Very nice review and nod from Book Life which is owned by Publisher's Weekly.
They gave the book an "Editor's Choice" pick which means it will be featured in their next print version inside PW (or something like that)... Either way, it's a cool feather in the project's cap.
BookLife Reviews
Gage’s wonderfully gruesome supernatural suspense debut combines Russian history with vampire lore. In December 1916, Alexandra, wife of Tsar Nicholas II, has “become sickness”—her hemophilia is, in truth, vampirism. Her son, Alexei, is only a half-vampire, but Grigori Rasputin, a disciple of Vlad Drăculea’s teachings, plans to turn him the rest of the way, believing Alexei is destined to lead vampires to global domination. As the serial killer known as the Sleepwalker starts terrorizing Saint Petersburg, the coroner, Rurik Kozlov, knows by the mutilation of the bodies that they’re facing a supernatural threat. When Prince Felix Yusupov is framed for murdering his girlfriend and goes to Rurik to see her body, he learns of the existence of vampires and Rasputin’s plan to rule the world. Terrified but determined, Rurik and Felix unite to stop the vampires.
In prose designed to be read aloud with lurid glee—“The river that slithers below the Carpathian peaks sucks all life and hope into its sinuous network of vessels”—Gage makes a welcome return to vampires that are heartless, cold, and deadly, designed for readers to hate and fear. He adds in giant vampire bats that turn into horrifying Nosferatu, “savage, manlike vampire gods,” on the ground. Readers are immersed in a well researched and turbulent Russia, with instability and looming revolution building tension, and will feel the dangers of walking the darkened streets with a gruesome serial killer lurking around the corner. Every train ride, shadow, and moment of eerie quiet perfectly creates a feeling of foreboding.
As the heinous vampires deliver death and destruction, the few characters willing to fight stay strong. The battle never feels entirely lost, and readers will hold out hope for at least a somewhat happy ending. On every page, this supernatural historical delivers abundant thrills and chills.
Takeaway: This wonderfully terrifying blend of bloody history and vicious vampires will hold supernatural suspense fans in thrall.
Great for fans of Sarah Pinborough’s Mayhem, Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian.
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