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Motherless Children Trilogy #3
Nothing to Devour
"Brilliantly dark, captivating."--Elizabeth Hand on Good Girls
Glen Hirshberg's critically-acclaimed trilogy comes to a shattering conclusion that proves that this International Horror Guild and Shirley Jackson Award winner understands the true depths and heights of this thing called life.
Librarian Emilia is alone in a library that is soon to close its doors forever. Alone save for one last patron, his head completely swathed in bandages, his hands gloved, not one inch of skin exposed. Emilia feels sorry for him--like her, he is always alone.
Today, he sees, really sees, Emilia.
What he does to her then is unspeakable.
Thousands of miles away, another victim rises--a dead woman who still lives. Sophie is determined to protect the people she loves best in the world--but she is a monster.
To Jess, it doesn't matter that Sophie was once as close to her as her own daughter. It doesn't matter that Sophie's baby died so that Jess's grandson could live. It only matters that Sophie is a vampire.
Vampires can't be trusted.
Even if they love you.
Aunt Sally loved all the monsters she'd created in the hundreds of years since she died and rose again. She loved her home in the bayou. When her existence was exposed to the human world, she didn't hesitate to destroy her home, and her offspring, to save herself. Herself, and one special girl, Aunt Sally's last chance to be a perfect mother.
These people are drawn together from across the United States, bound by love and hatred, by the desire for reunification and for revenge.
In their own ways, they are all monsters.
Some deserve to live.
Some do not.
Motherless Children Trilogy
#1 Motherless Child
#2 Good Girls
#3 Nothing to Devour
Glen Hirshberg's critically-acclaimed trilogy comes to a shattering conclusion that proves that this International Horror Guild and Shirley Jackson Award winner understands the true depths and heights of this thing called life.
Librarian Emilia is alone in a library that is soon to close its doors forever. Alone save for one last patron, his head completely swathed in bandages, his hands gloved, not one inch of skin exposed. Emilia feels sorry for him--like her, he is always alone.
Today, he sees, really sees, Emilia.
What he does to her then is unspeakable.
Thousands of miles away, another victim rises--a dead woman who still lives. Sophie is determined to protect the people she loves best in the world--but she is a monster.
To Jess, it doesn't matter that Sophie was once as close to her as her own daughter. It doesn't matter that Sophie's baby died so that Jess's grandson could live. It only matters that Sophie is a vampire.
Vampires can't be trusted.
Even if they love you.
Aunt Sally loved all the monsters she'd created in the hundreds of years since she died and rose again. She loved her home in the bayou. When her existence was exposed to the human world, she didn't hesitate to destroy her home, and her offspring, to save herself. Herself, and one special girl, Aunt Sally's last chance to be a perfect mother.
These people are drawn together from across the United States, bound by love and hatred, by the desire for reunification and for revenge.
In their own ways, they are all monsters.
Some deserve to live.
Some do not.
Motherless Children Trilogy
#1 Motherless Child
#2 Good Girls
#3 Nothing to Devour
- GenresHorror
320 pages, Hardcover
First published November 6, 2018
5 people are currently reading
97 people want to read
About the author
Glen Hirshberg
93 books151 followersThree-time International Horror Guild Award Winner Glen Hirshberg’s novels include The Snowman's Children, The Book of Bunk, the Motherless Children trilogy, and Infinity Dreams. He is also the author of four widely praised story collections: The Two Sams, American Morons, The Janus Tree, and The Ones Who Are Waving. A five-time World Fantasy Award finalist, he has won the Shirley Jackson Award for the novelette, “The Janus Tree”. He also publishes new fiction, critical writing, and creative nonfiction in his Substack newsletter, Happy in Our Own Ways (https://glenhirshberg.substack.com/), and offers classes and manuscript coaching and editing through his Drones Club West activities (dronesclubwest@outlook.com). He lives with his family and cats in the Pacific Northwest.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
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May 5, 2020This is copy 140 of 350 signed and numbered copies.
over and interior art by Vincent Chong.
over and interior art by Vincent Chong.
December 12, 2018
Nothing To Devour brings to a close the trilogy Glen Hirshberg began with Motherless Child and continued with Good Girls. It's an appropriately dreary ending, full of Hirshberg's remarkable description and dialogue.
The series is unpredictable. It's truly an anyone-can-die situation. We started out with two leads, Sophie and Natalie, and, well, readers of the first two books know how things have gone for those two. The survivor of that original pair exists in Nothing to Devour, but as a side character, a sad creature fallen into the corners and shadows.
The book has us reconnecting with the remaining residents of the foster home, five years after the events of Good Girls. We also pick up with the remains of Aunt Sally's crew, and await, with some increasing anxiety, the inevitable reunion between the two groups. I say "inevitable," but stress, again, how unpredictable this story is.
I've enjoyed reading these books as they've come out, and will have to make some time in the near future to re-read the three of them back to back.
The series is unpredictable. It's truly an anyone-can-die situation. We started out with two leads, Sophie and Natalie, and, well, readers of the first two books know how things have gone for those two. The survivor of that original pair exists in Nothing to Devour, but as a side character, a sad creature fallen into the corners and shadows.
The book has us reconnecting with the remaining residents of the foster home, five years after the events of Good Girls. We also pick up with the remains of Aunt Sally's crew, and await, with some increasing anxiety, the inevitable reunion between the two groups. I say "inevitable," but stress, again, how unpredictable this story is.
I've enjoyed reading these books as they've come out, and will have to make some time in the near future to re-read the three of them back to back.
January 18, 2019
‘Nothing to Devour’ marks the end of a stunning trilogy of novels. Glen Hirshberg has long been one of my favourite authors and his amazing powers of imagination, strong characterisation, narrative drive and sense of place are all on firm display here. Like all great series, these books have been deeply and intimately connected while constantly surprising and breaking unfamiliar ground.
Despite some breath-taking action sequences, this, like much of Glen’s work, is a deeply introspective affair. I loved the examination of traumatised characters attempting to re-build their lives in the aftermath of incomprehensibly horrific events, and the depiction of Jess’s compound of survivors striving to reengage with life and each other was simply delightful.
Parent-child configurations and fascinating explorations of what constitute family bonds abound within the books – even more prominently within this final novel in the sequence. I thought these themes were beautifully explored and enriched all three novels immeasurably.
Lashings of humour and empathy abound in ‘Nothing to Devour’ and, like the other two book in the series, it is also extremely moving and emotionally engaging. This is all the more remarkable in a horror novel and demonstrates that the genre has some truly excellent authors working within it of whom Hirshberg is one of its leading lights.
I simply can’t wait to see what he turns to next!
Despite some breath-taking action sequences, this, like much of Glen’s work, is a deeply introspective affair. I loved the examination of traumatised characters attempting to re-build their lives in the aftermath of incomprehensibly horrific events, and the depiction of Jess’s compound of survivors striving to reengage with life and each other was simply delightful.
Parent-child configurations and fascinating explorations of what constitute family bonds abound within the books – even more prominently within this final novel in the sequence. I thought these themes were beautifully explored and enriched all three novels immeasurably.
Lashings of humour and empathy abound in ‘Nothing to Devour’ and, like the other two book in the series, it is also extremely moving and emotionally engaging. This is all the more remarkable in a horror novel and demonstrates that the genre has some truly excellent authors working within it of whom Hirshberg is one of its leading lights.
I simply can’t wait to see what he turns to next!
August 28, 2019
i am a huge fan of Hirshberg's books, and i loved the first two books in his trilogy of vampires... alas, this finale was not to my taste at all... entirely too much dialogue, and i am rarely a fan of that... i know he tied to avoid the tropes of vampire tales, and focus more on the family/relationship/friendship angles, and it worked in the first two books because he had plenty of nastiness and creepiness and viscerality to offset the huggy-smoochy-warmandfuzzy stuff... this book just went back and forth between the groups of (too many) characters and never built any tension or fear or mystery... my favorite sections were the inner dialogues and the thinking parts, where dialogue was left out or rather minimal... considering the length of time between book#1 and book#3, i think the three books could have been made into two, which would have allowed for better retention and continuity... 6 years is a long time... disappointed, i guess, would best sum up my feelings... ending a series is always tough, for writer and reader, but this fell pretty flat... recommended for those who read the first two, barely, if just to bury the undead at last...
November 8, 2019
I don't usually think of vampire books as beautifully written with eloquent prose. But Glen Hirschberg has completely changed my mind about that. This series was gorgeous and creepy and malevolent and horrifying and wonderful. Been a long time since I cried on the subway while reading a book. I did with this one. I felt the heavy ax in my hand. I held my breath along with the characters and I cried when they died. Thank you Glen. Keep writing.
November 28, 2018
Best vampire trilogy ever. Painted vampires as the monsters they really are. Great horror.
July 1, 2019
Yet again, another great novel by Glen Hirshberg. Wonderful plot. Good characters. This is the end of the Motherless Child trilogy. Great series! Gratulations to glen Hirshberg.
August 26, 2019
This last book was pretty good at tying up loose ends. Well written.
June 24, 2020
Intriguing final (I hope not) book in the Motherless Children vampire series. Interesting characters and superbly crafted storylines make you want to savor every paragraph. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews