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Blind Devotion: A Tale of the Van Meter Visitor
There are creatures lurking in our world. Obscure creatures long relegated to myth and legend. They have been sighted by a lucky-or unlucky-few, some have even been photographed, but their existence remains unproven and unrecognized by the scientific community.
These creatures, long thought gone, have somehow survived; creatures from our nightmares haunting the dark places. They swim in our lakes and bays, they soar the night skies, they hunt in the woods. Some are from our past, some from other worlds, and others have always been with us-watching us, fearing us, hunting us.
These are the cryptids, and Systema Paradoxa tells their tales.
***
It's hard to catch a break when you are the son of the town drunk. But one bright glimmer keeps Hank Alexandra Harrer, the orphaned niece of the richest woman in town. Not that their friendship didn't make things harder for him than they already were, but Alex softened the rough edges of his life... Most of the time.
Until she made an unexpected visit to his hidey-hole one night, rousing him from sleep and begging him for help.
When Alex vanishes soon after, along with her pet-an ancient creature Hank swore to keep secret-he lands in jail. Blamed for her disappearance, he's torn between confessing all and keeping faith.
But in the end, Blind Devotion wins out.
These creatures, long thought gone, have somehow survived; creatures from our nightmares haunting the dark places. They swim in our lakes and bays, they soar the night skies, they hunt in the woods. Some are from our past, some from other worlds, and others have always been with us-watching us, fearing us, hunting us.
These are the cryptids, and Systema Paradoxa tells their tales.
***
It's hard to catch a break when you are the son of the town drunk. But one bright glimmer keeps Hank Alexandra Harrer, the orphaned niece of the richest woman in town. Not that their friendship didn't make things harder for him than they already were, but Alex softened the rough edges of his life... Most of the time.
Until she made an unexpected visit to his hidey-hole one night, rousing him from sleep and begging him for help.
When Alex vanishes soon after, along with her pet-an ancient creature Hank swore to keep secret-he lands in jail. Blamed for her disappearance, he's torn between confessing all and keeping faith.
But in the end, Blind Devotion wins out.
Kindle Edition
Published February 21, 2025
2 people want to read
About the author
Ty Drago
21 books66 followersTy Drago is the author of 13 published novels, including the 5 book Undertakers series (MG horror), which is being adapted for the movies. More recently, his horror novel ST. DAMNED was released by Castle Ridge Media in January of 2025 and BLIND DOVATION, his installment novella in the System Paradoxa/Cryptic Crate series launched in February.
He's currently working on...well...a lot.
To find out more, you can try www.tydrago.com. He occasionally blogs.
He's currently working on...well...a lot.
To find out more, you can try www.tydrago.com. He occasionally blogs.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 14, 2025
I enjoyed a previous installment from the Systema Paradoxa series. A different author takes a different cryptid and puts their own spin with their own standalone story. This review will stand on its own and not be a commentary on the entire series. I hadn't heard of the Van Meter Visitor before so halfway through the story, I felt I was at a good place to dig into the real story and see what the author was drawing from.
Within Ty Drago's story, he borrows heavily from the actual events and inserts several POV characters. A previous story took the concepts of Goatman and put a murder mystery spin on it. So, this was a neat story to undertake. However, where the story rises and falls is on the characters. Hank, son of the town's drunk, is friend's with blind girl, Alexandra. Alexandra is teaching him how to be an author and write stories and Hank gives her time away from her overbearing aunt. As characters of the story that interact within the cryptid story they are fine. Some revelation about certain characters pretty much work within the story explanation. What tends to not work are their believability. Hank being an author seems almost like a self-insert of the author here, but Hank never shows any preclivities to being intelligent, writing anything, or being someone who stands out for Alexandra to choose to focus on him. Half of the story is finished by the time you get to the cryptid portion and it meanders for too long without doing much with the characters. Not to get into spoilers, the storyline does have a few interesting explanations within the real story, but the naming of the cryptid and some of the relationship forming is eye-rolling. It was nice to see that some of the townsfolk aren't written like backwater hillbillies who just hate everyone for no reason, but some of them do without reason. Overall, it's not a terrible story with some good work on including elements of the real cryptid story but not an overly exciting one. Final Grade - C+
Within Ty Drago's story, he borrows heavily from the actual events and inserts several POV characters. A previous story took the concepts of Goatman and put a murder mystery spin on it. So, this was a neat story to undertake. However, where the story rises and falls is on the characters. Hank, son of the town's drunk, is friend's with blind girl, Alexandra. Alexandra is teaching him how to be an author and write stories and Hank gives her time away from her overbearing aunt. As characters of the story that interact within the cryptid story they are fine. Some revelation about certain characters pretty much work within the story explanation. What tends to not work are their believability. Hank being an author seems almost like a self-insert of the author here, but Hank never shows any preclivities to being intelligent, writing anything, or being someone who stands out for Alexandra to choose to focus on him. Half of the story is finished by the time you get to the cryptid portion and it meanders for too long without doing much with the characters. Not to get into spoilers, the storyline does have a few interesting explanations within the real story, but the naming of the cryptid and some of the relationship forming is eye-rolling. It was nice to see that some of the townsfolk aren't written like backwater hillbillies who just hate everyone for no reason, but some of them do without reason. Overall, it's not a terrible story with some good work on including elements of the real cryptid story but not an overly exciting one. Final Grade - C+
December 4, 2025
This was a kind of romantic creature feature I didn't expect at all. Hugh and Alex are friends, though Hugh definitely would like to be more than that. But he is the son of the town drunk, and Alex the niece of the wealthiest woman in town. But when a strange creature is spotted in town and Alex vanishes, desperate Hugh is blamed for Alex' disappearance and put into jail. But soon he realizes what really happened to Alex and is drawn into a very ancient and secret world he never would have dreamed of. But with Alex at his side, nothing can go wrong, or can it? Together they face the misunderstanding and prejudiced townspeople. I loved the unexpected development of the story and the deep friendship between the very different Hugh and Alex, and of course the incredible outcome of it all. A very different take on the creature feature theme, but one you should give a try.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews