Find the Author: Website, GoodreadsThe lights went out, the streets ran with blood, and when the power came back, the monsters were in charge. And the children were missing.
When the Revenants take over, they force humans to donate blood to feed their insatiable hunger. They overthrow governments and take away the music, television, and free will. But four people from completely different walks of life are about to deal the Revenants a blow that might rock the world to its foundations.
Sia, a classical musician, who wakes up in an experimental hospital. Mike, a journalist with a past, who finds himself on the run. Viv, a doctor who has lost everything: her job, her house, even her son. And then there is Joshua Flynn, a Revenant with a grudge, who wants to shatter what the other monsters have built into a million pieces.
The players are cast.
What happens when vampires have taken over the world and young children start being taken, or more so they are disappearing. For the main characters, yes characters in this book, that is exactly what they are working different angles of relatively the same story.
Sia, a young woman who had nothing going for her since the Reverent took away the ability to play music. She awakes to find herself as a ward for an experimental hospital under the control of a sadistic, yet somewhat caring nurse who feels the only way to educate Sia is to torture her.
Mike, a journalist who feels that he is about to break open the entire Reverent ideals and plans. His supervisor, however, is not keen on the exposure and calls in the Reverent’s to take Mike into custody. He is able to escape and finds himself in the company of a very bad man, but in this world the good guys are bad guys, and the bad guys are.. well REALLY bad guys.
Then you have Viv, a human who has lost her husband and her son to the Reverents. She is a genetic scientist and has worked for the Revenents with purifying blood. When the leader of the Reverents stops by, he decides that Viv is just the woman to take his secret research to the next level.
Finally you have Joshua, who is actually a Reverent, but he has a bone to pick, or maybe more like a blood to drink from the rest of the Reverents. He is not a good guy, but not a bad guy honestly, more like a guy that has an agenda and will do what he needs to, to survive and to thrive, if you can thrive.
This book is heartbreaking but good. By heartbreaking I mean you know that there are not really good guys, but there are not really bad guys, the truth is that this is a no win situation for everyone, including all of the main characters.
I liked this book, it was sad, and by that I mean you realize that it is a no win situation and so you don’t really know what to expect. With children missing and individuals dying, it isn’t surprising that this is a dark story. The ending actually took me by surprise. It wasn’t a bad ending, in fact taken the tone of the book and the darkness of the characters, the ending was actually pretty fitting.
About J.L. Murray
J.L. Murray is the author of the Niki Slobodian series (Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, The Devil Is a Gentleman, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, The Devil Was an Angel, and The Devil's Backbone), The Thirteen series (Jenny Undead and Eat the Ones You Love), After the Fire, Blood Day, and the highly anticipated upcoming series Blood of Cain (Monstrous).
Murray is a firm believer that horror can be beautiful, and that good and evil are very far from black and white. She lives with her family in Eugene, Oregon.
