** I received an ARC for an honest review **
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Description
SOMETIMES TRUE LOVE DEFIES DEATH ITSELF.
New York, 1926. Reapers – once-human vampires – stalk the shadows.
The Saint family has reigned over the city for years, protecting its inhabitants through their thriving reaper-hunting enterprise. But reluctant heir Elise Saint faces a chilling threat: the Harlem reapers want her dead.
When new reaper Layla Quinn was turned, she lost her parents, the protection of the saints, and her humanity – and she’ll never forget how Elise Saint betrayed her.
Now reapers are inexplicably turning part-human, leaving grisly murders in their wake. And when Layla is framed for one of these attacks, the Saint patriarch offers a deal she can’t refuse: work with Elise to discover how the murders might be linked to rumours of a reaper cure.
Once close friends, now bitter enemies, Elise and Layla explore the city’s underbelly, confronting their feelings for one another and uncovering sinister truths that threaten both reapers and humans alike.
Summary
This Ravenous Fate by US author Hayley Dennings is an alternate history of 1920s United States focused on Harlem, New York.
Review
Dennings provides a fascinating world-building of gangsters, jazz clubs, prohibition alcohol trade, racial discrimination and social tensions. To this backdrop, there is an expertly layered supernatural realm of reapers, vampire-like beings originating from historical unethical medical experiments. On two opposing sides of the brewing battle between the growing numbers of reapers and humans, is the complex-relationship between two African American women: Layla Quinn, a reaper and her former best friend Elise Saint, the heiress to the wealthy and politically powerful Saint Empire.
These now-adversaries are thrown together to uncover the killers of the doctors and bodyguards belonging to the Saint Empire. As the grim truth starts to become clear, the powerful Saint family had been investing in a cure for reapers at the cost of unethical experiments.
The complexities of the past for the protagonists unravel as Layla and Elise begin to heal the wounds of the past and their friendship slowly matures into a romantic relationship.
There are many politically charged themes within this novel that Dennings highlights through racial injustices and social inequalities from the past and many which are still relevant for today’s society. In this alternate history of the world, the prominence of eugenics, the altering and weaponising of individuals via medical interventions is focused on the lower socioeconomic classes and especially on African American communities. Throughout this shifting vision of history, Dennings holds an unflinching mirror to the truth of the past and our horrific potential future.
This Ravenous Fate deals with issues from history and there is nothing held back in the misogyny, coercive control, marginalised communities, racial discrimination and exploitation of less privileged. Throughout these themes, is the developing and highly effective female protagonists who are strong, independent and willing to fight for a future they can believe in and shape. Despite the clear gothic horror genre, there is hope offered in this dark version of Jazz Age Harlem which is as much horror story as it is a highly potent social commentary.
Conclusion
Overall, this a high-quality piece of horror fiction that is compelling and an important addition to the canon of modern gothic horror. In this, Dennings is to be congratulated in crafting a thought-provoking and original novel which fits nicely within the sphere of Victor LaValle’s The Ballad of Black Tom. A highly recommended read!
** This is my personal opinion and does not reflect any judging decisions **
Leanbh Pearson 