagine vice/virtue combinations not yet fully articulated and to imagine where the story might go next.
+ The story is told pretty tightly, with all time spent describing characters or settings used wisely as setup for future plot developments. The time I spent learning about interpersonal relationships and imagining the places that the characters visited was not wasted, and I was rewarded with a richer emotional experience for my investment.
+ The characters introduced are pretty colourful and easy to remember/differentiate. It made reading about their various interpersonal issues pretty entertaining and raised the stakes in the second half of the story.
+ My friend wrote this book and I can see him reflected in the story, the characters, and the perspective. It made reading all the more enjoyable. :)
What I would like to see more of:
+ I am very intrigued by the relationship between the protagonist and his demon. The interactions they have in this book hint at a very rich, emotionally-charged relationship that I would love to delve into and unpack and watch develop in future installments. Everybody loves an enemies-to-besties story!
+ I am also interested to learn more about the paranormal life that the protagonist left behind, as what is hinted in this book seems full of exciting adventures and interpersonal drama. I would also love to learn more about the big blow-up fight that motivated the protagonist to leave his previous arrangement and travel to where he is at the beginning of this book. And potentially a conflict between old and new romantic interests..? Could be spicy.
+ There also seems to still be unresolved trauma when it comes to the protagonist, his family, his childhood home/community, and his own sense of self. I would be interested to see this unpacked and how these severed relationships could potentially be rebuilt. The book makes pretty clear that the protagonist’s past weighs on him and he carries around his trauma even when he thinks he’s moved past it, so I would enjoy watching him find some actual peace and resolution. And growth!
+ I am fascinated to learn more about the world in general given that these paranormal contracts exist among a ‘normal’ human society! I love what the author has thought-through already and am interested to explore more of this universe! GIVE ME MORE!
What I liked:
+ This book is an easy read! I devoured it all in one day!! Story drops you right into what seems like a normal setting until the first reference to an established government organisation (one we obviously don't have IRL) smacks you right in the face as a clever reminder that this is an urban fantasy. Very good setup that introduces a lot of mystery and unanswered questions about our protagonist, with just enough detail drip-fed to the reader to keep you interested and playing detective as you read.
+ This book was written with a lot of empathy and this shows through the protagonist's interactions with different characters of various backgrounds. Considering the book's commentary on rough upbringings and how our environment/community can shape us to make decisions both good and bad, this slow-to-judge perspective on life is an admirable philosophy and one I enjoyed taking away from the book.
+ The magic system was very intriguing and I enjoyed the idea of matching personality traits to power traits – It helps the reader make connections and imagine the situations in the book with decent accuracy, even when the full system and key information hasn’t been revealed yet. It’s very interesting to imagine vice/virtue combinations not yet fully articulated and to imagine where the story might go next.
+ The story is told pretty tightly, with all time spent describing characters or settings used wisely as setup for future plot developments. The time I spent learning about interpersonal relationships and imagining the places that the characters visited was not wasted, and I was rewarded with a richer emotional experience for my investment.
+ The characters introduced are pretty colourful and easy to remember/differentiate. It made reading about their various interpersonal issues pretty entertaining and raised the stakes in the second half of the story.
+ My friend wrote this book and I can see him reflected in the story, the characters, and the perspective. It made reading all the more enjoyable. :)
What I would like to see more of:
+ I am very intrigued by the relationship between the protagonist and his demon. The interactions they have in this book hint at a very rich, emotionally-charged relationship that I would love to delve into and unpack and watch develop in future installments. Everybody loves an enemies-to-besties story!
+ I am also interested to learn more about the paranormal life that the protagonist left behind, as what is hinted in this book seems full of exciting adventures and interpersonal drama. I would also love to learn more about the big blow-up fight that motivated the protagonist to leave his previous arrangement and travel to where he is at the beginning of this book. And potentially a conflict between old and new romantic interests..? Could be spicy.
+ There also seems to still be unresolved trauma when it comes to the protagonist, his family, his childhood home/community, and his own sense of self. I would be interested to see this unpacked and how these severed relationships could potentially be rebuilt. The book makes pretty clear that the protagonist’s past weighs on him and he carries around his trauma even when he thinks he’s moved past it, so I would enjoy watching him find some actual peace and resolution. And growth!
+ I am fascinated to learn more about the world in general given that these paranormal contracts exist among a ‘normal’ human society! I love what the author has thought-through already and am interested to explore more of this universe! GIVE ME MORE!
Want to read
August 31, 2024This is not a full review. I read through the beginning of all 300 SPFBOX contest entries. This was a book I wanted to read more of.
A young man with a new demon contract in a world where that’s how people gain powers goes to live with his aunt in the city.
The 3rd-person close prose here is perfectly competent, introducing us to character and setting with an ease that I found totally readable. This opening takes a cleverly subtle approach that I want to say more about…
The opening is mundane, but active. Our young MC is coming to live in the big city. He gets off the train and gawks at the view, the gets embarrassed about holding up the foot traffic. All perfectly ordinary. A quiet beginning.
Except our MC is nervous about more than just being somewhere new. He’s nervous about getting through the security check.
Playing everything as ordinary and unremarkable as possible, this opening reveals bit by bit that people in this world make pacts with demons for power. The kind of demon changes the kind of power they get.
Nothing special about that, our narration would have us believe. Just another day. Except there is something special about the demon our MC is harboring. It is not what it appears to be.
But that mystery and the difficulty of the last 5 years of our MCs life up to this point are played tantalizingly close to the vest. There is much, much more for us to learn.
The opening contrasts the mundane with the demonically extra-ordinary well, pretending to be as sleepy as possible - going through security, meeting the attractive aunt, getting a cell phone for the first time …
But all the while, something big is lurking just beneath the surface. I can’t wait to find out just what it is, and to see more of this world come into focus. A perfectly focused opening. I’m in!
A young man with a new demon contract in a world where that’s how people gain powers goes to live with his aunt in the city.
The 3rd-person close prose here is perfectly competent, introducing us to character and setting with an ease that I found totally readable. This opening takes a cleverly subtle approach that I want to say more about…
The opening is mundane, but active. Our young MC is coming to live in the big city. He gets off the train and gawks at the view, the gets embarrassed about holding up the foot traffic. All perfectly ordinary. A quiet beginning.
Except our MC is nervous about more than just being somewhere new. He’s nervous about getting through the security check.
Playing everything as ordinary and unremarkable as possible, this opening reveals bit by bit that people in this world make pacts with demons for power. The kind of demon changes the kind of power they get.
Nothing special about that, our narration would have us believe. Just another day. Except there is something special about the demon our MC is harboring. It is not what it appears to be.
But that mystery and the difficulty of the last 5 years of our MCs life up to this point are played tantalizingly close to the vest. There is much, much more for us to learn.
The opening contrasts the mundane with the demonically extra-ordinary well, pretending to be as sleepy as possible - going through security, meeting the attractive aunt, getting a cell phone for the first time …
But all the while, something big is lurking just beneath the surface. I can’t wait to find out just what it is, and to see more of this world come into focus. A perfectly focused opening. I’m in!
September 22, 2024
Thorns is a fun, intriguing introduction to the Finn Silvers series! The first half of the book focuses on introducing the setting, characters, and building up the mystery and suspense, which works well for the more action-heavy second half. The writing style is quick and clean; not overly descriptive, but it is descriptive where it needs to be, a bit tongue-in-cheek, with some fun banter between the characters. Finn is a very relatable main character, and I enjoyed the slow reveal of his background and the circumstances that led to his move to working at the pizzeria - I thought it was foreshadowed nicely and very well-executed in the context of the plot, the conflict, and the character dynamics that build up to the final "reveal". I was also surprised at how much I enjoyed just reading about Finn working at his aunt's pizzeria; the author managed to make most, if not all, of those scenes interesting and compelling in some way.
We get some of the broad strokes surrounding the world of contracts and those who take them on, but not many of the specifics are revealed unless they are relevant to the scene/circumstances that Finn is dealing with, which makes sense because he is trying to put that life behind him. I thought the worldbuilding was interesting, but I don't think the story really delved into some of the foundations of the world (e.g. where the demons come from exactly), which left me with questions but ultimately did not affect my enjoyment of the book. It does seem like more of it will be revealed and expanded upon in subsequent books, so I would definitely recommend this if series you like crime/mystery vibes, more 'gritty' supernatural or paranormal settings, urban fantasy where the supernatural is integrated into the norm - or even just pizza
We get some of the broad strokes surrounding the world of contracts and those who take them on, but not many of the specifics are revealed unless they are relevant to the scene/circumstances that Finn is dealing with, which makes sense because he is trying to put that life behind him. I thought the worldbuilding was interesting, but I don't think the story really delved into some of the foundations of the world (e.g. where the demons come from exactly), which left me with questions but ultimately did not affect my enjoyment of the book. It does seem like more of it will be revealed and expanded upon in subsequent books, so I would definitely recommend this if series you like crime/mystery vibes, more 'gritty' supernatural or paranormal settings, urban fantasy where the supernatural is integrated into the norm - or even just pizza
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October 17, 2024Review and eating to come.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews