Of Phantoms and Fury

Of Monsters and Madness #2

by Jessica Verday

In mourning after the sudden death of her grandfather, Annabel Lee is devastated when her beau, Allan Poe, commits himself to an insane asylum to keep his second personality--callous serial killer Edgar--at bay. In need of distraction, she eagerly accepts her father's invitation to help with his medical experiments. But his scientific study is rapidly morphing into morbid obsession. And Annabel's own attempts to cure Allan are becoming morally questionable.

When Annabel begins receiving mysterious notes and then her father is kidnapped, she's left with little choice. She needs Edgar's help.

The pair tracks the letters back to the dashing and quite dangerous Dorian Gray, who seems to know all about Annabel's past. The secrets he reveals force her to make a decision that may make her the most monstrous of all.

Genres: Young Adult, Horror, Gothic, Romance

336 pages, Hardcover

First published September 22, 2015

About the author

Jessica Verday is the New York Times bestselling author of The Hollow Trilogy, published by Simon & Schuster/Simon Pulse. She wrote the first draft of THE HOLLOW by hand, using thirteen spiral-bound notebooks and fifteen black pens. The first draft of THE HAUNTED took fifteen spiral-bound notebooks and twenty black pens. THE HIDDEN took too many notebooks and too many pens to count. Find out more at jessicaverday.com.

Reviews

[Lennon Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just a few things: I bought the combination of this and the first book in the series, as Ms. Verday's original publisher for this second work folded before it ever got a chance to see its life in print. Secondly, I enjoyed this series much more than The Hollow Trilogy. I am still struggling to get through the third book in that work while I breezed through both of these works within days. This is an infinitely more interesting read. I wish there was more to the story than what we have been given.

That brings me to my final remarks. I felt like the ending to the second book was rushed. I wonder if that was intentional or what Verday chose to do after the publisher fell through. I feel as if the too many big reveals thrown in at the very end of this work and the whole subplot featuring Dorian Gray (yes, really) were too rushed with all of the exposition thrown around. With that said, the author hasn't written anything since this so I guess the end we we're given really is the end.

Considering her growth in plot and storytelling ability since her first series, I hope this isn't the end of Ms. Verday's career. It would be sad to see her just go away.

[K Whatsherface]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With that ending I know there had to be another one but I wasn't sure. and I wanted more! I love this more the her last series. I CAN'T WAIT!!

[Tonya · Rating 1 out of 5]

I listened to this book on audible. This book is the same as the first book Monsters and Madness even with it having a different title and being listed as the second book. There are a couple of minor changes such as not going into detail about her life with her mother and her grandfather but other than that the exact same events happen at the exact same time. I feel like we were given more details about what she was feeling but it wasn't enough of a difference for me to be sure of that. I was very hopeful that there would be a plot twist after the first two hours but was very disappointed. At that point, I skipped to the middle and then the end noticing still no differences. I returned this book unfinished.

[~☆starlight · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this and very grateful I was able to finish the story as I know it was never released in the end on hardback due to the publisher going, I'm very glad however it was available in kindle it would have been gutting to never know the conclusion. And as I said i Really enjoyed the book and where the story continued, however I wish it was longer and edgar/allen and Annabelle got a slightly better ending! Overall tho I did enjoy it