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Fearoics
As a queer Jew, Ofrey Weiss can’t find his place. He’s too scared to join the Israel Defense Force, too weak to fight off his abusive dad, and too insecure to talk to his crush, David. But when David asks Ofrey for help in breaking and entering, they piss off a thousand-year-old demon and end up stealing a portion of its power. Now, despite Ofrey's new abilities, he suddenly has a whole host of other things to be scared of. It soon becomes clear that if Ofrey doesn't grow a spine soon and learn how to use his powers, not even the IDF will be able to save him and his friends from hell's fury.
This dark fantasy-superhero story explores the conflict between indoctrination and sexual identity, tackling hard-hitting issues such as homophobia and racism. Due to mature themes it is recommended for readers sixteen and up.
This dark fantasy-superhero story explores the conflict between indoctrination and sexual identity, tackling hard-hitting issues such as homophobia and racism. Due to mature themes it is recommended for readers sixteen and up.
503 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 18, 2025
4 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 21, 2025
This was a lot.
This book starts typical gay nerd, Ofrey, crushing on a cute boy, David, who bullies him and tricks him into a dangerous situation. This leaves Ofrey at the mercy of a trio that "gives" him a symbiote that feeds off his fear and allows him to Hulk out in certain situations. Unfortunately, though, when the nautilus symbiote isn't feeding off Ofrey's fear/adrenaline, it's feeding off of him and will kill him if he can't come up with an alternative solution. So he's befriended by a girl name Avi who, along with David, seem to want to help Ofrey get free of the parasite.
"Seem to" being the real key, because they only want to use the superpowered Ofrey for their own agenda. We also have Ofrey's sister, Shira; a gay Palestinian named Zaharat (called Harry); Claire, one of the three who implanted the symbiote in Ofrey and Abdiel, the bully, as the main cast for the first 56% of the book.
In this part, it's pretty typical young adult superhero fiction with David being an absolutely horrible person yet Ofrey still wanting them just because of how good looking David is. There are serious topics like homophobia, bullying, physical abuse by a parent, gender dysphoria and violence/destruction from the Isreal/Palestine conflict, but those are in the background while Ofrey tries to figure out what to do about the nautilus and sort through the instalust he feels for most males he meets to figure out the real human connection that he wants.
Throughout that teen drama, the naphili are fascinating. I love everything about their origins and uses. It is without doubt the best part of the whole story and brings a delightful sci-fi/horror to the mix.
Then Thoth (Abdiel, surprise!) comes in as an incredibly interesting character. He does truly horrible things and makes others do terrible things through a "brain cricket" that goes up their noses, burrows in their brains and gives them 3 tasks to complete. It's such a gross, scary idea and I loved it!
That is very much the end of my love for this book. The second half goes undeniably dark with character death, animal death, gore, sexual assualt of an unconscious man to harvest semen, fatphobia, "recruits" forced to carry out executions, torture, body mutilation as punishment, rape, attempted rape, a minor attracted person, an accidental body swap, violation of the body the main character swaps into, body horror, a heinous character death fakeout and a cliffhanger ending because, SURPRISE, this is just book one!
Yes, this is listed as a dark story and I absolutely should have read the trigger warnings, but nothing could have prepared me for how suddenly this all goes awful. Ofrey ends up a prisoner in a place not friendly to homosexuals. Except the obese man in charge has a liking for young boys. He's one of the few male characters that Ofrey has no attraction to because why would anyone be attracted to a fat person, especially when they're so grossly fat and sleazy, abusing their position of power to rape young men like Ofrey. Don't try and tell me it isn't fatphobic because if the author can make a beautiful young man like Malik a minor attracted person when, as Ofrey says, PDFs "were supposed to be gross old men who couldn’t get a woman so they preyed on victims that couldn’t defend themselves" then they could have subverted expections for the commander and not made him a copy of the villain in so many books. I'm honestly at a loss to express how much I hated this part of the story.
Malik is a fascinating character and I hate pretty much everything that was done to/with him. Very much like Kenny from the Black Mirror episode "Shut Up and Dance," we're given all this time to like Malik as a character. Even with the twist, I still liked him.
What this book implies that Ofrey did while swapped into Malik's body is an unforgivable violation to a character who clearly stated they are not gay and had been molested from age 3 to high school just because they're so pretty. Ofrey's objectification was bad enough. This crossed boundaries that ruined Ofrey as a character for me.
Do not even get me started on the fakeout death or stupid bodyswap at the end. I would need a YouTube channel and a several hours long video to get all my ranting done.
So, conclusion. This gets a star for being available to borrow on KU AND a bonus star for that borrow coming with the audiobook. But that bonus star is lost when you listen to the audiobook with its many discrepancies from the ebook, chunks of story not narrated like the ebook was edited and added to after the audiobook was recorded AND the narration "concludes" suddenly with about 10 pages still to be read. A second star for the originality and interesting dynamics of the naphili. A third star because, despite all its flaws, I was engrossed in this from start to finish. I absolutely want to cancel that star out for everything that happens in the second half and how the book ends, but I will resist that urge.
This book starts typical gay nerd, Ofrey, crushing on a cute boy, David, who bullies him and tricks him into a dangerous situation. This leaves Ofrey at the mercy of a trio that "gives" him a symbiote that feeds off his fear and allows him to Hulk out in certain situations. Unfortunately, though, when the nautilus symbiote isn't feeding off Ofrey's fear/adrenaline, it's feeding off of him and will kill him if he can't come up with an alternative solution. So he's befriended by a girl name Avi who, along with David, seem to want to help Ofrey get free of the parasite.
"Seem to" being the real key, because they only want to use the superpowered Ofrey for their own agenda. We also have Ofrey's sister, Shira; a gay Palestinian named Zaharat (called Harry); Claire, one of the three who implanted the symbiote in Ofrey and Abdiel, the bully, as the main cast for the first 56% of the book.
In this part, it's pretty typical young adult superhero fiction with David being an absolutely horrible person yet Ofrey still wanting them just because of how good looking David is. There are serious topics like homophobia, bullying, physical abuse by a parent, gender dysphoria and violence/destruction from the Isreal/Palestine conflict, but those are in the background while Ofrey tries to figure out what to do about the nautilus and sort through the instalust he feels for most males he meets to figure out the real human connection that he wants.
Throughout that teen drama, the naphili are fascinating. I love everything about their origins and uses. It is without doubt the best part of the whole story and brings a delightful sci-fi/horror to the mix.
Then Thoth (Abdiel, surprise!) comes in as an incredibly interesting character. He does truly horrible things and makes others do terrible things through a "brain cricket" that goes up their noses, burrows in their brains and gives them 3 tasks to complete. It's such a gross, scary idea and I loved it!
That is very much the end of my love for this book. The second half goes undeniably dark with character death, animal death, gore, sexual assualt of an unconscious man to harvest semen, fatphobia, "recruits" forced to carry out executions, torture, body mutilation as punishment, rape, attempted rape, a minor attracted person, an accidental body swap, violation of the body the main character swaps into, body horror, a heinous character death fakeout and a cliffhanger ending because, SURPRISE, this is just book one!
Yes, this is listed as a dark story and I absolutely should have read the trigger warnings, but nothing could have prepared me for how suddenly this all goes awful. Ofrey ends up a prisoner in a place not friendly to homosexuals. Except the obese man in charge has a liking for young boys. He's one of the few male characters that Ofrey has no attraction to because why would anyone be attracted to a fat person, especially when they're so grossly fat and sleazy, abusing their position of power to rape young men like Ofrey. Don't try and tell me it isn't fatphobic because if the author can make a beautiful young man like Malik a minor attracted person when, as Ofrey says, PDFs "were supposed to be gross old men who couldn’t get a woman so they preyed on victims that couldn’t defend themselves" then they could have subverted expections for the commander and not made him a copy of the villain in so many books. I'm honestly at a loss to express how much I hated this part of the story.
Malik is a fascinating character and I hate pretty much everything that was done to/with him. Very much like Kenny from the Black Mirror episode "Shut Up and Dance," we're given all this time to like Malik as a character. Even with the twist, I still liked him.
What this book implies that Ofrey did while swapped into Malik's body is an unforgivable violation to a character who clearly stated they are not gay and had been molested from age 3 to high school just because they're so pretty. Ofrey's objectification was bad enough. This crossed boundaries that ruined Ofrey as a character for me.
Do not even get me started on the fakeout death or stupid bodyswap at the end. I would need a YouTube channel and a several hours long video to get all my ranting done.
So, conclusion. This gets a star for being available to borrow on KU AND a bonus star for that borrow coming with the audiobook. But that bonus star is lost when you listen to the audiobook with its many discrepancies from the ebook, chunks of story not narrated like the ebook was edited and added to after the audiobook was recorded AND the narration "concludes" suddenly with about 10 pages still to be read. A second star for the originality and interesting dynamics of the naphili. A third star because, despite all its flaws, I was engrossed in this from start to finish. I absolutely want to cancel that star out for everything that happens in the second half and how the book ends, but I will resist that urge.
December 24, 2025
Fearoics was a compelling and enjoyable read, with only a few minor issues that did little to detract from the overall experience. Although the novel is not primarily focused on religious instruction, it offered meaningful insight into how Judaism is practiced and integrated into everyday life, which added depth and authenticity to the story. The character development was largely effective, particularly considering the large number of characters introduced early in the narrative, even within the first chapter. Most characters felt distinct and purposeful, allowing the story to remain engaging rather than overwhelming.
December 18, 2025
Thank you Reedsy and author who goes by the pseudonym, Tipesh Esre for providing me with an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
This is a very hard novel to rate and review. I just finished it and I am struggling to get my thoughts on it because I am so conflicted by it. There are aspects that shine in this novel - for example, the exploration of the complex issues surrounding the Israel-Palestine conflict is commendable, and it paints a very vivid picture of what the general public goes through on a daily basis on both sides of the border. I really applaud the author for exploring it, not along the binary right-wrong spectrum, but allows us to peak in the greyness that is hidden in the underside of this conflict. Ultimately I think the author wants to present a very personal, on the ground view of this conflict through this story and it works because of how visceral and horrifying it can be for everyday people. Like, we are bombarded again and again by acts of terrorism, seemingly out of nowhere - unrelenting, violent, deadly - and the characters in the novel move on in the aftermath of this, as though this is something normalized - that the violence, and the deaths are commonplace in these people’s lives, and there is genuine tension in not knowing when the next burst of violence will come.
On the other hand, the core exploration of sexual identity at the heart of the novel does not work at all. For one, the protagonist, Ofrey Weiss is a deeply unlikable character. To delve into why Ofrey Weiss is insufferable, the readers must understand that while this is promoted as a dark fantasy novel, it is more akin to magical realism story, for the aspects that are borrowed from the real world are as far from fantasy as possible. Secondly, one must also know that Ofrey’s age ranges from eighteen to about 20 years old throughout the novel. The reason why I brought these two points up is because there seems to be a tonal whiplash happening when you read this novel. Imagine reading about all these horrific things that are happening, and our protagonist is thinking about the size of the dick of a Hamas soldier that he sees, or that he is imagining what he would do to a handsome Mossad agent if given the chance, while he is on a mission to spy on the antagonist WHILE having a boyfriend. Peppered throughout the novel, the author hammers our head with how horny and how high our protagonist’s libido is - to the point where he makes asinine choices in service of his cock, rather than the sensible and realistic actions to take to resolve the issues that are plaguing him. For example, there is a scene where our protagonist inadvertently swapped bodies with a very attractive spy on a mission. The mission went wrong, and we don’t know what happened to this spy, who is also our protagonist’s friend. While that is happening, there is an ever-present tension throughout where we are unsure about the fates of our protagonist’s boyfriend and sister, who are both suspected to be in grave danger in Hamas territories, so you would think that our protagonist would have more urgency in figuring out how to save them. Rather than doing that, he takes this temporary adoration to his newfound beauty from the body-swap, and posts a photo of himself onto a Grindr-like app to see how many guys he can contact and sleep with.
Like what? There are so many times I was just baffled by the choices. The protagonist even admits this much - at least he has some sense at times to realize how shallow and superficial he can be in the face of all this danger.
Moving away from Ofrey, story-wise, there is sufficient tension well-designed along the way, from both the real-life horrors to the more supernatural horrors. I am definitely more captivated by the real life horrors - such as the fact that white phosphorus being used by the IDF as an instrument of war is a horrific and barbaric in itself, and to learn that this might be used on civilians as well - I was shocked! On the supernatural side of things, I don’t really mind - they are certainly more bombastic and require a big suspension of disbelief, which again can be jarring when put in contrast with the real-life horrors. Funnily enough, the supernatural misgivings always happen to show up conveniently at where our protagonist is at any given time, whether he is out in Israel or hiding in Palestine - these bad guys are always just conveniently around the corner. One critique is that we were told who the big bad is approximately 60% of the story, so our repeated encounters with him just became, well, repetitive. It will not be funny that our big bad’s motivation for his actions is to convert all gays into his worshippers so that he can rise in power again.
To the author, I read your backstory and your blurb, and I think you have a genuine talent in writing that manages to captivate the attention of the readers. I really like your style and the way your chapters are punctuated with intentionality. I think this novel will benefit from some planning and edits with an editor - it’s not a bad story per se; definitely much more fresh and topical in its storytelling than most of the novels I’ve reviewed here on Reedsy. I just think you might want to retool the voice of the protagonist to make him a little bit likeable, and not as driven by his little Ofrey. I’m excited to see your next work and I hope you will keep me in mind when you do publish next.
This is a very hard novel to rate and review. I just finished it and I am struggling to get my thoughts on it because I am so conflicted by it. There are aspects that shine in this novel - for example, the exploration of the complex issues surrounding the Israel-Palestine conflict is commendable, and it paints a very vivid picture of what the general public goes through on a daily basis on both sides of the border. I really applaud the author for exploring it, not along the binary right-wrong spectrum, but allows us to peak in the greyness that is hidden in the underside of this conflict. Ultimately I think the author wants to present a very personal, on the ground view of this conflict through this story and it works because of how visceral and horrifying it can be for everyday people. Like, we are bombarded again and again by acts of terrorism, seemingly out of nowhere - unrelenting, violent, deadly - and the characters in the novel move on in the aftermath of this, as though this is something normalized - that the violence, and the deaths are commonplace in these people’s lives, and there is genuine tension in not knowing when the next burst of violence will come.
On the other hand, the core exploration of sexual identity at the heart of the novel does not work at all. For one, the protagonist, Ofrey Weiss is a deeply unlikable character. To delve into why Ofrey Weiss is insufferable, the readers must understand that while this is promoted as a dark fantasy novel, it is more akin to magical realism story, for the aspects that are borrowed from the real world are as far from fantasy as possible. Secondly, one must also know that Ofrey’s age ranges from eighteen to about 20 years old throughout the novel. The reason why I brought these two points up is because there seems to be a tonal whiplash happening when you read this novel. Imagine reading about all these horrific things that are happening, and our protagonist is thinking about the size of the dick of a Hamas soldier that he sees, or that he is imagining what he would do to a handsome Mossad agent if given the chance, while he is on a mission to spy on the antagonist WHILE having a boyfriend. Peppered throughout the novel, the author hammers our head with how horny and how high our protagonist’s libido is - to the point where he makes asinine choices in service of his cock, rather than the sensible and realistic actions to take to resolve the issues that are plaguing him. For example, there is a scene where our protagonist inadvertently swapped bodies with a very attractive spy on a mission. The mission went wrong, and we don’t know what happened to this spy, who is also our protagonist’s friend. While that is happening, there is an ever-present tension throughout where we are unsure about the fates of our protagonist’s boyfriend and sister, who are both suspected to be in grave danger in Hamas territories, so you would think that our protagonist would have more urgency in figuring out how to save them. Rather than doing that, he takes this temporary adoration to his newfound beauty from the body-swap, and posts a photo of himself onto a Grindr-like app to see how many guys he can contact and sleep with.
After calling Harry’s [his boyfriend’s] number - disconnected - I made a video of myself being beautiful. It was necessary… I had no sooner hit publish than the messages and invites began to pour in. I giggled like I was five.
Like what? There are so many times I was just baffled by the choices. The protagonist even admits this much - at least he has some sense at times to realize how shallow and superficial he can be in the face of all this danger.
But deep down, I knew the real story - that I was so obsessed with my new body and the doors it had opened, that Harry [his boyfriend] and [redacted] and - even Shira [his sister] - had ended up somewhere in the periphery.
Moving away from Ofrey, story-wise, there is sufficient tension well-designed along the way, from both the real-life horrors to the more supernatural horrors. I am definitely more captivated by the real life horrors - such as the fact that white phosphorus being used by the IDF as an instrument of war is a horrific and barbaric in itself, and to learn that this might be used on civilians as well - I was shocked! On the supernatural side of things, I don’t really mind - they are certainly more bombastic and require a big suspension of disbelief, which again can be jarring when put in contrast with the real-life horrors. Funnily enough, the supernatural misgivings always happen to show up conveniently at where our protagonist is at any given time, whether he is out in Israel or hiding in Palestine - these bad guys are always just conveniently around the corner. One critique is that we were told who the big bad is approximately 60% of the story, so our repeated encounters with him just became, well, repetitive. It will not be funny that our big bad’s motivation for his actions is to convert all gays into his worshippers so that he can rise in power again.
To the author, I read your backstory and your blurb, and I think you have a genuine talent in writing that manages to captivate the attention of the readers. I really like your style and the way your chapters are punctuated with intentionality. I think this novel will benefit from some planning and edits with an editor - it’s not a bad story per se; definitely much more fresh and topical in its storytelling than most of the novels I’ve reviewed here on Reedsy. I just think you might want to retool the voice of the protagonist to make him a little bit likeable, and not as driven by his little Ofrey. I’m excited to see your next work and I hope you will keep me in mind when you do publish next.
October 20, 2025
I spent years pouring myself into this book. It means everything to me. I believe anyone who reads it will know more about me than any of my therapists. That's one of the reasons I had to use a pseudonym to publish this. Because of where and in what religion I grew up, I can't reveal my true identity without it causing major problems.
I hope it can help someone who is stuck between cherished religion/culture and their sexual orientation. It's not an easy place to be. And sometimes, just having company helps.
Thanks for reading.
I hope it can help someone who is stuck between cherished religion/culture and their sexual orientation. It's not an easy place to be. And sometimes, just having company helps.
Thanks for reading.
November 12, 2025
Fearoics is bold, fierce, and deeply human, a dark fantasy that doesn’t just entertain, but challenges. Tipesh Esre crafts a story that fuses supernatural tension with raw emotional honesty, diving headfirst into themes of identity, fear, and power. Ofrey Weiss is the kind of protagonist who stays with you: flawed, scared, but burning with potential. The mix of mythological danger, queer self-discovery, and biting social commentary makes Fearoics both thrilling and unforgettable.
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