Rhiannon

3.5/5⭐, rounded up

The good: an exciting premise, amazing artwork (this would make an excellent full graphic novel) and the cool added extras of music references that has caused me to add a lot of new music to my playlists.

This alternate-history mashup of sci-fi, horror, and 80s cold war thriller comes complete with rampaging monsters and genetically engineered soldiers battling over mankind’s entire existence, all to a curated soundtrack that the author helpfully gives you QR codes to. The novel started out with a lot of action and mysterious world building that drew me in right away as the sudden appearance around the globe of monstrous giants, or Titans, wreak wanton and untold destruction.

The ‘okay’: There’s substantial world-building going on here and it’s clear that the author spent a great deal of time and thought on this ambitious novel. It’s rather cinematic at times and the prose could be quite lovely, but it gets a little too wrapped up in its own complexity. I thought it was losing focus around the halfway mark for a bit: there’s significant sciencey data dumps, and enough time that was spent on one particular character’s story that I found somewhat sluggish and repetitive and would have preferred less which I think would have given the character more of a provocative presence.

I think some prudent editing and a reminder that this is a book, not a screenplay, would have made a world of difference. There’s a lot of exposition, primarily through a mix of flashback chapters and some epistolary ‘documents’ - philosophical musings on the morality of science experiments gone awry that were perhaps a little too long and jarred me out of the narrative.

When the author switches back to the plot, the Pantheon, and the Titans everything immediately picks back up and grips you in its propulsive momentum. The final high-stakes showdown, which is only a prelude to what sounds like an even greater epic of storytelling, was compulsively readable and gratifying.

My thanks to the author for the complimentary copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

4̶/̶5̶ 5/5⭐

*11-𝑫𝒆𝒄-2025 𝑬𝒅𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒅𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒂𝒅𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒄𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒆𝒙𝒕*

This post-apocalyptic novel of a United States that has been overrun with werewolves is a fast, adventurous read that has light horror elements and (mostly) great storytelling. This is set in an alternate recent history – 1950s America – where after swift and brutal ‘invasion’ of just 12 werewolves a mere decade earlier, the only remaining human settlement is that of besieged Manhattan, which is now a walled city (à la Escape From New York) housing 6 million folks and bursting at the seams while running out of food and resources.

The story begins with our main character, Salem Burr, who is a soldier on the wall when the city is overrun one full moon and she is bitten. The harsh rules of the city say that a bite or even a mere scratch from a werewolf is an immediate death sentence and so she must make a choice. But she’s also piecing together the attack and it seems there is more at stake than just her future as it appears the wolf attack may have been planned from inside the human settlement.

The action was fairly steady throughout, with a brisk, intriguing story. The characters, particularly the werewolves, have interesting, complex and rich lives. I had to give only 4/5 though as there was a significant plot inconsistency that I can’t see past (to do with a Private Willbond, who having been bitten the same night as Salem, should not have made it to Chapter 38, based on the novel’s ‘rules’ and Salem’s brother being very focused on eliminating anyone exposed). Hopefully the author sees the issue and remedies that quickly as it’s not something I could overlook in an otherwise great book.

I look forward to reading the sequel to in 2026!

𝑴𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒔 𝒕𝒐 @mjgraysmith 𝒂𝒏𝒅 #booksirens 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒅𝒗𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 𝒄𝒐𝒑𝒚. 𝑨𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒐𝒘𝒏.

This post-apocalyptic novel of a United States that has been overrun with werewolves is a fast, adventurous read that has light horror elements and (mostly) great storytelling. This is set in an alternate recent history – 1950s America – where after swift and brutal ‘invasion’ of just 12 werewolves a mere decade earlier, the only remaining human settlement is that of besieged Manhattan, which is now a walled city (à la Escape From New York) housing 6 million folks and bursting at the seams while running out of food and resources.

The story begins with our main character, Salem Burr, who is a soldier on the wall when the city is overrun one full moon and she is bitten. The harsh rules of the city say that a bite or even a mere scratch from a werewolf is an immediate death sentence and so she must make a choice. But she’s also piecing together the attack and it seems there is more at stake than just her future as it appears the wolf attack may have been planned from inside the human settlement.

The action was fairly steady throughout, with a brisk, intriguing story. The characters, particularly the werewolves, have interesting, complex and rich lives. I had to give only 4/5 though as there was a significant plot inconsistency that I can’t see past (to do with a Private Willbond, who having been bitten the same night as Salem, should not have made it to Chapter 38, based on the novel’s ‘rules’ and Salem’s brother being very focused on eliminating anyone exposed). Hopefully the author sees the issue and remedies that quickly as it’s not something I could overlook in an otherwise great book.

I look forward to reading the sequel to in 2026!

𝑴𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒔 𝒕𝒐 @mjgraysmith 𝒂𝒏𝒅 #booksirens 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒅𝒗𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 𝒄𝒐𝒑𝒚. 𝑨𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒐𝒘𝒏.