Oh my gods, I can't even begin to deal with how incredible this first serial was. Xen, also known as Cole McCade, is an all-time favorite author of mine, and everything he reads is just immediately launched onto my TBR, but as someone who adores the crossing-over of horror and romance more than just about any other genre mash-up you can imagine, when he announced this series, I was so excited I could barely stand myself — and it already has completely hooked me.

Anyone who has read Xen/Cole's work knows he's incredible at writing romance, but I'm not sure how many of my friends are aware of how solid his horror writing is, and the body horror and creeping, dreadful sense of everything being wrong in this story is stunningly well-written. On top of that, as always, the characters are charming and flawed and beautiful and broken, and I immediately wanted to hold them all and keep them safe, especially Sho and Naoki (and poor, precious Jiro!).

As far as the romance element goes, Marrow utilizes one of my all time favorite pairing tropes: childhood best friends growing up to love one another, but being too afraid to confess their feelings for risk of losing everything they've built. Xen excels at the slow-burn, so don't go into this first installment expecting more than sweet pining and barely-stifled words, but oh, am I ever so excited to watch this unfold between these two sweet babies.

✨ Representation: Naoki is gay; Sho is queer (I believe it's being implied that he is bi or pan); all primary (and I think all side) characters are Japanese

✨ Content warnings for: mentions of past loss of parents, grief, body horror, brief/vague memories of child abuse, care-taking of ill elderly parents

I read a final copy through my Kindle Unlimited subscription, but for the sake of disclosure, I was also sent an early review copy by the author.