First Published: 2019
Contains spoilers
The Blurb: - - BECOMING A MAN CAN BE MURDER. - -
All Morgan Fischer wants is to graduate high school and escape small-town Colby, Pennsylvania. Since the death of his mother, childhood friends have become his tormentors, and his father has become an absent and neglectful alcoholic. When lack of food forces Morgan to earn money, he develops a friendship with the new residents in town, Ava and Jonathan. They give Morgan the loving attention and guidance he doesn't receive at home. As their bond deepens, he learns the older siblings have a dark secret. And because of his love for them, it's a secret he promises to keep.
During the summer, a series of murders have rattled the small town. The arrival of a mysterious stranger from Ava and Jonathan's past threatens danger. When the threat becomes too great, Morgan must alter his plans for the future and confront his fears. Thrust into a world of deception and murder, can Morgan summon the courage to survive?
The review: A coming of age novel – with vampires. It is a familiar territory but one that Christopher Renna treads confidently. Morgan’s family were rich in the town he grew up in – though the wealth was a couple of generations back and his father, unable to cope following the death of his wife, has sunk them deeply into poverty. Morgan gets a job at the house that was once the family’s property and it turns out that new owners Ava and Jonathan have a secret – being reviewed here it isn’t too much of a stretch to work out that they’re vampires (or immortals in the vernacular of the novel, vampire being an insulting word).
As well as taking us on a journey through the main character’s coming of age, the author draws some interesting lore – though some is a tad confused but that might be cleared up in future volumes. Sunlight, for instance, is an issue for older vampires, we are told – with powerful vampires destroyed instantly. But it seems almost as much an issue for a young vampire (indeed after being fully turned the young vampire gets one more sunrise where the sun is not harmful, a supernatural boon if you will). I hope that the author clarifies the sunlight rules more in the next volume. Beheading and heart destruction is the order of the day (and the heart must be destroyed – the book’s internal myth of the original – South American – vampire suggests she is in stasis, separate from her heart and will be brought back one day) and ingesting a vampire’s heart takes their power (though we do not see that). We get some shapeshifting (into a monstrous form) but also illusionary shifting – for instance making the observer see a ball of light.
Vampires are made with a blood exchange but, in the first instance, whilst their mortal lives are dead their body tries to reject the vampiric blood and will do so without a regime of six feeds of vampire blood – this can be from multiple sources, though that is frowned upon. Probably the most unusual aspect was that, whilst they crave blood, their immortality (or longevity) is granted through stolen life. The way the author did this was unusual – rather than steal the life that was left (i.e. kill an 18-year-old destined to live to 70 and gain 52 years) the vampire accumulates the life gone (so, in the example given they would gain 18 years of life). This is not commented on and one would have thought that vampires would have become the scourge of octogenarians but that seems to not be the case.
So interesting lore, a genuine attempt to step into less trodden waters with that, and a coming of age that morphs into a much wider tale. Some of the dialogue feels a tad staged, perhaps a little false, but that is a very occasional issue and in the main the dialogue worked. This is a good solid start and I wait to see where the author takes the story and, also, some clarity on a little bit of the lore. 6.5 out of 10.
In Paperback @ Amazon US
In Paperback @ Amazon UK
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