Diamond Mask (The Galactic Milieu Trilogy Book 3) by Julian May; Sequel Ramps Up Hydra Attacks and Female Characterization

Diamond Mask (The Galactic Milieu Trilogy Book 3) by Julian May; Sequel Ramps Up Hydra Attacks and Female Characterization 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: When we last left the Remillard Family, in Jack The Bodiless, the family was under attack by a sinister being called Fury and Fury’s aide Hydra. They were created during the death of patriarch Victor who tried to control the united metaconcert of the highly telepathic family. Because of this, they know that Fury and Hydra are Remillard Family members who might not know the violent sadistic creatures exist within their psyche. After several murders and attempts, Hydra is identified but goes into hiding. Fury however remains an enigma. 

Meanwhile, Teresa Kendall-Remillard learns that she is pregnant with her fifth child despite strict laws from the Galactic Milieu. Psychic impressions and mental communication occurs even within the womb suggesting that the little one will be highly powerful indeed. Jon, AKA Jack Remillard is born and is highly telepathic and intelligent. As a toddler, he suffers a cancer that metastasizes and devours his entire body leaving only a disembodied brain. He is able to create a body image surrounding his brain so he can live a seemingly normal life.

Diamond Mask, the next volume in The Galactic Milieu Series, begins ten years after the ending of Jack The Bodiless. Jack is now a child prodigy and attends classes and experiments with his college age brother Marc. He is destined for a high position in the Milieu. Things seem to be quiet on the Fury-Hydra front for a while. Note I said for a while.

Fury reappears to his eager sadistic subordinate. Hydra is ordered to resume their attacks. This time they attack the mother, uncle, and aunt of Dorothea McDonald, a Scottish girl who is an adept telepath and healer. After the murders, Dorothea and the rest of her family go into hiding on another planet, Caledonia and she tries to suppress her abilities. But over the years, she can't ignore them nor can she ignore the mental communication with a certain bodiless lad from Earth.

Diamond Mask is a worthy continuation in the series. The biggest standouts are the terrifying presence of Hydra and the multilayered presence of Dorothea McDonald.

In the previous volume, The Family learned that Hydra was actually five of the Remillard cousins sharing a hive mind. They were sadistic, immature, and their mental communications with Fury were darkly comical. However there wasn't much distinction between them. 

This volume is where we really get a sense of their depravity and sadism. They come into their own as individuals with one as the brains and leader, another is charismatic and charming, another is lustful and active, another is innovative and tech oriented, and another is muscular and silent. 

Along with their individuality, their own personal desires come forward. They aren't just hurting people because Fury ordered them to. They have their own independent reasons, ambitious goals, and unsatisfied hunger compelling them to act. This suggests that they learned from the master, Fury, and soon he won't be able to control the monsters that he created.

The Remillards are still a presence and have their conflicts. Many question their allegiances like Anne’s loyalty to the Galactic Milieu and Unity and Adrien and Severin’s support for Rebellion. Marc weighs his own beliefs while preparing his own questionable potentially destructive project.

This volume introduces Dorothea McDonald, the future love interest of Jack Remillard. They don't meet face to face until towards the end and their union is tepid so this gives us a chance to get to know Dorothea on her own terms rather than created to just be a girlfriend and nothing more.

In the previous book, we were told that interstellar travel is a routine thing. We see a few short travels to other worlds including where Uncle Rogi Remillard visits a completely frozen planet and is given an important assignment. But Diamond Mask is the first one where intergalactic travel is a primary focus.

One of the interesting aspects of many of the planets is the cultural presence of Earthlings. Many of the Earth’s citizens took to the stars and brought their cultures with them. So there are references to planets with Japanese, Irish, Inuit, Nigerian and other diverse themes. 

Dorothea’s family lives on Caledonia, a planet colonized by Scottish Earthlings. The McDonalds live in a world of castles, rich farmland, tartans, and family clans. It makes sense that people exploring unfamiliar terrain would want to take something familiar with them and recreate their own history and traditions.

Dorothea's story compared to Jack’s shows that people faced with similar issues can react differently to them. Their telepathic abilities manifest early, are highly intelligent prodigies, and come from influential academic powerful families. But their personal experiences are quite different.

Jack is unable to hide his abilities because of his family and his illness, so he doesn't. In fact he dramatizes it. He is amused when students wonder what a prepubescent kid is doing on a college campus and even adult academics seek his advice. 

Jack's abilities and intelligence makes him seem remote and far off from other students so he has very few friends his own age. He is great at forging alliances and allyship but is a cypher when it comes to close emotional connections. This explains why he persists on mentally communicating with Dorothea despite her objections. He found someone who is on his intellectual and metaphysical level.

While Jack uses his abilities, Dorothea does not. As a child she compares her various powers as boxes on a shelf. When she has no choice but to use them, she only opens one box i.e. uses one power and only in extreme circumstances. 

Dorothea resents her family’s studies on psychic abilities so she suppresses her powers.She tries as hard as she can to act like a normal kid and withdraws into herself. 

Dorothea puts on a metaphorical mask to hide her capabilities. The events of the book from her family's murders to a natural planetary disaster leaves her scarred but brings out much of her strength, resilience, and abilities. Once she puts on a literal mask decorated with diamond studs, she no longer hides.

She pushes herself forward and stands out accepting her power and leadership. Dorothea's presence ultimately shines like the diamonds that Jack compares her to, hidden, priceless, powerful, beautiful, and strong. Jack and Dorothea are a couple who ultimately shine brightly together and apart.

 

Jack The Bodiless (Galactic Milieu Series Book 2) by Julian May; The Return of an Old Friend

 Jack The Bodiless (Galactic Milieu Series Book 2) by Julian May; The Return of an Old Friend

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: It's an interesting experience to reread a book after many years. In 1997, I read Julian May’s The Galactic Milieu Series. I was new to reading Science Fiction, mostly limited to Ray Bradbury's works. I was curious about this series about The Remillards, a telepathic family. It left such a large impression on me that Science Fiction became one of my favorite genres to read.

Almost 30 years later, I wondered after almost three decades of reading speculative fiction if The Galactic Milieu Series still holds up. I am glad to report that as far as the second volume in the series and the first that I read, Jack The Bodiless is concerned, it not only held up, it actually improved with age.

The most prominent and influential family is The Remillard Family whose members are highly telepathic. When patriarch Victor dies, The Remillards receive mental impressions of two monsters, Fury and Hydra who commit a series of murders over the years leaving the family vulnerable. Meanwhile, Paul and Teresa Kendall-Remillard are expecting their fifth child, Jon or Jack, who is genius, self-aware, and could potentially be the most powerful telepath in the family even as an infant.

The Earth that May envisioned has some interesting touches that are both imaginative and thought provoking. When I previously read it, the future was far away and remote. Now that it’s here, the parallels can’t be missed. 

The setting of this book is over 100 years after a time called The Great Intervention (detailed in the first book in the series, Intervention unread by me.). Various alien races made contact with Earth inviting them to join the Galactic Milieu, sort of an intergalactic United Nations. Earthlings received many perks because of this union including long life spans, rejuvenated youth, mental telepathy, and the ability to travel to the stars. It is an amazing world that May built in which the human mind is invited into a higher consciousness that explores unlimited potential beyond our little blue dot in the vast universe.

However as readers of Science Fiction all know, there is always a catch to what seems to be a great offer and in the case of the Milieu, that catch is Unity. The Milieu wants Earth’s residents to join their minds and consciousness with the other species as a hive mind. Many are on board with this concept, and those who are supportive are granted higher positions in society. 

However, there are plenty of humans who rebelled against the concept like Rogatien “Rogi” Remillard, the cynical and deadpan narrator of the book. Rebels are concerned about the death of individuality, privacy, and human frailties.

 It is a conflict that carries over throughout the series. It’s also open-ended and invites readers to weigh their own opinions about the cost of vast knowledge and power vs. a life of mental subservience and conformity.

While Earth hasn’t exactly made contact with alien species and telepathic abilities are still more theoretical than real, many of the issues that are discussed in this series are still very relevant. In this era of vast technology, social media, surveillance, censorship, and instantaneous connections we humans are made painfully aware of what is at stake.

We are surrounded by conflicts about privacy, the pursuit of vast knowledge, the price of conformity, and the desire to be individuals. May recognized these concerns in the 90’s and inserted them into her imaginary world. Now we are weighing that for ourselves. 

As detailed as May’s futuristic world is, her characters are just as well written. None more so than the large Remillard Family. They are like a fictional futuristic telepathic version of the Kennedys, a family that is rich in wealth, power, influence, charisma, and inner turmoil. 

They are enthralling as a family unit and as individuals. They have some great struggles and conflicts that are pulled out of soap opera just as they are out of science fiction. Conflicts like infidelity, divorce, differing viewpoints, child abuse, illness, mental disorders are just as important as the wider conflicts with the Galactic Milieu. The Remillards are a very realistic family that lives in a fanciful universe.

Brothers Marc and Jack Remillards are a pair of stand outs in this intriguing family. Marc is an adolescent who at times acts more mature than his lecherous father and emotional mother. He shares a special bond with Jack even before Jack is born where they communicate telepathically. He also receives visions and mental impressions suggesting that his fate is much larger than he thought.

Jack too is also a brilliant character. He thinks complex thoughts inside the womb. Even after he is born, and suffers tremendous physical pain, his brain is still highly active. His brain practically ascends to a higher plane of existence that doesn’t need to be contained by a corporeal body. The overall impression is a small child who is highly intelligent, otherworldly, and somewhat disconcerting in his otherworldliness.

Surrounding this family are Fury and Hydra terrifying creatures that destroy their victims from within. It is a strange union in which Fury is clearly the dominant leader and Hydra the excitable follower. They conspire to destroy the Remillards from within.

They are like things from nightmares and feed off Remillard Family’s pain, insecurities, fears, and anger. They are unleashed in violent confrontations that are chilling and disturbing.

Jack the Bodiless is highly recommended for readers of science fiction, particularly those who are interested in reading about mental telepathy, intergalactic space travel, dysfunctional families, rebellions, utopias, and the potential of expanded human potential, knowledge, and consciousness. 

The Sixth Victim (A Constance Piper Mystery) by Tessa Harris; Jack The Ripper Takes Center Stage in Ominous Supernatural Mystery

 

The Sixth Victim (A Constance Piper Mystery) by Tessa Harris; Jack The Ripper Takes Center Stage in Ominous Supernatural Mystery 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Now we turn to that unsolved historical mystery, Whitechapel, East End London’s most infamous son, Jack The Ripper. This famed and unidentified serial killer of female sex workers is the primary antagonist in The Sixth Victim: A Constance Piper Mystery by Tessa Harris. This is an effective Historical Mystery which captures time, place, and important themes about the degradation of women in the patriarchal Victorian Era.

Flower seller Constance Piper has to support her family but right now Whitechapel citizens are in fear. The latest victim “Dark” Annie Chapman was found after previous victims, Martha Tabram and Polly Nichols. Every woman walks home in terror and anxiety of the killer that could come out of the shadows to strike. However, Constance has a secret weapon at her disposal. She can communicate with ghosts and has reached the interest of Emily Tindall, a teacher who is concerned about a missing friend and students who have also vanished. Constance and Emily work together to solve these murders and disappearances.

This book captures the setting intricately with both time and place. The Victorian Age revealed a sharp division between rich and poor which is revealed through the contrast between lead characters. 

Emily lives around the middle to upper class while Constance dwells with the working lower class. Emily visits ornate wealthy houses while Constance lives in city slums. Emily's closest circle dines on five course dinners on fancy dishes while Constance’s friends and family face imminent starvation and homelessness. Emily's friends hide marital struggles and family disputes behind closed doors that are protected by status and connections. Constance's friends’ struggles are out for the world to see and are augmented by the lack of concern from those same resources. 

Rich and poor live in separate worlds and the twain does not meet often. However Emily and Constance act as bridges between them. Though Emily's status would be considered wealthy if not comfortable she does not ignore the plight of others. As an educator, she understands the importance of learning and teaches reading to working class women. She helps them realize that they don't have to limit themselves to an impoverished life and they can aspire to a better one. 

Emily recognizes that these women often had very few options which often resulted in domestic violence, alcoholism, addiction, prostitution, and illegitimate pregnancy. By educating them, Emily gives opportunities and options to break the cycles around them.

Constance considers Emily a mentor so their exchanges are full of warmth and support. Constance is the only person in her family that can read and feels like an outsider among her peers whose goals often go as far as their next meal or finding a partner for the night. 

Emily wants to open a shop, leave the East End, and build a comfortable nest egg. One of the more revealing moments is when she is dressed in a nice suit and speaks professionally to a wealthy woman. She surprises herself with her polished refined behavior even as she hides nerves underneath.

Besides the attention to class struggles, this book is adept at recounting the Jack The Ripper case and the overall violent world in which they take place. We are shown the “Canon Five” victims: Polly Nichols, Dark Annie Chapman, Long Lizzie Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Kelly. Kelly's story is particularly heartbreaking as she struggles with an unwanted pregnancy and a troubled common law marriage. 

Harris also offers some speculation. A potential victim is Martha Tabram, who at the time was considered a Ripper victim and even now there's some debate whether she was one or not. There is also the appearance of a headless unidentified female corpse, a real life unsolved mystery at the time that was also attributed to Jack.

The details are there: the notes, the graphic violence, the potential suspects, and the theories. The book plays on speculations and profiles to depict the potential suspects. In depicting them, Harris comments on xenophobia, fear of authority, and dehumanization of different classes. 

Even without the Ripper, there is a dark undercurrent of violence and crime. There is domestic abuse, forced prostitution, child trafficking, and fraudsters posing as mediums. In fact it is during a session with a fake medium when Constance first displays her real clairvoyant abilities. 

It is a mean world where Jack can hide in plain sight because he fits in. It's a world where Victorian moralists lecture others, particularly women, about propriety while at the same time committing violence towards women and maintaining a patriarchal system in which they can't report it.

With The Sixth Victim, Tessa Harris uses the Jack The Ripper murders as a springboard in this dissection of Victorian class division, subjugation of women, and depraved violence. 

14 Hours of Saturn by Mike J. Kizman; Antonio's Odyssey by Mike Pagone; They Know When The Killer Will Strike by Michael J. Bowler

14 Hours of Saturn by Mike J. Kizman; Antonio's Odyssey by Mike Pagone; They Know When The Killer Will Strike by Michael J. Bowler 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

14 Hours of Saturn by Mike J. Kizman 

This is a summary. The entire review is on LitPick.

14 Hours of Saturn is mostly a great character study of a young woman looking back on the trajectory of her life while embarking on her next step. Saturn's life doesn't by any means contain a lot of adventure or dramatic tense moments, but she is an interesting average person that we explore various moments throughout her young life. However, towards the end, the book loses character by forcing a repetitive and overbearing sermon that slows the book down. 

Saturn O Sayres is unpacking in her new apartment and exploring her new surroundings. She flashes back to memories of her family, particularly her love-hate relationship with her sister Venus, her education, artistic talents, friendships, romantic relationships, and spiritual concerns. 

Most of the book focuses on Saturn's tempestuous relationship with her fashionista logical sister, Venus. The two sisters argued over interests, romances, parent's attention, acting more like school rivals than related by blood. It's a very relatable relationship as anyone who has siblings can understand. 

Although Saturn and Venus's relationship is frosty and tempestuous most of the time, they occasionally show genuine love and support to the point that when the girls are separated by college, marriage, and life plans they miss each other more than either will admit.

14 Hours of Saturn could be a brilliant book about a woman who creates bridges with her conflicted relationships with others, particularly Venus or finds personal and financial success in her chosen professional field. Some of that is present. However, it is hidden by an overemphasis towards religion that overpowers the final chapters.

The final third of the book is almost taken over by religion. Saturn's overbearing college roommate quotes Christian platitudes and tries to convert Saturn which ultimately works.

It's not that the book is Christian Fiction that is the problem. It is that the book was so secretive about it. There was barely any mention of religion through most of the book until towards the end. It's like a Trojan Horse hiding religious meaning in a slice of life novel about two bickering sisters.

 Perhaps, it might have come across better if religious concepts were generously sprinkled throughout the book and that Saturn came into it on her own instead of through her roommate pestering her.

14 Hours of Saturn is a book that turns into a sermon, but at least has an interesting, spirited, creative, intelligent protagonist as the focus. 

 

Antonio's Odyssey by Mike Pagone 

Antonio's Odyssey by Mike Pagone is a charming slice of life novel about the life and loves of a man named Antonio or Tony from his 1940’s childhood to late in life contentment. 

Tony's life is described through various anecdotes and incidents which combine humor and emotion. His childhood is filled with memories of his relatives particularly his lively ebullient grandfather. He also writes about other youthful experiences like shining shoes for a living, joining a street gang, his interests in music and pigeons, and an early interracial romance with a Black girl named Rosetta. 

Antonio moved to Las Vegas to play piano with a band in 1954. This was when Vegas was just beginning its reputation as an entertainment destination during the jazz and Rat Pack Era. At the time, it was a flourishing thriving scene just perfect for a young musician to get his start. 

Unfortunately it's also a place where one could  get extremely close to organized crime as Tony does in a chilling chapter. His interactions with criminals costs Tony his job, his then girlfriend Laura, and ultimately his Vegas residence as he is forced to go on the run.

Antonio describes various people in his life through witty observation and self-deprecating humor. For example, his first wife Kelly had an IQ that was “like one hundred and forty-nine while (his) was probably zero, well maybe ten, but anyway she never used her intelligence to trick or fool (him).”  Another love interest, “Spur-Of-The-Moment” Linda led Tony on many strange antics to teach him to embrace life.

There are also moments of emotional anguish such as the decline of Linda’s friend, Julie, who suffered from addiction and potential psychosis. There is also genuine tenderness such as when Linda and Tony bond with Heather, a young girl from a troubled background. 

Tony, and Pagone, described these events with such earnestness and sincerity that the Reader feels like they really know Tony and his inner circle even if he wasn't a real person.

They Know When The Killer Will Strike (A Film Milieu Thriller) by Michael J. Bowler

This is a summary. The entire review is on LitPick.

Normally reading a later volume without reading a previous one can be a confusing chore because readers get lost. But They Know When The Killer Will Strike by Michael J. Bowler benefits from reading out of order because all is explained through a movie-within-a-book.

Leo Cantrell discovers that his previous adventure (told in the first volume I Know When You Are Going to Die), is going to turn into a movie produced by his ambitious pushy mother. Leo and his friends JC, Chet, and Laura get to experience the making of a film and befriend the actors who will play them. Leo however receives psychic visions of gruesome attacks on set suggesting that a killer is on the loose and has their eyes set on the cast and crew. While this is going on Leo has to weigh his sexuality and feelings for Asher, the actor/model playing him.

Using the device of a film made out of the previous book, readers are given information about characters’s back stories, important plot points, and the occasional spoiler without having read the first book. It's a very unique way of catching up late coming readers while also telling a great story in its own right. Film buffs will enjoy the behind the scenes look on how a film adaptation is made..

They Know When The Killer Will Strike is gripping thriller with a fun satirical edge as it looks at murder on the set of a Hollywood film. 

The Catalogue(A VENOM Novel) by Ty Mitchell; Suspense, Betrayal, and Twists Are Made to Order

 

The Catalogue(A VENOM Novel) by Ty Mitchell; Suspense, Betrayal, and Twists Are Made to Order

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Spoilers: ‘Tis might be the season for receiving catalogs, but if you are a character in Ty Mitchell’s Suspense Thriller VENOM Novel The Catalogue, this eponymous document is the last catalog that you will want to receive. Instead of orders about charcuteries and winter apparel, this is a list of the world's most available organized criminals, assassins, terrorists, blackmailers, and all around worst people ever.

The Catalogue is the property of VENOM, a global super network of organized crime. Many members know of the Catalogue’s existence but not all of them have access to it and some would kill to receive it. One of them is Jun Li who is literally killing the competition. His actions reach the attention of Detective Jake Penny, investigative reporter Zasha Avery, and NSA Special Agent Ethan Parker who try to get to the root of these murders that will hopefully lead them to VENOM and The Catalogue.

This is a high octane and energy thriller that relies on suspense, plot twists, and fast paced writing to tell its story and it does that well. The action chapters are very tight building on different layers of character and suspense to add to the overall tension. 

From the first moment that we, the Readers, observe the characters, they are thrown into violent situations that require us to evaluate their personalities. Jake's introductory chapter takes place in a pharmacy where he is desperately trying to get opioids that he is addicted to. He stops an armed robbery and uses his observation skills to reveal that it was an inside job. 

This opening shows him as an effective detective but a very troubled individual with deep personal conflict. Those actions questions his allegiance with the law and our thoughts towards him. He doesn't live in a world of black and white, but gray.

Jun Li is another character who acknowledges that gray world. He is ruthless and efficient in his murders, treating his targets like nothing more than items on a checklist. Even though he is a loyal VENOM member, he seems more interested in becoming the actual leader and grabbing power for himself.

However, there is another side to him and it is shown in the opening chapter when he reads to a group of orphaned children before he returns to and taunts his bound adult hostages. He develops a genuine bond with one of the young orphans so that a later chapter concerning the two of them is one of the most emotionally gripping.

 Like Jake, the purpose is to show different sides and the gray world that he and the other characters inhabit. Sometimes the hero has a dark violent side and sometimes the villain shows vulnerability that is hidden from everyone else.

The gray world leads to some of the more intriguing plot twists and revelations. Some make sense but one arbitrary twist stretches credibility especially since the book is third person omniscient and we would have had some hints in the characters' mindset. 

I suppose that is the point. In a world where good characters aren't always good and bad ones aren't always bad and everyone operates according to their own code, that is to be expected. Characters act in ways that even the Readers find questionable.

The Catalogue is the type of novel that provides suspense, thrills, plot twists, and understanding of the complexities of the law and the lawless. It is perfectly made to order.

The Orphanage of Cheswick Court (The Hollowbloods Book 1) by Haule Voss; Magical Training is Both Familiar and Exceptional

 The Orphanage of Cheswick Court (The Hollowbloods Book 1) by Haule Voss; Magical Training is Both Familiar and Exceptional 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: The first book in Haule Voss’s The Hollowbloods Series, The Orphanage on Cheswick Court is both familiar and exceptional. It features a young magic user discovering and studying magic among other magically gifted students which is familiar. But it also has enough originality to create some unique characters and themes that make it an exceptional work.

In the kingdom of Alodia, Thaddeus Rigel Volkameria is born and raised in the woods so he wouldn't be found and destroyed by Orion, a cruel despotic wizard. He is one of the Hollowblood, those born with volatile and forbidden magic. He is then raised by the Angrec Wolves of Eldenwood and protected and educated by Ozzy, a wise owl. It is foretold that the one who wears the Robe of Astra will be powerful enough to defeat Orion. Thaddeus is given a map to guide him to the Robe and told that he must find and don it before his 18th birthday.

To do so, Thaddeus must be trained at the Orphanage on Cheswick Court, an institution that trains Hollowbloods. But he is not alone. He is accompanied by Gilgal “Gilly” Mezereon, his adopted wolf brother, and Elara Bramblefern and Emerson Thornwillow, two Fairies. Gilly and the Fairies have to take human form to accompany their friend to the Orphanage so they can protect and study alongside him.

There are some very familiar tropes and beats that The Orphanage on Cheswick Court has that can be found in many Occult Academia novels. Thaddeus is the typical wife eyed naive newcomer sent on his Hero’s Journey. He is somewhat of a blank slate where most of the more interesting character trajectories are given to the other characters. 

He goes through some darker transformations, especially when he and his friends go on a journey to receive some magical objects that will lead them to the Robe and empower them to face Orion. During this journey, the objects latch on to Thaddeus’s desire for power, obsessive need for success, desire for revenge against Orion, and hidden anger. While he tries to shake this influence off for now, there is a strong possibility that it may not be a good thing for Thaddeus to wear the Robe any more than it would be okay to let Orion gain more power. 

The Orphanage is both a home and a school for Hollowbloods so we have the usual trajectories of magical boarding school stories with eccentric teachers with hidden secrets, loyal friends and classmates, unique classes, and obnoxious bullies. They are also here in this book.

The Orphanage headmasters Mabel and Jack Calidora seem like a nice wise couple that know their stuff and are protective of the young ones in their care. But they also exhibit some sinister mannerisms and leave subtle auras of mistrust. They seem decent but there might be something potentially troublesome about them.

Most of the students are not very memorable. There are two antagonists, Clavian, who will be our bully for the evening, and Lydia, The Calidora’s niece and resident mean girl. There are some suggestions that there might be more to their characters than we have seen with Lydia's crush on Thaddeus and Clavian’s silent analysis and fear of Thaddeus but it's mostly hidden and speculated. Nothing is revealed so they are mostly one dimensional.

 Clavian and Lydia join forces towards the end suggesting a dangerous duo for the main characters but a delicious bickering and romantic duo for the Readers. However, I must admit after seeing how multifaceted Drake Corvus, the arrogant bully from The Amazing Flight of Aaron William Hawk vol 2 Wings of Emifra by J. Bruno was written, Clavian and Lydia pale in comparison. It seems like their stories aren't quite finished, so perhaps they are only getting started. But for now, they could be less standard.

By far the best characters are Thaddeus’s friends, his adopted brother, Gilly, female friend, Emerson, and potential love interest Elara. Because they transform into humans, they have to weigh their former identities with their current ones. They are even told that the longer they are in human form, the more they will forget the beings that they once were.

Gilly is a protective loyal brother to Thaddeus. They never saw each other as different species but as brothers. Gilly still has many of his animal instincts like heightened awareness and extreme strength. However, he can't suppress his transformation and often goes into hiding when that happens. His struggles are balancing his new found human nature with his innate animal one.

Elara and Emerson entered the book as flighty flirtatious mischievous fairies that would help but may tease or play pranks just for fun. They were charming but mostly just flat comic relief. When they became human, they had to encounter human emotions and experiences.

Emerson struggles with her sexuality and identity and reconciles her feelings for a female student. Elara develops romantic affection for Thaddeus and has to weigh becoming involved with him and leaving her life as a fairy behind. They and Gilly question what makes a human and where their real roles and identities lie.

The Orphanage on Cheswick Court is well executed as a first volume and leaves open ended questions and enough curiosity to contact into the second book. 

In The House of Root and Rot (The Altered Planes Book 2) by Sam Weiss; Between Life and Death Lies Confusion and Surreality

 

In The House of Root and Rot (The Altered Planes Book 2) by Sam Weiss; Between Life and Death Lies Confusion and Surreality

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Normally I get very uncomfortable when I read the second book in a series without reading the first. I often compare it to butting into the middle of a conversation and missing the opening or hearing the punchline of a joke and missing the set up.

Some authors consciously know that not everyone reads series in order so they compensate for that. Mystery authors often make their books stand alone while having occasional subplots carry over from volume to volume. Other genre authors summarize the events prior in the introduction or have the characters provide exposition for what happened before. 

Even when authors provide that assistance, it can be a confusing surreal situation to read the second book first. It can be frustrating but sometimes, as in the case of In The House of Root and Rot, the second book in Sam Weiss’ The Altered Planes series, that confusion and surrealism actually works. 

Will Deadmarsh (a name that is on the nose for a Horror novel but has a delightful ghoulish ring to it) is the only survivor in a family that is cursed by death according to his grandfather, Houl. Will’s mother died in childbirth. His father and twin sister got into a car collision which resulted in his immediate death and her coma and eventual death. Houl, had a stroke but is not responsive leaving Will to take care of the once cantankerous verbally abusive senior.

Atra Hart (another meaningful surname) has escaped from a psychiatric hospital with her scientist father, Tom. She was subjected to scientific experiments that Tom rescued her from while shooting her primary doctor, Dr. Glasser. As the two hide, Tom’s erratic behavior becomes negligent and borderline abusive so when Atra is put into a dangerous situation, she escapes. By chance, Atra encounters Will as he is questioning the aftermath of a sleep study in which his sister, Lex, returned from the dead and Houl disappeared. Finding their lives in danger possibly by the same people, Atra and Will go on with Lex in tow.

As I mentioned before, reading the series out of sequence adds and actually increases the confusion and surrealism that surrounds the characters and the Reader. Somehow it makes the events that much scarier when we don't know what's going on any more than the characters do.

We are given some exposition in the opening chapters. We are told that Atra was a guinea pig in a scientific experiment to explore life after death, particularly the spirit world called The Otherside. She can travel through a portal called The Altered Planes which is between life and death. She also has a piece of death inside her called Dread which appears as a sentient shadow. 

We also learn over the course of the book that Will's family was also involved in the experiments hence the frequent deaths and Lex's post mortem reappearance. But the exposition is few and far between and still leaves a lot of gaps and unanswered questions.

Under normal circumstances, alternating point of view chapters, flashbacks, and back stories put Readers ten steps ahead of the protagonists. This book however puts us two steps ahead of the characters at most. Because of this, Readers are unprepared for the weirdness without any information. We are just as startled when these things happen such as when Lex returns in an emaciated corpse form and taunts and threatens her twin brother. 

Her insults might have been gentle sibling ribaldry and teasing when she was alive. But now there is something savage and menacing about her words. She mentally creates confusion and suspicion within Will which leaves him emotionally isolated. It's possible that the price of Lex’s return was her soul. 

Lex isn't the only sinister paranormal presence. There are creatures that appear in and out of shadows and feed off of fear and negative emotions. They pass down through family generations. Will eventually learns such a spirit is attached to the Deadmarsh Family. Dread is similar to these creatures as it too has chaotic motivations and commits violent actions. It's hard for Will and Atra to hide from spirits that are within their brain, blood, and DNA.

Will and Atra are face to face with these spirits that can't be studied or understood. Indeed, part of the reason for their appearance is out of defiance of human scientists arrogantly researching them and expecting them to be contained. If they can't be studied and can't be contained, then they can't be defeated or killed. In fact, since they are associated with death, they are more than likely death itself or representatives of the end of life. So the only options are to try to run from them or learn to live with them.

The confusion lies not only within the characters but the setting. Some of the eeriest moments occur during Will and Atra’s road trip. They stop at small towns that are unnervingly silent with no one at gas stations, convenience stores, driving on the highway. There are buildings and vehicles, but they stand empty of people inside them. It's like a movie set that is supposed to imitate familiarity but fails at it. It only adds to the tension and puts the two in even more potential danger as their worst fears multiply in the silence.

What is even more sinister and disconcerting is that Will and Atra can't find respite in the human world any more than they can in the Otherside. I have often said that sometimes humans can be more frightening and more sinister than any supernatural creature and this book shows that.

Both Will and Atra have histories of abuse, loss, neglect, abandonment and so does the whole book.This book has parents experimenting on their own children, abusive family heads keeping a tight psychological grip on the rest of the family, people falling into poverty, despair, and desperation, victims becoming physically and mentally battered to the point of death, narcissistic guardians controlling their children for their own means, people betraying others out of avarice and ignorance, children being neglected and physically or psychologically abandoned by once trusted authority figures and family members, multiple incidents of gaslighting, physical, emotional, mental, and sexual abuse.

If nothing else, In The House of Root and Rot shows us that The Otherside might be filled with terrifying spirits and visions but the Human World is filled with the anxieties of everyday living. You don't need to read Book 1 to understand that.