As far as presentation goes, this is a sexy book! Gorgeous cover, super cool black-dusted pages, and a load of awesome promotional/concept art (seriously, check out the author’s website to see some of it)!

That being said, as far as the story goes it’s a bit of mixed bag for me.

On one hand I found the premise super intriguing, loved the monster design, and enjoyed the fast-paced action scenes. As a white male who greatly enjoys violent sci-fi/action films (and video games like Doom, Gears of War, etc) this book appealed to me on a base level.

However, I can see how someone not like me wouldn’t enjoy it as much, considering the lack of diversity and strong female leads (something I believe this debut author is already working to correct in the future - so good on him!). Indeed I even found many of the characters to be mere enablers of the action instead of well-rounded individuals (except Trace, I ended up liking him).

Overall there was enjoy here to like that it kept me reading, and as this is volume 1 of a two-parter I’m interested to see where it goes. I also think this author is one to keep an eye on the future, and I could totally see this being turned into a pretty great movie (with a few character tweaks).

To see my full review, check out my blog at readingvicariously.net (link also in bio).