I played Maybe: Interactive Stories' adaptation of this novella, which combined it with the sequel novel. You can find my review of Why the Devil Stalks Death here: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/9f86b55b-cc9c-43a6-a1d2-ac68b1f8d89d 

I played Maybe: Interactive Stories' adaptation of this novella, which combined it with the sequel novel. You can find my review of Why the Devil Stalks Death here: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/9f86b55b-cc9c-43a6-a1d2-ac68b1f8d89d 

I played Maybe: Interactive Stories' adaptation of this novella, which combined it with the sequel novel. You can find my review of Why the Devil Stalks Death here: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/9f86b55b-cc9c-43a6-a1d2-ac68b1f8d89d 

I played Maybe: Interactive Stories' adaptation of this novella, which combined it with the sequel novel. You can find my review of Why the Devil Stalks Death here: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/9f86b55b-cc9c-43a6-a1d2-ac68b1f8d89d

As I explained in my Where Death Meets the Devil review, my experience with LJ Hayward’s government agent/assassin romance is out of the ordinary. Instead of reading each individual novella and novel, I played the two visual novel adaptations from Maybe: Interactive Stories. Why the Devil Stalks Death’s adaptation included all the novellas between books 1 and 2, in addition to the book proper. Quite the treat!

 Meta-State agent Jack Reardon and assassin Ethan Blade love each other very much. When they’re together, sparks fly. The problem is: when and how can they be together? Their jobs are diametrically opposed. Jack must stay in town, while Ethan globe-trots and feels unsafe staying in one place for twenty-four hours. The love is there, sure, but how will our two leads sort out of the logistics? Also: there’s a serial killer on the loose.

Though welding a novel and novellas together made a mess of the pacing, I adored this sequel. While I enjoy witnessing people fall in love, what really gets me is seeing two people navigate being utterly besotted with each other. Hayward manages to mix a startling amount of character development into a thriller premise, and the story became my catnip. Under Hayward’s pen, Jack and Ethan are OTP material. Though sometimes the narrative awkwardly set it aside, the serial killer mystery kept me on my toes. Hayward balances transparency and obscurity with clues, so the reader can follow the logic and stands a chance at figuring out the culprit. Why the Devil Stalks Death tackles and complicates the notion of the Meta-State as well, which made me breathe easier. Privacy is a human right. Any organization who routinely violates that right is going to be trouble.

Why the Devil Stalks Death is a solid sequel that I recommend to anyone who enjoyed its predecessors. Here’s hoping When Death Frees the Devil receives a visual novel adaptation too!

My review of Book 1: Where Death Meets the Devil: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/2cd63ec2-e801-4ff6-be0c-fa8ca9e7f325

My review is going to be a little odd. Firstly, it’s been awhile since I interacted with the story (hi from 2024!). I enjoyed Where Death Meets the Devil so much that I wanted to write a review, but it appears that didn’t happen. Or maybe the Internet ate it? Oh well. I’m doing it now. Secondly, I didn’t read this story in its usual novel form. Instead, I played through the gorgeous visual novel adaptation from Cinanmon Games’s Maybe: Interactive Stories. LJ Hayward worked on the adaptation herself, so it should be a true retelling, but my experience is necessarily different from people’s experience with the novel.

Jack Reardon is a top agent for the Meta-State, a seriously frightening global intelligence monitoring organization based in Australia. He’s in top shape, at the top of his career, and definitely on top of this situation where mafia thugs have him strapped to a chair. The only gobsmacking turn of events is an assassin sauntering into the room and saving him. Notorious in his field and sporting a notorious bubble butt, Ethan Blade proposes an alliance. Together, they can take down this crime boss and afterwards they’ll part ways and resume the usual hostilities. A perfectly fine plan until the clues start leading to conclusions that the Meta-State is way more involved than appropriate.

I used to think I didn’t like thrillers. The spy vs spy crime genre was too military for me. Where Death Meets the Devil cracked a chasm in that premise, because I enjoyed the visual novel immensely. Like lying on my stomach, kicking my feet, and twirling my hair level of enjoyment. There are some rough patches. Hayward’s world-building includes some ableist nonsense about if a pregnant person takes this drug, it makes their child’s eyes a super light blue color, sensitive to sunlight, have anti-social personality disorder, and be supernaturally good at murder. Which is like. Horseshit. Thankfully, this aspect isn’t dwelled on, and we’re back to laughing at Ethan’s pet camel or positing the assassins are actually murderous sugar babies, if you think about it. At its core, Ethan and Jack’s story is a heartwarming romance full of humor. These two jagged, guarded individuals are finding someone they can relax around for the first time in their lives. Through empathy, vulnerability, and the hard work of communication, they fit together.

If you can download Maybe: Interactive Stories, I heartily recommend Where Death Meets the Devil. 

Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons was a totally random find. Storygraph featured it on its Giveaways section. Intrigued, I entered the contest and didn’t win. Months later, I was at the library and there Anthony Christian Ocampo’s work was, sitting on the shelf. I nabbed it and settled in.

Brown and Gay in LA is an sociological study of gay, Brown, and second generation immigrant men in Los Angeles, California, especially those connected to the West Hollywood neighborhood. Filipino and gay himself, Ocampu conducted interviews with men of these groups and synthesized their biographic experiences into the book, noting commonalities and trends. Ocampo’s interviewees were Asian (mostly Filipino) and Latino men. 

I loved it. As a white person in the USA, I am an immigrant. My family lines have been on these unceded, occupied lands for three or four generations. I’ve linked two other reviews below from people more familiar with the relevant identities. I expected my life to be very different from a first or second immigrant of color’s experience. As I kept reading, I realized these men and I had more in common than I initially thought. The interviewees are my generation. Our pop culture touchstones and schooling years are the same. It was a bit of a shock. We grew up in the same area and came out as queer. I literally stood next to them and had guesses as to their interior worlds. Of course I didn’t guess every nuance–the double whammy of racist and homophobic microaggressions packs a whallop. But I was a lot closer to these men than I thought I would be, picking up the book. We are different, and that is good. We share more in commonalities than have differences, and that’s good too.

As you may have guessed, this book blew my mind a lot. Ocampo takes pains to make his prose accessible to the average reader, to which I’m thankful. I took notes, and the number of pages is Many, haha. Some especially interesting points were (1) how being masculine centers on not being feminine, (2) the conflation of gender performance and sexuality; and (3) how immigrant children feel immense pressure to fulfill the “American Dream.” Most immigrant stories I’ve read center on the parents, and the children don’t realize how much their parents sacrificed. Also! Many cool WeHo fun facts! 

Ocampo’s work is essential reading for anyone seeking to learn about their fellow men. 
 

Bookdragon217’s review: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/7ec231da-7f20-4816-98ba-6cb49401c2d3

Fherrera’s review: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/31fd255d-d741-4673-9a19-3cf0bcd7b9bf