Thea Mendel is living in her car because there's a ghost in her house. At a Halloween party, she meets someone who believes her, a boy with green eyes and ghosts of his own named Thomas. Someone wants to do worse to Thea than kill her, and in order to find out who they are and what they want the two of them will have to deal with a clan of unusually helpful vampires, unexpected Shoggoths, and all the weird that Rhode Island can throw at them. And that's a lot of weird.
I feel like I am going to struggle to review this book correctly. I was nearly straight down the middle of the road here. Not because I felt the whole thing was meh, but because I really liked about half of it. The good: The writing was well done. I liked the descriptions and the conversations (for the most part), the mixed mythos, the various struggles, etc. The action was good and I liked how the story developed within and because of the various skirmishes. The narration was really good as well. I think it saved the book for me in various places. The bad: I get that relationships need to develop and as in real life, people hook up. the amount of sex, "sexual tension", sexy descriptions of the characters physique, etc. was tiresome. I am not the kind of guy who likes reading this stuff so it drove me nuts. Other people will not be bothered by it. I am a HUGE fan of a certain writer of the early 1900's, but the ending of the book was strange and seemed out of place with the dark vibe of the rest of the book.
All of this said, when I liked the book I really liked the book. I am still on the fence whether I will continue the series or not. The book was weird, frustrating, endearing, silly...
I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
A fast-paced, idea-packed ride of a story. Don't start it unless you have the free time to finish it in one sitting; it's hard to put down. It's a mash-up of scifi and fantasy and horror, and pulls ideas and references from ancient mythology and modern trends and everything in between.
The cast of characters is great. They feel like people, not plot devices, and I love that. I love that their diversity isn't thrown in your face or commented upon, it's just THERE, being normal. There's some surprisingly explicit sex (for the style of book) but that's not a bad thing, just a thing some potential readers might want to bear in mind.
The ending is properly bombastic and spectacular, and satisfyingly fitting for the plot.
Modern supernatural tale. It's tense, but I wouldn't call it horror. Several characters develop magical powers, they never really figure out why. Magic is personal, almost psionic, definitely powerful. There's no greater metaphysics beyond that.
This was an exciting, scary, sad, sometimes amusing, and often over the top story that I completely loved. Each of the characters was well written and came across as believable, despite the unreal and insane events thrust upon them. I loved the magic and the "Scooby gang" feeling between the characters. Thea and Thomas were powerful and in love, and their story was engrossing. The magic they created together was epic. I was just as fond of several of the other characters as well, especially Joe and Bry. My heart hurt for the pain the connected families had gone through for years, and that was made worse by the knowledge of who was doing the hurting. This fantastic book was read by a talented narrator. He expressed the feelings of the different characters very well, and I felt even more pulled into the story by his performance. I recommend this audiobook to those who love magic and stories of good versus evil. It's well worth the nearly seventeen hours of listening time. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
This one is a wild tale of fantasy, ghosts, vampires, witches, friends and family. There's quite a lot going on, it gets complicated, too complicated at times, and too much into sexual scenes that make it redundant more than romantic.
I liked the characters and their personalities, though it was never really clear just what all their "powers" could do. Even the characters didn't know what they possessed and seemed to go into battle with a "let's see" attitude.
Thea and Thomas meet unexpectedly and are drawn to each other instantly. Thea's cousins are the only family she has left since all their parents died young and mysteriously. This also happened to Thomas, who immediately becomes the fourth person in this bonded group. They are seeking answers, and a complicated story evolves that proves the parents' fate and the future of these four, unless the witch grandmother can be stopped.
This witch has had many children and grand children with one purpose, and that is to prolong her life by living off of each generation and binding them all together. Can she be stopped? No one seems to know, but the cousins and friends are determined to try.
I liked the book in the beginning but sometimes it was very hard to decide who was doing the talking. It could have had more action and plot and less sex. I did actually feel the attraction and love between them but it was soon too much about their sexual activities. But, my biggest problem was with the punctuation, the words that were the wrong tense, spelling errors and words that had no meaning. I used to be editor of a newspaper so I have always noticed these types of errors within what I am reading. Maybe the author improved with his next book.
I don't often read the horror/supernatural genre, but have read this author's columns on World of Warcraft so thought I would give it a try. While, some of the personal interact started to become a bit repetitive and stalled the story a little other interpersonal parts were interesting. The writing was good and even though there were a couple of editing issues, it flowed well. I liked that there was magic and the supernatural but not Satan etc. The climax of the story was very exciting. I found this to be a very pleasant diversion in a genre that I rarely visit.
I gave it two stars because the storyline was good but it was very confusing and veered off too much from the storyline with a bunch of nonsense.. I hate not finishing a book and actually tried to struggle through it till there was only about 100 pages left and I had to skip to the end because I just couldn't finish it and that usually never happens with me and a book... It was a good concept and could have been a really good book but it just had too many unnecessary and juvenile not to mention confusing parts in it
I don't know why but I had trouble starting this. I'm glad I did, though, because I really loved it. The writing is good, the characters are fun. I had one thing bother me and that was random changes to PoV. Maybe my copy just formatted weird but I had to stop to figure out from which character's viewpoint the story was being watched from. Still, a good read that made me laugh and cry. I'll be back for the next installment soon.
Well, at first I thought it was going to be a teenage style read but I was wrong. It was a very imaginative and went down some paths I would have not deliberately gone on purpose. I enjoyed the heck out of this book and I'm looking forward to reading another. Good job Matt Rossi. It's not often after reading thousands of books in my life that I find one it's cut from a different cloth and so well written. Great characters and fun storyline.
Mystical modern fantasy? Horror? GREAT either way!
Wasn't sure what to expect going in - I'm familiar with some of. Mr. Rossi's other interests but wasn't with his written work. The book was well thought out, the characters responded to their situations in ways that felt both interesting and organic to me. It held my interest and left me eager to see more of his work and these characters.
It took me a while to complete this book. The writing style is fun and creative and the characters are memorable. But story-wise, it is a bit confusing not to mention a bit wish fullfilling? The fight at the end was just... Amusing! I don't know. I really enjoyed reading this book but I'm not sure if I'm ready to read the next two books in the series.
The story line was okay, that's the only thing that saved this book. I kept run across errors in the writing. The author brought TheThesaures to work but forget how to use grammar check. I get it some people like a lot of sex I their books but this left nothing to the imagination.
I thought perhaps this book had something to do with the other Nameless books. My big mistake!!! I couldn't keep up with storyline and editing was horrendous! I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
2.5 Rambling, boring, confusing, and so frustrating... It started with a good premise and interesting characters and then just went off the rails.. Made little to no sense and by the end, I didn't even care. I wish I had stopped reading it halfway through when I thought about quitting. UGHHHHHH
Very hard to follow. Nameless only showed up twice. To much emphasis on the sex between Thomas and Thea to the point it became redundant. . I would not recommend this book.
On the one hand, this did not even pretend to be credible in any way, kind of leaving you with a What now? feeling instead of What's next? However, it was fun to see what the author came up with while infettered by a believable plot.
While the actual plot didn't pull me in, the interpersonal relationships were very well written. But it's pretty weird, so if the summary interests you at all, go for it.
I thought my family was dysfunction al until I read this book. Excellent reading and a lot To ponder when thinking of your own family ups and downs. Enjoy!