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John Cleaver #3.5
Next of Kin
We call them demons, for lack of a better word, but the truth is something much more mysterious. In the "I am not a Serial Killer" trilogy, the young sociopath John Cleaver killed three of them to protect his family, but he has no idea what horrors he's stirred up.Elijah Sexton was a god of the ancient world. Now he drives a hearse in a Midwest town and keeps his head down. He avoids the world as much as he can, drinking dead memories while his own mind drifts slowly toward oblivion. But when the memories he drains reveal the presence of another fallen god, Elijah is drawn back into a war between humans and monsters--a war that threatens the woman he doesn't dare to love."Next of Kin" is the introduction to an all-new John Cleaver trilogy, beginning in 2015 with "The Devil's Only Friend."
44 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 27, 2014
52 people are currently reading
3320 people want to read
About the author
Dan Wells
90 books6,053 followersDan Wells is a thriller and science fiction writer. Born in Utah, he spent his early years reading and writing. He is he author of the Partials series (Partials, Isolation, Fragments, and Ruins), the John Cleaver series (I Am Not a Serial Killer, Mr. Monster, and I Don't Want To Kill You), and a few others (The Hollow City, A Night of Blacker Darkness, etc). He was a Campbell nomine for best new writer, and has won a Hugo award for his work on the podcast Writing Excuses; the podcast is also a multiple winner of the Parsec Award.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 207 reviews
November 1, 2014
I really enjoyed the John Cleaver trilogy about a teenage psychopath who quiets his murderous thoughts by killing demons. So when I found out that more books were on their way and this novella ties them together... I decided to check it out ASAP.
The novella is in the POV of a different character. His name is Elijah and he's one of the 'demons'. An ancient creature that steals dead people's thoughts because his own are fading fast.
He keeps to himself and has a job, but when one particular person's memories haunt him with the love the man felt for his wife, he finds himself seeking her out. And because he's been watched by some of his kind, he puts this innocent woman in danger. Does he love her enough to save her?
I really enjoyed this story. It was great to read about a different character in this world, while getting the monster's POV. Also, it was cool to see John through someone else's eyes.
The novella is in the POV of a different character. His name is Elijah and he's one of the 'demons'. An ancient creature that steals dead people's thoughts because his own are fading fast.
He keeps to himself and has a job, but when one particular person's memories haunt him with the love the man felt for his wife, he finds himself seeking her out. And because he's been watched by some of his kind, he puts this innocent woman in danger. Does he love her enough to save her?
I really enjoyed this story. It was great to read about a different character in this world, while getting the monster's POV. Also, it was cool to see John through someone else's eyes.
October 11, 2016
"Even monsters can defend themselves."
Esta es una novela corta que sirve como introducción para la nueva saga de John Cleaver. ¿Me ha gustado? Sí, mucho. Es una historia muy breve pero esta bien escrita y tiene unas frases preciosas.
"I’ve even been murdered, more times than I can ever remember. Every time, though, every single time, the death itself is never the worst part. Leaving is never as bad as the people you leave behind."
En esta novela nuestro personaje principal es Elijah, Dios de los sueños y la memoria, él me ha parecido un personaje muy interesante. Me agradó actitud y sus sentimientos verdaderos por Rosie, la mujer a la que ama. La relación entre ellos es conmovedora y estoy deseando leer más sobre ellos en los nuevos libros.
Además en esta breve historia, también tenemos la presencia de John y me ha encantado su aparición. Me emociona saber que cambios se han dado en su vida y como ha seguido viviendo.
"He was broken, because life had broken him. I recognized this boy, because I recognized that broken expression every time I looked in a mirror."
April 23, 2021
It’s always great to get the other side of the story. This one was told from Elijah’s (or rather, Meshara’s) POV — one of the Gifted, or Withered, as they sometimes call themselves, who has to feed on dead people’s memories to stay alive…
Amazing introduction to the second part of this series! John was totally badass here, even if he appeared for like, half a page. 👍
Amazing introduction to the second part of this series! John was totally badass here, even if he appeared for like, half a page. 👍
May 27, 2019
Justo lo que necesitaba esta mañana, señor Wells, una crisis existencial.
July 10, 2025
Next of Kin is a 35-page sliver of a novella well-worth reading. It is rare to find such a tiny volume that packs a punch with wisdom and emotion. The story offers a unique perspective on memory and friendship. Next of Kin is a bridge between novels, closely connected to the storyline of book four, The Devil's Only Friend.
Read in 2022 and 2025.
Related Works: Wild Seed, What Rose Forgot
About the Author, Dan Wells:
When Dan was five years old he got autographs from both Darth Vader and Mr. Rogers. He owns more than 300 board games. He has visited fifteen different countries, and lived in three. He was diagnosed with hypochondria as a child, but it's mostly gone now. He memorizes poetry for fun. He will eat pretty much anything at least once. He collects ugly ties. He is terrified of needles, mediocrity, and senile dementia. When he dies, his wife has specific instructions to play Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" at his funeral.
Favorite Passages from Next of Kin:
I died again last night.
______
I live from death to death, sometimes two weeks, sometimes three, holding on as long as I can while my brain slips away like sand in an hourglass, grain by grain, loose and crumbling, until I can barely remember my own name and I have to find another. I drink their minds like a trembling addict, desperate and ashamed.
_______
How can I kill my own heart? How can I hurt them when their joys become my own? So I wait for them to die, and then drink in peace.
And my mind is full of death.
______
I longed, sometimes, for that lack of feeling. It would make so many things so much simpler.
_______
Healthy as a horse, empty as a drum.
_______
I had long ago forgotten my original self - anything I had left was cobbled together from the few memories that remained, an ever-shifting set of touchstones and anchor points that was all I had left of a real identity.
_______
Frank hadn't recognized the dark, slick tendril reaching out from the folds of the man's scarf, but I did. It was like a twig of withered soul, black as the pit of Hell, and it reached through Frank's mouth and down his throat to pierce his heart.
_______
And I was deeply unfathomably terrified.
_______
There was a monster stalking our shadows, gaining in power and boldness, and the deepest dungeons of my rat-gnawed mind cried out in horror at his coming.
_______
"I thought I recognized a little of myself," she said, "of my grief, I guess you could say, and I thought maybe here was somebody else going through the same kind of pain I was going through, and maybe he had someone to share it with and maybe he didn't, and I'm certainly not a poster child for quality grief management, but at least I have someone to talk to, I have my sisters and my parents and my in-laws, and maybe I'm completely off base with this and I'm seeing things that aren't there, and you're probably wondering who this psycho is trying to dump all this angst on you right here in the produce section, and I'm sorry to even bother you -- "
_______
The lives you take are not yours to live. The people you miss aren't yours to miss. Don't talk to them, don't tell them the truth, don't tell them anything. Remember them because you have to, but no more. Don't follow them, don't hurt them, don't drag them into the hell of your own impossible life.
_______
"You've forgotten more than the rest of us have ever learned."
_______
"Go back and tell the others I'm fine, and while you're at it, tell them to leave me alone."
_______
"The god of wisdom, the god of beginnings, the god of dreams. They chanted your name in the darkness, dancing naked around the first fires of the ancient world, and now you're here, hiding and tired and worthless, as scared of living as you are of dying."
_______
If my only ambition was the absence of death, was that really a life?
_______
A handful of families sat here and there on couches and chairs, chatting with their mothers and grandmothers, old men and women in wheelchairs and walkers, with oxygen tanks, plastic cannulas draped over ears and faces like translucent alien jewelry.
_______
"It's the least I can do."
The young man's eyebrow went up, just slightly - the first hint of emotion he'd displayed. "I'm sure you could do a lot less if you put your mind to it."
It was a joke, of sorts, and I chuckled, but more at the joke's sudden appearance than at its meaning. It made me feel suddenly dark, like a chill wind had blown through the foyer. "You'd be surprised how little of my mind there is," I said, shaking my head. "Another few years and I'll end up like Merrill, more than likely, just a . . . hollow man. An organic machine, going through the motions."
"So is it worth it?"
. . . .
Was it worth it, making connections with people only to have them disappear?
_______
The world was a broken puzzle, the pieces dumped out in a pile on the floor, close without ever being connected.
"Is it worth it?" I asked suddenly. I couldn't get that boy's words out of my mind. "We spend our whole lives making connections with people who are inevitably, every time and without fail, going to leave us. Unless we leave them first, which might actually be worse. We're building a foundation that cannot last, with materials that will never hold, and time goes on and mountains crumble and everybody dies, everyone and everything that ever was, and I . . . I am so old." I felt it then like I'd never felt it before, the sheer weight of my endless, ageless life, as deep and as black as a bottomless pit. It was age that ruined the Gifted - not time, for time was fleeting, but age itself. The relentless buildup of days and nights and days, of waking and doing and being and sleeping, over and over, forever. "Even my memories fade," I said softly, looking down at the keys on my lanyard, but Rosie stopped me with a single sentence.
"Do you feel that lasting - that staying, that remaining - are the only things that give something meaning?"
We'd thought that once, in the beginning. We wanted immortality, and we were willing to give up anything to get it. I don't remember what I'd given up, but I knew it was a part of me so deep, so central to myself, that I had never been the same person since. None of us had. We had reached for a gift, but we'd reached too far and we had withered instead, like dead vines shriveling in a glaring summer sun.
_______
"A life can be important because it affects other things, and it can have purpose because of what it accomplishes, or what it intends to accomplish, and those are active words. They have movement and life behind them, and when somebody dies, that life goes away, and it feels sometimes like the purpose and importance goes with them."
. . . ..
"Meaning is different. A life has meaning when it means something to someone else, and it can never do that on its own. It means something to me. To you. When that life is gone, it hurts us and it changes us and it feels sometimes like we're tearing apart, but no matter where that life goes, or if it even goes anywhere at all, the things that it means are still there because it meant them to you. And as long as you hold that inside of you, it's not just meant, in the past tense, but meaning, in the present. Right now. You asked if making connections was worth it, and I promise you: it's the only worthwhile thing in the world."
_______
I touched the keys on my lanyard and found myself reciting the litany of maintenance checks for the hearses.
_______
I felt the paranoia creeping in, triggered by the murder but rooted so much deeper. Every shadow was an enemy; every corner and ambush. When you can't remember what lurks beyond your peripheral vision, the world becomes a twisted, threatening madhouse.
_______
The man with the machete reappeared in the hall, covered with greasy ash and bloody splinters. The fight was over, and he'd won. I felt a new wave of fear. These were the ones Gidri had talked about, the other side of our shadow war, and they were far more capable than I'd imagined.
_______
. . . I felt again the horrible sadness of that night, desperate and barely sentient, when I'd searched for a mind and found only my friend, and I couldn't bear to kill him, so I'd tried what I thought was a mercy, and instead I'd damned him to a living hell.
_______
Another connection severed, another loved one gone forever.
_______
"My name's John Cleaver," said the boy, and his dead eyes lit up with the hollow outlines of a smile. "Professional psychopath."
_______
I remembered a starless night on an ancient mountain, and another offer that had doomed us all. Ten thousand years of loss and pain.
_______
I closed my eyes, and dreamed of death.
Read in 2022 and 2025.
Related Works: Wild Seed, What Rose Forgot
About the Author, Dan Wells:
When Dan was five years old he got autographs from both Darth Vader and Mr. Rogers. He owns more than 300 board games. He has visited fifteen different countries, and lived in three. He was diagnosed with hypochondria as a child, but it's mostly gone now. He memorizes poetry for fun. He will eat pretty much anything at least once. He collects ugly ties. He is terrified of needles, mediocrity, and senile dementia. When he dies, his wife has specific instructions to play Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" at his funeral.
Favorite Passages from Next of Kin:
I died again last night.
______
I live from death to death, sometimes two weeks, sometimes three, holding on as long as I can while my brain slips away like sand in an hourglass, grain by grain, loose and crumbling, until I can barely remember my own name and I have to find another. I drink their minds like a trembling addict, desperate and ashamed.
_______
How can I kill my own heart? How can I hurt them when their joys become my own? So I wait for them to die, and then drink in peace.
And my mind is full of death.
______
I longed, sometimes, for that lack of feeling. It would make so many things so much simpler.
_______
Healthy as a horse, empty as a drum.
_______
I had long ago forgotten my original self - anything I had left was cobbled together from the few memories that remained, an ever-shifting set of touchstones and anchor points that was all I had left of a real identity.
_______
Frank hadn't recognized the dark, slick tendril reaching out from the folds of the man's scarf, but I did. It was like a twig of withered soul, black as the pit of Hell, and it reached through Frank's mouth and down his throat to pierce his heart.
_______
And I was deeply unfathomably terrified.
_______
There was a monster stalking our shadows, gaining in power and boldness, and the deepest dungeons of my rat-gnawed mind cried out in horror at his coming.
_______
"I thought I recognized a little of myself," she said, "of my grief, I guess you could say, and I thought maybe here was somebody else going through the same kind of pain I was going through, and maybe he had someone to share it with and maybe he didn't, and I'm certainly not a poster child for quality grief management, but at least I have someone to talk to, I have my sisters and my parents and my in-laws, and maybe I'm completely off base with this and I'm seeing things that aren't there, and you're probably wondering who this psycho is trying to dump all this angst on you right here in the produce section, and I'm sorry to even bother you -- "
_______
The lives you take are not yours to live. The people you miss aren't yours to miss. Don't talk to them, don't tell them the truth, don't tell them anything. Remember them because you have to, but no more. Don't follow them, don't hurt them, don't drag them into the hell of your own impossible life.
_______
"You've forgotten more than the rest of us have ever learned."
_______
"Go back and tell the others I'm fine, and while you're at it, tell them to leave me alone."
_______
"The god of wisdom, the god of beginnings, the god of dreams. They chanted your name in the darkness, dancing naked around the first fires of the ancient world, and now you're here, hiding and tired and worthless, as scared of living as you are of dying."
_______
If my only ambition was the absence of death, was that really a life?
_______
A handful of families sat here and there on couches and chairs, chatting with their mothers and grandmothers, old men and women in wheelchairs and walkers, with oxygen tanks, plastic cannulas draped over ears and faces like translucent alien jewelry.
_______
"It's the least I can do."
The young man's eyebrow went up, just slightly - the first hint of emotion he'd displayed. "I'm sure you could do a lot less if you put your mind to it."
It was a joke, of sorts, and I chuckled, but more at the joke's sudden appearance than at its meaning. It made me feel suddenly dark, like a chill wind had blown through the foyer. "You'd be surprised how little of my mind there is," I said, shaking my head. "Another few years and I'll end up like Merrill, more than likely, just a . . . hollow man. An organic machine, going through the motions."
"So is it worth it?"
. . . .
Was it worth it, making connections with people only to have them disappear?
_______
The world was a broken puzzle, the pieces dumped out in a pile on the floor, close without ever being connected.
"Is it worth it?" I asked suddenly. I couldn't get that boy's words out of my mind. "We spend our whole lives making connections with people who are inevitably, every time and without fail, going to leave us. Unless we leave them first, which might actually be worse. We're building a foundation that cannot last, with materials that will never hold, and time goes on and mountains crumble and everybody dies, everyone and everything that ever was, and I . . . I am so old." I felt it then like I'd never felt it before, the sheer weight of my endless, ageless life, as deep and as black as a bottomless pit. It was age that ruined the Gifted - not time, for time was fleeting, but age itself. The relentless buildup of days and nights and days, of waking and doing and being and sleeping, over and over, forever. "Even my memories fade," I said softly, looking down at the keys on my lanyard, but Rosie stopped me with a single sentence.
"Do you feel that lasting - that staying, that remaining - are the only things that give something meaning?"
We'd thought that once, in the beginning. We wanted immortality, and we were willing to give up anything to get it. I don't remember what I'd given up, but I knew it was a part of me so deep, so central to myself, that I had never been the same person since. None of us had. We had reached for a gift, but we'd reached too far and we had withered instead, like dead vines shriveling in a glaring summer sun.
_______
"A life can be important because it affects other things, and it can have purpose because of what it accomplishes, or what it intends to accomplish, and those are active words. They have movement and life behind them, and when somebody dies, that life goes away, and it feels sometimes like the purpose and importance goes with them."
. . . ..
"Meaning is different. A life has meaning when it means something to someone else, and it can never do that on its own. It means something to me. To you. When that life is gone, it hurts us and it changes us and it feels sometimes like we're tearing apart, but no matter where that life goes, or if it even goes anywhere at all, the things that it means are still there because it meant them to you. And as long as you hold that inside of you, it's not just meant, in the past tense, but meaning, in the present. Right now. You asked if making connections was worth it, and I promise you: it's the only worthwhile thing in the world."
_______
I touched the keys on my lanyard and found myself reciting the litany of maintenance checks for the hearses.
_______
I felt the paranoia creeping in, triggered by the murder but rooted so much deeper. Every shadow was an enemy; every corner and ambush. When you can't remember what lurks beyond your peripheral vision, the world becomes a twisted, threatening madhouse.
_______
The man with the machete reappeared in the hall, covered with greasy ash and bloody splinters. The fight was over, and he'd won. I felt a new wave of fear. These were the ones Gidri had talked about, the other side of our shadow war, and they were far more capable than I'd imagined.
_______
. . . I felt again the horrible sadness of that night, desperate and barely sentient, when I'd searched for a mind and found only my friend, and I couldn't bear to kill him, so I'd tried what I thought was a mercy, and instead I'd damned him to a living hell.
_______
Another connection severed, another loved one gone forever.
_______
"My name's John Cleaver," said the boy, and his dead eyes lit up with the hollow outlines of a smile. "Professional psychopath."
_______
I remembered a starless night on an ancient mountain, and another offer that had doomed us all. Ten thousand years of loss and pain.
_______
I closed my eyes, and dreamed of death.
August 6, 2023
PopSugar 2023: categoría 26: el libro más corto en tu lista de libros por leer
Este libro debería titularse "It's the least I can do". Una frase que se repite una y otra y otra vez. XD
No, ahora en serio, me ha gustado volver a retomar esta serie, aunque haya sido un relato que transcurre en el pasado cercano. Me ha hecho recordar cosas que ya había olvidado y también me ha parecido interesante ver la historia desde otro punto de vista. Y sí, ya que estoy lo digo: mejor leerlo en inglés que la versión en español que leí de la cuarta parte. Sinceramente, era pésima e hizo que no disfrutase de la historia como de verdad se lo merecía.
Este libro debería titularse "It's the least I can do". Una frase que se repite una y otra y otra vez. XD
No, ahora en serio, me ha gustado volver a retomar esta serie, aunque haya sido un relato que transcurre en el pasado cercano. Me ha hecho recordar cosas que ya había olvidado y también me ha parecido interesante ver la historia desde otro punto de vista. Y sí, ya que estoy lo digo: mejor leerlo en inglés que la versión en español que leí de la cuarta parte. Sinceramente, era pésima e hizo que no disfrutase de la historia como de verdad se lo merecía.
June 17, 2019
On the one hand, this was a very enjoyable short story. On the other hand, after reading book 4 I'm not sure if I really think it was a necessary addition and also am entirely unsure if I would recommend reading this before or after. Reading it before introduces the second half of the series and one of the new characters, but also kind of spoils the plot up until the halfway point. Reading it after I think would be entirely pointless because you would already know all of this, albeit from a different point of view. Still, it's interesting to get a POV from one of the 'demons' and it's very short so if you can grab a copy from the library like I did then it's probably worth a read.
July 9, 2014
Please please more Elijah!
That is all.
That is all.
March 3, 2016
A wonderful start to the new era of John Cleaver.
I still advice everyone to start reading the phenomenal series by Dan Wells.
Loved every word. Great job.
I still advice everyone to start reading the phenomenal series by Dan Wells.
Loved every word. Great job.
May 12, 2016
; -; me encantó!
July 22, 2019
This was good. I found it very interesting to be in the mind of one of the "demons." This demon though isn't like the others in that he actually cares about humans. I hope to see him in a future book. I would guess you don't have to read this short story to enjoy the whole series. It doesn't really tell you anything. It's just a nice short installment. 3.5 stars. Hopefully book 4 loan comes thru soon. 😊
June 22, 2015
“I died again last night.” It’s a compelling first sentence to a novella told from the point of view of Elijah Sexton, a demon, and it promises a different and exciting new start to Dan Wells’s JOHN CLEAVER series.
Sexton drinks memories. For a time, he killed people himself, “topping off” his memory as he pleases. Soon, though, imbued with a hundred thousand lives, he could no longer bear to kill. Instead, he works in a morgue and drinks the memories of the newly dead. He lives
"from death to death, sometimes two weeks, sometimes three, holding on as long as I can while my brain slips away like sand in an hourglass, grain by grain, loose and crumbling, until I can barely remember my own name and I have to find another. I drink their minds like a trembling addict, desperate and ashamed."
Other demons mock Sexton for loving humans, instead of using them, but his intimate contact with them made him a de facto member of the human race, his real self lost in the “overwhelming crowd” whose memories have been left in his brain:
"I’ve lived as a banker in Nebraska, as a soldier in the Confederacy, as a Portuguese sailor in the Age of Exploration. I wove silk in the ancient dynasties, I fought and died on the banks of the Nile. The memories sink and surface like flotsam, more painful every time. How can I kill my own heart? How can I hurt them when their joys become my own? So I wait for them to die, and then I drink in peace."
From the very beginning, then, it’s hard not to like, and even feel sorry for, Sexton. He has few friends; his one deep connection is with a man named Merrill Evans, a man suffering from a loss of memory that appears to be Alzheimer’s Disease. Evans is confined to the Whiteflower Assisted Living Center, which Sexton visits regularly. This is a demon with a conscience, a demon even worthy of pity. He is very nearly as fascinating as is John Wayne Cleaver, the star of Wells’s books.
The action begins when Sexton begins to lose his memory a couple of weeks after taking his last draught, a man named Billy Chapman who appears to have died of exposure, who was married to Rosie and loved her deeply. Sexton’s memory always goes quickly towards the end of the period between his drinks, and it is soon apparent that Sexton will need to drink from the very next corpse that comes through the morgue, regardless of its cause of death (Sexton tries to avoid the worst types of deaths, as they are too horrible for him to relive; drowning is especially awful). It is fortunate that a body arrives that appears to be another exposure case, and Sexton drinks him without thinking twice about it. But the drink makes it immediately obvious that the man was killed, and Sexton recognizes the murderer. It’s time to leave town, but Sexton loves Rosie just as Billy did, and he can’t bring himself to leave her.
So the machinery is set in motion, even if John Cleaver hasn’t appeared yet. The way Wells works this story in and around his novel, The Devil’s Only Friend, is masterful. The novel is narrated by Cleaver in the first person, so that what Sexton tells us in this novella fills in some blanks — though ultimately, those blanks are only blanks of emotion, rather than of events. It’s possible to read the novel without having read the novella, but the novel is richer and deeper if the reader has the melancholy of the novella as background. Wells impresses with his ability to weave the two stories around one another. And Sexton has a poetry about him that Cleaver doesn’t, making the prose unexpectedly lovely for a horror novel.
Read Next of Kin either before or after you read The Devil’s Only Friend; it contains no information necessary to the enjoyment of the novel, and the novel will not spoil it. I’m glad I read it first, so that I already had a sense of Elijah’s character, and someone to root for in what is becoming increasingly clear is a war by humanity against the demons. It is a surprisingly gentle tale the complements a violent, angry and disturbing one.
Originally published at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi.... 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.
Sexton drinks memories. For a time, he killed people himself, “topping off” his memory as he pleases. Soon, though, imbued with a hundred thousand lives, he could no longer bear to kill. Instead, he works in a morgue and drinks the memories of the newly dead. He lives
"from death to death, sometimes two weeks, sometimes three, holding on as long as I can while my brain slips away like sand in an hourglass, grain by grain, loose and crumbling, until I can barely remember my own name and I have to find another. I drink their minds like a trembling addict, desperate and ashamed."
Other demons mock Sexton for loving humans, instead of using them, but his intimate contact with them made him a de facto member of the human race, his real self lost in the “overwhelming crowd” whose memories have been left in his brain:
"I’ve lived as a banker in Nebraska, as a soldier in the Confederacy, as a Portuguese sailor in the Age of Exploration. I wove silk in the ancient dynasties, I fought and died on the banks of the Nile. The memories sink and surface like flotsam, more painful every time. How can I kill my own heart? How can I hurt them when their joys become my own? So I wait for them to die, and then I drink in peace."
From the very beginning, then, it’s hard not to like, and even feel sorry for, Sexton. He has few friends; his one deep connection is with a man named Merrill Evans, a man suffering from a loss of memory that appears to be Alzheimer’s Disease. Evans is confined to the Whiteflower Assisted Living Center, which Sexton visits regularly. This is a demon with a conscience, a demon even worthy of pity. He is very nearly as fascinating as is John Wayne Cleaver, the star of Wells’s books.
The action begins when Sexton begins to lose his memory a couple of weeks after taking his last draught, a man named Billy Chapman who appears to have died of exposure, who was married to Rosie and loved her deeply. Sexton’s memory always goes quickly towards the end of the period between his drinks, and it is soon apparent that Sexton will need to drink from the very next corpse that comes through the morgue, regardless of its cause of death (Sexton tries to avoid the worst types of deaths, as they are too horrible for him to relive; drowning is especially awful). It is fortunate that a body arrives that appears to be another exposure case, and Sexton drinks him without thinking twice about it. But the drink makes it immediately obvious that the man was killed, and Sexton recognizes the murderer. It’s time to leave town, but Sexton loves Rosie just as Billy did, and he can’t bring himself to leave her.
So the machinery is set in motion, even if John Cleaver hasn’t appeared yet. The way Wells works this story in and around his novel, The Devil’s Only Friend, is masterful. The novel is narrated by Cleaver in the first person, so that what Sexton tells us in this novella fills in some blanks — though ultimately, those blanks are only blanks of emotion, rather than of events. It’s possible to read the novel without having read the novella, but the novel is richer and deeper if the reader has the melancholy of the novella as background. Wells impresses with his ability to weave the two stories around one another. And Sexton has a poetry about him that Cleaver doesn’t, making the prose unexpectedly lovely for a horror novel.
Read Next of Kin either before or after you read The Devil’s Only Friend; it contains no information necessary to the enjoyment of the novel, and the novel will not spoil it. I’m glad I read it first, so that I already had a sense of Elijah’s character, and someone to root for in what is becoming increasingly clear is a war by humanity against the demons. It is a surprisingly gentle tale the complements a violent, angry and disturbing one.
Originally published at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi.... 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.
April 27, 2022
É um conto e segue a faceta da série que eu menos gosto.
Talvez ainda dê uma oportunidade ao número 4. Talvez.
Talvez ainda dê uma oportunidade ao número 4. Talvez.
August 7, 2018
Alright, so I accidentally read The Devil's Only Friend (book 4) before I read Next of Kin because I didn't realize this novella was technically book 3.5 in the John Cleaver Series.
When I think of novellas I usually think of a really quick read, maybe a hundred pages or so. When Dan Wells thinks of a novella..... he writes less than 40 pages.
But I'm not arguing because I really needed those 34 pages!
Next of Kin explored the life of Elijah Sexton, a Gifted who happens to regularly visit the same hospital Brooke has been placed in under protective custody. But when she recognizes him, John and his ragtag team of demon hunters start watching his every move. What they don't realize is that he's one of the good ones. He's not using his gift for evil, he's using it to torment himself. He's almost created his own personal hell from making the mistake to become immortal.
It's a short story but Elijah is honestly one of my favorite characters. I would love to see another series branch out as the Gifted/Withered as the main character, chronicling their human life and decision to become a Godlike creature.
This review and reviews from the rest of the series can be found at A Reader's Diary!
When I think of novellas I usually think of a really quick read, maybe a hundred pages or so. When Dan Wells thinks of a novella..... he writes less than 40 pages.
But I'm not arguing because I really needed those 34 pages!
Next of Kin explored the life of Elijah Sexton, a Gifted who happens to regularly visit the same hospital Brooke has been placed in under protective custody. But when she recognizes him, John and his ragtag team of demon hunters start watching his every move. What they don't realize is that he's one of the good ones. He's not using his gift for evil, he's using it to torment himself. He's almost created his own personal hell from making the mistake to become immortal.
It's a short story but Elijah is honestly one of my favorite characters. I would love to see another series branch out as the Gifted/Withered as the main character, chronicling their human life and decision to become a Godlike creature.
This review and reviews from the rest of the series can be found at A Reader's Diary!
June 25, 2019
Basically the perfect Novella. It got me super hyped to see how out of control this series is going to become!
March 26, 2020
Most of this novella was 3 stars but the last 2 scenes were 5 stars so this is 4 stars. And excellent! Seeing this world through the perspective of one of the demons was really cool.
June 2, 2024
Next of Kin by Dan Wells
This is a Short fast paced thriller from the John Cleaver series. Elijah Sexton doesn’t care for much in life, but he does care for an old friend that is suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s. He goes often to the long term facility to see him.
Unfortunately, Elijah is not what he appears.
“I am neither human nor Gifted, and even the ones who share my disdain for the others’ bloodlust—the ones who call us Cursed or Withered or Lost—don’t really have a place in my gap-riddled mind.” Elijah is considered a god, having sacrificed something important for immortal life, but now he must drain other memories to Sustain him in life.
The other Withered consider him a fool, believing that he is choosing humans over being a god. And if he can’t chose the correct way, than they will make him by destroying someone he loves.
“The others called me a fool for loving them, these tiny mortals with their tiny lives, but they never understood that I was one of them now. That my mind contained a hundred thousand human selves, and whatever fragment was me—my true self—was lost forever in that overwhelming crowd.”
But as he loses another memory, he needs to feed. And if his willpower can keep him from killing to drain someone’s memories, maybe hem can get a small bit of happiness. But with the Withered now at his heels, wanting him to join them in their plan of human destruction, none of them anticipate the arrival of John Cleaver and the specialized team sent to eradicate the withered, once and for all.
“The memories sink and surface like flotsam, more painful every time. How can I kill my own heart? How can I hurt them when their joys become my own? So I wait for them to die, and then I drink in peace.”
While this is a super short story, the book was fast paced leaving you wondering which side would Elijah do. Definitely recommend
This is a Short fast paced thriller from the John Cleaver series. Elijah Sexton doesn’t care for much in life, but he does care for an old friend that is suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s. He goes often to the long term facility to see him.
Unfortunately, Elijah is not what he appears.
“I am neither human nor Gifted, and even the ones who share my disdain for the others’ bloodlust—the ones who call us Cursed or Withered or Lost—don’t really have a place in my gap-riddled mind.” Elijah is considered a god, having sacrificed something important for immortal life, but now he must drain other memories to Sustain him in life.
The other Withered consider him a fool, believing that he is choosing humans over being a god. And if he can’t chose the correct way, than they will make him by destroying someone he loves.
“The others called me a fool for loving them, these tiny mortals with their tiny lives, but they never understood that I was one of them now. That my mind contained a hundred thousand human selves, and whatever fragment was me—my true self—was lost forever in that overwhelming crowd.”
But as he loses another memory, he needs to feed. And if his willpower can keep him from killing to drain someone’s memories, maybe hem can get a small bit of happiness. But with the Withered now at his heels, wanting him to join them in their plan of human destruction, none of them anticipate the arrival of John Cleaver and the specialized team sent to eradicate the withered, once and for all.
“The memories sink and surface like flotsam, more painful every time. How can I kill my own heart? How can I hurt them when their joys become my own? So I wait for them to die, and then I drink in peace.”
While this is a super short story, the book was fast paced leaving you wondering which side would Elijah do. Definitely recommend
November 8, 2020
"More than anyone else, this book owes a debt of gratitude to my grandfather, Lowell Alley Wells, who was one of the greatest men I’ve ever met, and whose mind was eaten alive by Alzheimer’s Disease. I don’t think I could have become a horror writer without living through that horror."
Am I glad that I read this novella, yes. Do I think it was necessary, no. Labeled as 3.5 but honestly has scenes from book 4, just seen through the POV of one of the demons, or withered as we come to know them.
What I did think was interesting about this novella was that it actually gave us more insight into Dan Wells as an author, and person. The withered we meet here, Elijah, has to take memories in order to keep his mind from slipping away. And he spends quite a bit of time visiting his friend that is suffering from what appears to be early onset Alzheimer's. In Dan's dedication of the novella, he mentions that he witnessed the horror of his grandfather being ravished by the same disease. I found that knowing this made the descriptions of the disease in the novella, and the interactions with the characters suffering even more heartbreaking. They weren't just cleverly imaginative words, they were personal tragedy bared for all of us readers to witness. And it read very genuine because of that.
Am I glad that I read this novella, yes. Do I think it was necessary, no. Labeled as 3.5 but honestly has scenes from book 4, just seen through the POV of one of the demons, or withered as we come to know them.
What I did think was interesting about this novella was that it actually gave us more insight into Dan Wells as an author, and person. The withered we meet here, Elijah, has to take memories in order to keep his mind from slipping away. And he spends quite a bit of time visiting his friend that is suffering from what appears to be early onset Alzheimer's. In Dan's dedication of the novella, he mentions that he witnessed the horror of his grandfather being ravished by the same disease. I found that knowing this made the descriptions of the disease in the novella, and the interactions with the characters suffering even more heartbreaking. They weren't just cleverly imaginative words, they were personal tragedy bared for all of us readers to witness. And it read very genuine because of that.
July 21, 2019
I just don't want these books to end!!! I can't wait to get the next three in the mail!!!!
February 20, 2022
is this novella like a bridge between both trilogies?
edit: upgrade to 3 stars for the line "professional psychopath"lol I guess, John isn't a sociopath anymore?
edit: upgrade to 3 stars for the line "professional psychopath"lol I guess, John isn't a sociopath anymore?
August 30, 2022
world building oooooo im pumped for where we are going
April 7, 2025
I always love to hear the other side of the story. I wish we could get more insight on the rest of them too. Brilliant.
May 23, 2017
I thought I had read this book awhile back but I guess not - anyway good prequel to the next trilogy.
October 23, 2025
Goes to show you don’t need a lot of pages to explain a lot of details. The concept of this book was interesting to me and a great lead into book 4.
January 4, 2023
This novella is a must-read for those who are invested in the series. It was only about a 30-minute read and was written from the perspective of one of the Withered. I was told that this was meant to be read between books 3 and 4, but I read it after book 4, which is much more appropriate, in my opinion. If you read it after book 3, then you will get hit with a few spoilers, so I would recommend waiting. This was a really neat read because it gives you a little more insight into the lore of the Withered. There isn't much more that I can say that isn't spoiler-y, but if you're invested in the series, be sure to grab this one!
May 12, 2016
I love the original John Cleaver trilogy. The best thing about the series is John Cleaver's voice. John's a teenaged psychopath turning his murderous tendencies towards monster hunting. The glimpse we get inside his head is utterly unnerving at times. So it's hardly surprising that the best part about this excellent novella, which is to be the bridge between the original books and the upcoming sequels, is again the main character's (who is not Cleaver this time) inner voice. Dan Wells has a real knack for getting inside the head of disturbed individuals.
Another thing that probably helped make this short so great is that between the dedication to his grandfather and the subject matter of the story, you can tell that this story was a personal one for the author. It feels very genuine.
I've been looking forward to the continuation of John Cleaver's adventures ever since a few years ago I heard there were to be moreo. This story has raised my expectations even higher.
Another thing that probably helped make this short so great is that between the dedication to his grandfather and the subject matter of the story, you can tell that this story was a personal one for the author. It feels very genuine.
I've been looking forward to the continuation of John Cleaver's adventures ever since a few years ago I heard there were to be moreo. This story has raised my expectations even higher.
May 14, 2022
4,5 ⭐
Es el libro 3.5 (digámoslo así) de la saga de John Cleaver. Creo que no es necesario leerlo para empezar el cuarto libro, pero entenderías mejor al demonio que narra este relato y por el final estoy casi segura de que saldrá en el siguiente.
Me gustó leer desde la perspectiva de uno de los monstruos que caza John. Y a diferencia de sus compañeros monstruos/demonios, es más humano. Me gustó estar en la mente de este personaje, incluso diría que le agarré afecto. Y el final solo hizo que me entrarán más ansias por empezar el cuarto.
Recomiendo la saga John Cleaver: tal vez no sea una obra maestra, pero es una buena historia que entretiene y puedes llegar a disfrutar. John, al menos para mí, es un personaje que me encanta.
(No soy de escribir reseñas, no estoy acostumbrada, pero trataré de escribir más.)
Es el libro 3.5 (digámoslo así) de la saga de John Cleaver. Creo que no es necesario leerlo para empezar el cuarto libro, pero entenderías mejor al demonio que narra este relato y por el final estoy casi segura de que saldrá en el siguiente.
Me gustó leer desde la perspectiva de uno de los monstruos que caza John. Y a diferencia de sus compañeros monstruos/demonios, es más humano. Me gustó estar en la mente de este personaje, incluso diría que le agarré afecto. Y el final solo hizo que me entrarán más ansias por empezar el cuarto.
Recomiendo la saga John Cleaver: tal vez no sea una obra maestra, pero es una buena historia que entretiene y puedes llegar a disfrutar. John, al menos para mí, es un personaje que me encanta.
(No soy de escribir reseñas, no estoy acostumbrada, pero trataré de escribir más.)
March 4, 2019
It was quite interesting and refreshing to experience Wells' world of demons from a different set of eyes - a demon's eyes in fact (or if you prefer . . . Withered, Cursed, Gifted). Elijah Sexton was a fantastic protagonist, and as I'm writing this, I'm in the part of book 4 where Elijah still has more of a role to play. This novella is woven so much into the book 4 that I would say it is a mandatory read for those completing the sequel trilogy. It's really clever how the books overlap and build on each other. Either way, this is a great story and gives me great hope for Wells will take his expanded world in the following books.
January 5, 2017
I loved this short add-on story to the John Cleaver series. It gave a small yet satisfying look into the life of one of the "demons" that John comes across. I enjoyed seeing how this lovable and misunderstood character went about his tragic life and would definitely recommend any John Cleaver fans not to skip over this story.
June 22, 2022
Wow! Just Wow!
And the Tide has turned!!!
I LOVE this series so much! I cannot express how much I love this series!
It is so good! And what a BRILLIANT WAY to segway into the new "era" so to speak of the series.
I admire when authors can write from other povs. It shows great talent and technique and enhances the storyline so much more.
Yay! Moving on to the next book!
And the Tide has turned!!!
I LOVE this series so much! I cannot express how much I love this series!
It is so good! And what a BRILLIANT WAY to segway into the new "era" so to speak of the series.
I admire when authors can write from other povs. It shows great talent and technique and enhances the storyline so much more.
Yay! Moving on to the next book!
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