A Walk Through Hell, Volume 1 by Garth Ennis, Goran Sudžuka, Mike Marts & Rob Steen Review

Though I liked the cover for this book and the description sounded right up my alley, this book fell a little flat for me when compared to other horror comics. Though I’ve read a bunch of comics from Aftershock Comics before, I might have had my hopes a little high for the gore in this story. It is interesting, but it just wasn’t my new favourite story, and it was a little confusing with the flashbacks, or whatever they were. That being said, it wasn’t the worst, and I did like reading it.

 

3/5 Stars 120 pages
Published December 11th 2018 by Aftershock Comics

It starts off with a man and a woman going through a mall with a baby. Someone shoots the baby point blank, and the woman holding it dies too. Turns out six people were murdered that day, just two days before Christmas. This is when we’re introduced to Special FBI Agents Shaw and McGregor, who are headed to their job, reading tweets about the murders the whole way.

 

Through their investigation of the murders, they’re lead to a warehouse where people go in, and they don’t come back out. The swat team outside kills themselves out of fear of the place, and before they can stop the special agents, they head on in. This is the beginning of the strangest day of their lives. Sort of a Silent Hill vibe, they are knocked unconscious by an unknown factor. Waking up, they realize that they have no pulse. They start hearing things, and then wonder if they’re both hallucinating when they find a man that just is blowing his head off over and over and over again. Have they been transported to Hell? Judging by the title, I would say yes.

 

With all that out of the way, let me say that what I didn’t like about this, was the kind of disconnected flashbacks that they were having while in this warehouse. I was confused by them, wondering how they got out and went to a diner or back to the station when everyone else couldn’t get out. And then I realized they were memories. I also was hoping for more gore than there was in this book, but that’s my bad. I liked the characters, but I didn’t really get to know them in this volume. The world they live in is like our own, but clearly there’s a hell on earth somehow.

 

Will I be reading the next volume? I’m not sure. I don’t have a favourite character, and I wasn’t super into the story, but I did think it was spooky and intriguing. It wasn’t my cup of tea, but who’s to say it won’t be yours? Check it out if you think you’d like it.

You can grab a copy for yourself here.

Here’s a link to the only one of the creator’s Twitter accounts I could find, if you’d like to keep up with them.

 

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think below, and I hope you have a good day.

And Then There Were Dragons by Alcy Leyva Release

AND THEN THERE WERE DRAGONS

SHADES OF HELL, BOOK II

ALCY LEYVA | JULY 30, 2019

Urban Fantasy, Adult

Black Spot Books

For Amanda Grey, stopping the all-encompassing Apocalypse fated to plunge our entire existence into never-ending darkness … just kind of sucked. Sure, she had managed to capture every demon set loose on New York City. And yes, she ended up thwarting an evil angel’s plans to destroy humanity. But she also lost her sister, her apartment, and—oh yeah—Amanda Grey totally died and got her soul banished to hell as a result.

Luckily, she’s not the type to take that kind of thing lying down.

AND THEN THERE WERE DRAGONS thrusts Amanda Grey into a whole new world of weird as she ventures out into the fiery wastelands, decrepit cities, and Olive Gardens of the afterlife in search of her sister and her own redemption. As the penultimate entry in the Shades of Hell Series, Amanda will be coming face-to-face with the truth behind the demon Shades, as well as a destiny she sure as hell didn’t ask for.

PRINT – AMAZON ~ BARNES & NOBLE ~ INDIEBOUND

EBOOK – AMAZON ~ BARNES & NOBLE ~ KOBO ~ iBooks

Off Planet (Aunare Chronicles #1) by Aileen Erin Review

Off Planet (Aunare Chronicles #1) by Aileen Erin 5/5 Stars 492 Pages Published March 19th 2019 by Ink Monster, LLC

Though Goodreads tells me I’ve read the second book in the author’s other series, Becoming Alpha, I don’t remember it and so I’m going to count this as the first book I’ve read by the author. Very different from her usual books, Off Planet follows a girl named Maite as she goes through life a halfer, half alien race called Aunare, a humanoid species that glows when feeling any exaggerated emotions, and has intricate glyph tattoos all over their bodies. This is one book I can’t wait to get a copy of for my bookshelf, and can see myself reading it again, I just love it so much. Now I know that I need to really check out other books by the author.

 

The story begins with Maite teaching a martial arts class, after all, she’s a girl who knows how to survive, and reminds me a little of a doomsday prepper. That being said, it’s only fair that she be prepared with the kind of world she lives in. She never forgets to tell her class that the macho company SpaceTech won’t ever save them, and doesn’t care about them, because it’s important for everyone to know what she does. Her best friend, Roan, is her teacher’s assistant, and works hard daily to make sure that no one finds out what she really is.

 

After getting an implant, something every human has, she comes to the conclusion that she’ll never be able to truly blend in, because her alien side is stronger than her human side, and the implant drives her insane. She’s been living on Earth since she was a kid, but it’s getting harder and harder to hide her true self as the years go by, and now as a nineteen year old, she must have the implant or SpaceTech will kill her. After all, everything wrong with the world is blamed on aliens.

 

When she gets home however, there’s someone waiting for her. The interplanetary police force shows up, and when she tries to escape and go to work for the night, a man sexually assults her before he arrests her. She manages to take off and call Roan for help, but it’s too late, as she’s not only caught, but sentenced and imprisoned. This leads her to an off planet work camp, and after a traumatic time in cryo, she realizes that the judge and people higher up in SpaceTech really have it out for her, when she’s assigned to a cooling job designed for bots on the surface of a planet dubbed Hell.

 

Overall, I think this might be one of my new favourite books, and I can’t wait to see what happens in the series. I loved how the characters acted around each other, and they really stayed true to who they are, even in impossibly tough times and conditions. I really enjoyed imagining what the aliens really look like, and hope to see more of what they are and where they’re from in the future. I recommend checking out this book if you love books like Death of Clone, which also takes place on a place called Hell. My favourite character, without a doubt, being Maite.

 

The book is available here, and here’s a link to the author’s Twitter, if you’d like to keep up with her.

Thanks for reading!

Lincoln (Angelbound Origins #1.5) by Christina Bauer Review

Lincoln (Angelbound Origins #1.5) by Christina Bauer 4/5 Stars 300 pages
Published February 24th 2019 by Monster House Books LLC

I feel like I often have to revisit this series after long breaks. Not only because I want to space it out, but because the books often come out of order, and I don’t want to miss anything. This book, is either book 1.5 or 2, depending on where you look, and it’s basically Angelbound, the first book, but from Lincoln’s point of view. That being said, I was a little confused why Duty Bound was at the beginning of this, when it was already released as it’s own novella and I had already read it, but I did enjoy reading this new installment.

 

Lincoln has a cushy life as the Prince of Thrax, but also a hard life as probably the best demon hunter out there. It begins with him doing what he does best, fighting demons, and trying to adjust to his new life in Purgatory, surrounded by Quasi-Demons and Ghouls. He’s not very happy about it, but what can he do? He’s about to begin a loveless marriage with a girl he hardly knows. His life seems bleak, that is, until he meets Myla, a Quasi-Demon warrior girl with a dragon scale tail who begins to sneak onto his property to fight demons.

 

He’s immediately drawn to her, though his family’s disgust with demons changes his judgement. He knows he must protect her from the wrath of the Tithe, as Prince of the Thrax, but doesn’t know how to without causing problems with his own people. That’s when he begins hatching secret plans to keep her around him without seeming too obvious. He knows that she’s the girl for him, no matter what his people think.

 

I was excited to see more than just a novella with Lincoln as the viewpoint, as I really enjoyed getting to know him better. I remember him being kind of quiet in the other books, though he is a big part of them, but I was glad to see there’s more to him than just hanging around Myla and being the Prince of Thrax. This book was kind of a long read, not only because of the novella at the beginning, but because of every event in Angelbound being told from the other side. I felt like I had read it all before, and wasn’t impressed when I started the book, but as it turned out I really got into it. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the series has in store for me, as well as Myla and Lincoln.

 

If you’re into books about the supernatural such as Angels, Demons, Quasi-Demons, Ghouls, Ghosts and more, set in Purgatory, Heaven, Hell, Earth as well as the newly added Dark Lands, than this series is the one for you. I don’t think you have to have read Angelbound to really get what’s going on in this one, but I think if you want to really see the full picture, you should. Definitely check it out if you think it’s something you’ll like.

 

The book is available here, and here’s a link to the author’s Twitter.

Thanks for reading!