on
3.5/5
Non-Fiction
- Get link
- Other Apps
Rating: 4/5
Pages: 304
Started: 8 June 2024
Finished: 13 June 2024
Summary:
David Aristarkhov has it all: overwhelming charm, courtroom success, a thriving business communicating with the dearly departed of rich benefactors, and the promise of becoming the leader of his occult fraternity when the current high priest retires. Then, during a routine seance, David finds himself, for once in his life, ceding control---to an uninvited demon that seems somehow connected to his abusive father. As the demon begins to take more and more from David's health and from his life, he can only think to turn to one person: his ex-boyfriend and secret society rival Rhys, who is unfortunately happily married to a beautiful, talented, and no-nonsense psychic. But as David begins to spend more time with Rhys and his wife Moira, not only do they begin to untangle a centuries-old demonic curse on David's bloodline, but also their own complex history. If only they could find a way to banish the demon. If only they could find a way for all three of their futures to intertwine.
Thoughts:
I enjoyed this book so much more than I expected to. The premise seemed too perfect; I though that perfect simplicity of the plot would overshadow the writing, and the book would end up being rote and boring. But it was not. David may have been a pretty typical romance novel protagonist, but he was also genuinely a complicated asshole, which made his character a lot more interesting. Similarly, Moira may have been an adored, primarily domestic wife, but she was kind and firm and far from the not-like-other-girls archetype that gets so overdone. Rhys was admittedly pretty boring, but it was cute how much he loved his wife.
In a similar vein, the magic could have been boring and spell-y and too simplistic. Instead, it was extremely realistic, and felt very based in the author's own research. I appreciated reading about the different kinds of magic and the way they fit into an occult fraternity; all the details felt rich and interesting.
Finally, the characters relationships & their eventual polyamory felt fresh and sweet and exciting, as well as well-researched. It was modern and trauma-informed to a degree, and there was lots of therapy-speech used at points. But the book was also a story about three complex characters who loved each other, and I found it very touching. I really got a kick out of reading this book--there was lots of goofy grinning while walking and listening to my audiobook--and I plan to look out for other works from ST Gibson in the future.