#Review All of Our Demise by Amanda Foody, Christine Lynn Herman #YA #Fantasy

Series: All of Us Villains (#2)
Format: Hardcover, 480 pages
Release Date: August 30th 2022
Publisher: Tor Teen
Source: Library
Genre: Young Adult / Dark Fantasy

The epic conclusion to the blockbuster All of Us Villains duology that's The Hunger Games with magic

“I feel like I should warn you: this is going to be absolutely brutal.”

For the first time in this ancient, bloodstained story, the tournament is breaking. The boundaries between the city of Ilvernath and the arena have fallen. Reporters swarm the historic battlegrounds. A dead boy now lives again. And a new champion has entered the fray, one who seeks to break the curse for good... no matter how many lives are sacrificed in the process.

As the curse teeters closer and closer to collapse, the surviving champions each face a choice: dismantle the tournament piece by piece, or fight to the death as this story always intended.

Long-held alliances will be severed. Hearts will break. Lives will end. Because a tale as wicked as this one was never destined for happily ever after.

 

All of Our Demise, by authors Amanda Foody, and Christine Lynn Herman, is the final chapter in the All of Us Villains duology. If you haven't read the first book, please proceed with caution. There may be some things mentioned in this review that some would consider spoilers, but I promise there won't be any from me. Every generation, at the coming of the Blood Moon, seven families in the remote city of Ilvernath each name a champion to compete in a tournament to the death. One person has chosen to change the rules by taking her sisters place. 

 

The prize? Exclusive control over a secret wellspring of high magick, the most powerful resource in the world--one thought long depleted. This year, thanks to a salacious tell-all book written by an outsider Reid MacTavish, the seven champions are thrust into worldwide spotlight, granting each of them new information, new means to win, and most importantly: a choice - accept their fate or rewrite their story. Ilvernath has never had a tournament like this. Rules that have been maintained for centuries are breaking, and an act by one person, may bring the tournament and all the killing its brought, to a crash end.

While there were seven champions, two have fallen since the games began. The book also cuts some of the champions out and focuses primarily on Alistair Lowe, Isobel Macaslan, Gavin Grieve, and Briony Thorburn, with Finley Blair, Hendry Lowe, and Reid MacTavish playing important supporting roles. In this tournament, there are 7 Landmarks, and 7 Relics that fall from the sky throughout the tournament. Gain one of the relics, and it will give you powers to use on your rivals. Gain one of the Landmarks which corresponds to your family, and it becomes your castle.

 

Briony, Isobel, and Finley have chosen to become a team against the others including Alistair and Gavin. With time running out, the tournament only lasts for 7 weeks, and with their lives hanging in the balance, the champions face scrutiny from their families, from the media, from the government who is willing to kill anyone who may survive, and from spellcasters who would love to get their hands on the high magick that will be released if they are successful in surviving the brutality that is to come over the course of this story.

 

Alistair has proven that will do the most shocking things imaginable to win, including saving the only family that matters; his brother. While Alistair's family is the family that wins the most, Gavin's is the weakest. Gavin never thought he would get this far. He is from the weakest families involved, and no Grieve has ever survived the tournament. Gavin is in trouble with his new magic called life magic. Every time he performs magic, it draws away his life and he will soon die. The most heartbreaking character: Hendry. He wasn't given any chance to live thanks to his own family.

 

Briony committed a grave sin at the beginning of the tournament after learning that there may be a way to permanently end the tournament. She may be the most unlikable character for what she did, but her end game may save the world. She has convinced Finley and Isobel to trust her, but she will have to make the others involved in this tourney, including Reid MacTavish, Alistair, and Gavin understand that if they don't end the tourney, everyone will die.

 

Isobel was the first of the champions to be outed, and the person most of the media gravitates towards. She never wanted to be part of this tourney, but she may be the strongest of all the participants. Isobel faces the end of her short life thanks to a curse, and will have to fight hard in order to overcome the terrible losses that happen in this story.

This book is much better than the first book and that's because there is more action, and more twists, and some heartbreaking losses that probably irked me like nothing has in a very long time. Then again, they kind of makes sense in that the ending was likely to happen even without our input.

 

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#Review - All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody, Christine Lynn Herman #YA #Fantasy

Series: All of Us Villains (#1)
Format: Hardcover, 400 pages
Release Date: November 9, 2021
Publisher: Tor Teen
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Dark Fantasy

The blockbuster co-writing debut of two up-and-coming powerhouses, All of Us Villains is The Hunger Games with magic

You Fell in Love With the Victors of the Hunger Games.
Now Prepare To Meet the Villains of the Blood Veil.

The Blood Moon rises. The Blood Veil falls.
The Tournament begins.

Every generation, at the coming of the Blood Moon, seven families in the remote city of Ilvernath each name a champion to compete in a secret tournament to the death.

The prize? Exclusive control over a secret wellspring of high magick, the most powerful resource in the world—one thought long depleted.

But this year a salacious tell-all book has exposed the tournament and thrust the seven new champions into the worldwide spotlight. The book also granted them valuable information previous champions never had—insight into the other families’ strategies, secrets, and weaknesses. And most importantly, it gave them a choice: accept their fate or rewrite their legacy.

Either way, this is a story that must be penned in blood.

 

All of Us Villains is the first installment in co-authors Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman's All of Us Villains series. While there are seven champions, there’s only four perspectives in the book: Alistair Lowe, Isobel Macaslan, Gavin Grieve, and Briony Thorburn, with Finley Blair, Elinor Payne, and Carby Darrow as secondary characters. For the first time in 20 years, this year brings the arrival of the Blood Moon and its tournament to see who is the strongest. These are the same kids who grew up together, were friends, and even lovers, and now they will be enemies.

7 families in the remote city of Ilvernath each name a champion to compete in a tournament to the death. Instead of being picked at random, the champions are chosen by their families. Some having been forced into the role by their family and would like nothing more than to escape. The prize? Exclusive control over a secret wellspring of high magick, the most powerful resource in the world—one thought long depleted until the next tournament. Only one family line may claim the magick, and only after defeating the other six competitors by winning the tournament in a fight to the death. Very much like the Hunger Games except with magic.  

In this tournament, there are 7 Landmarks, and 7 Relics that fall from the sky throughout the tournament. Gain one of the relics, and it will give you powers to use on your rivals. Gain one of the Landmarks which corresponds to your family, and it becomes your castle. Thanks to a salacious tell-all book, A Tradition of Tragedy, the tournament and the champions have been thrust into the worldwide spotlight while also exposing the truth about high magick still being around. 

This years competition has everyone talking and more visitors that usual to the sleepy town as well as a representative of the Kendalle Parliament who is deciding if they will execute everyone involved. The book granted the public valuable information previous champions never had—insight into the other families’ strategies, secrets, and weaknesses. Between each chapter, there are sections of the book that outlines different aspects of the challenge. Pay close attention.

Alistair belongs to the Lowe Family. They are the winningest family of all seven and are will do do the shocking things imaginable to win. Alistair is wicked and vicious, yet he would do anything for his brother and wants his family to be proud of him and to love him. Alistair and his brother Hendry are nearly inseparable thanks to the families rather unorthodox way of raising the boys.

Isobel belongs to the Macaslan's. Because she was the first champion outed, she's become a paparazzi darling and talented spellmaker of the family, but her family is viewed as distasteful vultures by the rest of the Seven. Isobel is her family’s champion because she is the strongest, but she never wanted to be part of the tournament and is stuck between her loyalty to her family, and her desire to flee.

Gavin Grieve comes from the weakest family, the one everyone makes fun of, the one that never ever won a tournament, and he is determined to prove to everyone that the Grieves family is worth something which means trusting cursemakers to make him stronger and able to stand against the rest of his nemesis.

Briony Thorburn was born-for-heroism of the respected family but commits a grave sin at the beginning of the tournament after learning that there may be a way to permanently end the tournament forever. Now she has to convince the other six to lay down their goals of winning, while finding the right combination to destroy the tournament. Then there's the real villain of the story. 

One cursemaker in particular puts ideas in the aspiring champions’ heads about whether the tournament’s curse can be changed—or broken. The competitors teeter wildly between heroism and villainy, especially once the tournament starts and their preconceived ideas of themselves and each other are challenged in lethal combat. I do have to issue a warning to potential readers: this book ends on a massive cliffhanger. I can't in good conscious review a book without telling you that expect the unexpected. Expect to be shocked. Expect to be stunned, and expect to hold onto your seat for a wild ride right to the last page of this book.

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#Review - The Deck of Omens by Christine Lynn Herman #YA #Fantasy #Contemporary

Series: The Devouring Gray (#2)
Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
Release Date: April 21, 2020
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy / Contemporary

This hotly anticipated sequel to The Devouring Gray is perfect for fans of Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Cycle and Stranger Things.

Though the Beast is seemingly subdued for now, a new threat lurks in Four Paths: a corruption seeping from the Gray into the forest. And with the other Founders preoccupied by their tangled alliances and fraying relationships, only May Hawthorne seems to realize the danger. But saving the town she loves means seeking aid from the person her family despises most -- her father, Ezra Bishop.

May's father isn't the only newcomer in town--Isaac Sullivan's older brother has also returned, seeking forgiveness for the role he played in Isaac's troubled past. But Isaac isn't ready to let go of his family's history, especially when that history might hold the key that he and Violet Saunders need to destroy the Gray and the monster within it.

Harper Carlisle isn't ready to forgive, either. Two devastating betrayals have left her isolated from her family and uncertain who to trust. As the corruption becomes impossible to ignore, Harper must learn to control her newfound powers in order to protect Four Paths. But the only people who can help her do that are the ones who have hurt her the most.

With the veil between the Gray and the town growing ever thinner, the Founder descendants must put their grievances with one another aside to stop the corruption and kill the Beast once and for all. But the monster they truly need to slay may never been the Beast...

 

The Deck of Omens is the second and final installment in author Christine Lynn Herman's The Devouring Gray duology. This story picks up where The Devouring Gray finished. The town of Four Paths, New York was founded by Four families: Hawthorne's, Carlisle's, Saunders, and Sullivan's. The founding families are both revered and despised by the town. Only they have the powers to cage that which lies with the Gray. The Beast. The author once again rotates her story thru a variety of characters: May Hawthorne, Harper Carlisle, Violet Saunders, Isaac Sullivan plus Justin Hawthorne who is the only one of the key 5 who has no powers. 

May's powers revolve around the Deck of Omens. She can gaze into the past and the future of a living focal point. She also may have changed the future unwittingly which is causing problems to crop up left and right. May isn't really a fan of her brother, Justin. Justin is the gold boy who can do no wrong even after he failed his ritual. But now, Justin's days of glory are fading quickly, and May intends to take every advantage of proving her worth to her mother. With her father's help, May hopes she can prove that she has the ability to fix what she's broken.

Ever since Harper lost her hand and was stranded in the Gray for days after her ritual, she has vowed revenge on the person who she believed abandoned her: Justin Hawthorne. Thanks to May and Violet, Harper now has her memories back and as a result, she has all but abandoned her family staying with Violet and her mother. Harper also has the power to bring stone to life and she is wicked powerful with a sword even with one hand. But, Harper has to give in a bit if she is going to learn how to control her powers before they end up getting someone killed. That means asking for help from the devil herself; Augusta.

Isaac spent years alone after his family tried and failed to kill him during his ritual. He's mad at his descendants for trapping him in a town with no future. He has the power of destruction and creation, but made the mistake of telling Justin how he feels and thus the distance between best friends has grown. Isaac thought he was alone in Four Paths. Until his older brother Gabriel returns and shares real memories with Isaac at what really happened during his ritual and what part he played. Isaac and Violet have grown closer as a result of shared hatred for Augusta Hawthorne and wanting to end the Beast's threat to the town. 

  

Harper isn't the only one who had their memories returned. Violet and her mother Juniper now have a target for their anger; Augusta Hawthorne who was once close to Juniper but has the ability to remove memories. Violet and her mother have vowed to work together to kill the beast as well as taking power from Augusta. Violet is also learning secrets about her mother, and her descendants that has shaken her to the core. Secrets which tend to have a hard time of letting go are finally revealed with shocking results. Violet also has a companion named Orpheus that just happens to be a dead cat. Yeah, she has power over the dead. 

Thankfully, Violet, Harper and Isaac have formed an alliance of sorts to find a way to reveal the towns hidden secrets. If they can get May's help who has every reason to want to help fix things, they might just save themselves, the town, and everyone who lives in Four Paths. In my honest opinion, this is May's story to tell like The Devouring Gray was Violet's. May really kicks things off by asking her father, Ezra Bishop, to return to town and help her find a way to save the town and stop the corruption that is rapidly consuming the town, starting with each of the (4) families areas that they protect. 

I can't forget the Beast. The Beast is a mysterious sentient creature which was trapped by the Four Founders of the town over a century ago. The Beast is hell bent on breaking its constraints. Violet, May, Harper, Isaac, and yes, even Justin, must work together to keep the town, and the wider world, safe from what creeps through the woods when no one is watching. Or, is the Beast really that evil? Could deeper, darker secrets going back to the founders days unravel everything that has been taught and passed down? Or, is the Beast playing games with the founding families as a way to pay them back for years of being a prisoner in the Gray? 

This story has been compared to the stylized setting and character-driven drama of Riverdale, if Riverdale was plagued by the Upside Down from Stranger Things, as well as similarities to The Raven Cycle. I will say the ending of this book holds ties up storylines in a way that is both curious and made me go hmmm, what was that? Especially when it came to the relationships between Justin & Isaac, Isaac and Violet, Harper's desire to walk her own way, and May's ability to put hurt feelings aside for just a minute and work with others to fix things she helped break.

Deep in her mind, the pathways spiraled and wound. May felt something unfurling in her own mind—a path that was hers. Thin and spiky, coiling around itself like a tangled knot of possibilities that could not yet be unraveled.

It pulsed in her mind like a beating heart, and for the first time, during a reading, May let her own bias in. She reached for it, grasping at the tendrils, and pulled that path into focus, let the roots worm their way into her mind.

It’s mine, she snarled, at the cards, at Four Paths itself. Whatever happens next belongs to me.

A surge of energy coursed through her, to the card in her hands. It burned white-hot between her interlaced fingers, tracing across the maps of old wounds that had long since faded. It was only her sense of self-control that kept her from crying out, from flinching.

May felt the path lock into place. Felt the card in her hand vibrate—then shift, until the heat on her palms had faded away to embers.

She took a deep breath and opened her eyes. She could feel blood pooling beneath her nostrils and at the rims of her eyes; she blinked, and copper splatters appeared on her pajama pants.

“What was that?” Augusta said sharply.

May’s lie was quiet, easy. “The cards had more to tell me.”

But it had been just the opposite. She’d had more to tell the cards—and they had changed. They’d listened to her.

Hawthornes couldn’t do that. But she had.

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#Review - The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman #YALIT #Fantasy

Series: The Devouring Gray #1
Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Release Date: April 2, 2019
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy / Contemporary

After the death of her sister, seventeen-year-old Violet Saunders finds herself dragged to Four Paths, New York. Violet may be a newcomer, but she soon learns her mother isn’t: They belong to one of the revered founding families of the town, where stone bells hang above every doorway and danger lurks in the depths of the woods. 

Justin Hawthorne’s bloodline has protected Four Paths for generations from the Gray—a lifeless dimension that imprisons a brutal monster. After Justin fails to inherit his family’s powers, his mother is determined to keep this humiliation a secret. But Justin can’t let go of the future he was promised and the town he swore to protect.

 

Ever since Harper Carlisle lost her hand to an accident that left her stranded in the Gray for days, she has vowed revenge on the person who abandoned her: Justin Hawthorne. There are ripples of dissent in Four Paths, and Harper seizes an opportunity to take down the Hawthornes and change her destiny—to what extent, even she doesn’t yet know. 

The Gray is growing stronger every day, and its victims are piling up. When Violet accidentally unleashes the monster, all three must band together with the other Founders to unearth the dark truths behind their families’ abilities... before the Gray devours them all.

 

The Devouring Gray, by author Christine Lynn Herman, is the first installment in The Devouring Gray series. With the stylized setting and character-driven drama of Riverdale, if Riverdale was plagued by the Upside Down from Stranger Things, as well as similarities to The Raven Cycle, this debut contemporary fantasy follows a group of teens with dark secrets and the power to save the town of Four Paths, New York from a monster that has been lurking in the shadows waiting for the right time to break the chains that binds it.

Violet Saunders and her mother Juniper return to Four Paths, New York after a heartbreaking loss of Violet's sister. As Violet soon discovers, there's a whole lot that her mother, as well as her aunt Delia, have kept from her, including a new found ability that shocks her to the core. Her family is one of the descendants of the Four founding families along with the Hawthorne's, Sullivan's, and Carlisle's. The founding families that are both revered and despised by the town. Only they have the powers to cage that which lies with the Gray.

The other pertinent characters are Justin & May Hawthorne, Isaac Sullivan, and Harper Carlisle. Each has different abilities, except for Justin who recently failed his ritual, (which every descendant is supposed to go through, and none of them are the same), and is masquerading around town to hide the fact that he has inherited no powers. His sister May uses the Deck of Omens to see what will possibly happen in the future. May was not one of my favorites.

Justin and May's mother, Augusta, is the town's sheriff who is getting blow back thanks to the dead bodies that are increasing in regularity. She can also remove memories. She is diabolical, scheming, power hungry and has no issues with sending Justin away.  Isaac Sullivan is Justin’s best friend. He’s bisexual, and has powers of destruction and creation. The whole town fears him after a horrible accident that killed his whole family. He is the only Sullivan left in Four Paths. 

Harper was once best friends with Justin, but after she failed her ritual, lost her left hand, and was left in the Gray for days, the whole Hawthorne family dropped her like a hot potato and she’s been an outcast ever since. Her family has the power to bring stone to life and she is wicked with a sword. Harper attempts to sway Violet to her way of thinking in order to stop the town from being destroyed by those who are unhappy with the town's leadership.

I can't forget the Beast. The Beast is a mysterious sentient creature which was trapped by the Four Founders of the town over a century ago. The Beast is hell bent on breaking its constraints and Violet and the others, must work together to keep the town, and the wider world, safe from what creeps through the woods when no one is watching. 

So, let me finish by saying that I haven't gotten past season one of Riverdale, haven't watched either season of Strange Things, but have read The Raven Cycle a few years ago. After reading some key selling points, I offered up the similarities for readers to decide whether or not they are factual or not. I will say the ending of this book holds all sorts of curious plot lines for the sequel. Including Isaac and Violet, as well as Justin and Harper's reaction to what happens at the end of this story. God willing, I will be adding the sequel to my 2020 TBR list. 

After they found the third body that year, Justin Hawthorne knelt in his backyard and prepared to hear his future.

His sister, May, dealt the Deck of Omens facedown on the grass between them. The all-seeing eyes on the backs of the five cards stared emptily at the canopy of leaves above. Justin’s skin prickled as he studied their irises—white like the eyes of the dead.

He hadn’t seen the latest body, but the remains of the corpses spat out by the Gray always looked the same. Eyes bleached the color of milk. The rib cage inverted, bones slicing through bloated skin like antlers rising from the body’s back.

“I don’t have to ask the cards.” May’s voice didn’t lend itself well to gentleness, but she was trying. Justin hadn’t asked for a reading since he failed his ritual. She knew how much it had cost him to ask now.

Because it should’ve been him commanding the Deck of Omens. Him wielding his family’s abilities and protecting their town.

Yet he was helpless. A rotten branch on a healthy tree.

The Gray had grown bolder this year, luring victim after victim into its world, where the Beast hungrily awaited its prey. Justin had believed, foolishly, that coming into his powers would be enough to make it stop.

But he had no powers. And now another man was dead.

Justin wouldn’t sit idly by as others died. Powers or not, he was still a Hawthorne. He would find a way to keep Four Paths safe.

His fate lay in the cards.

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