I can't remember how this book came to be on my radar, but I'm so glad that I finally read it. I'm major bummed that this came out in 2018, and as I write this in 2024, there's still no sequel. There are tons of unanswered questions in this and I probably wouldn't have read it had I known that going in, but I still loved the reading experience and recommend more take the chance to hopefully, finally get the series continued.
That said, this book is not at all what I expected even though I had no real expectations going in. The cover is very cute and childlike, the story inside has a surprising amount of gore. The main characters, Cassius and Sterling are teenagers so the young silhouettes on the cover don't really match them. The cover, cute as it is, gives the feeling that this is a kid's book. It's very much for teens and up for content that might disturb. The horror elements are surprising and very well-written. I never would have expected a story with the cover to start with Cassius crawling out of a shallow grave in the woods to stumble toward the town's police station for help in the middle of the night. That's how it starts, though, and I was gripped. Sterling, the sheriff's son, is at the station hanging out with his dad when a blood-soaked Cassius enters to tell what he remembers of his attack. The two boys hadn't gotten to know each other previously in the short time that Cassius and his father have been in town, but this encounter quickly bonds them together. As the sheriff, Sterling's dad takes charge of Cassius when it becomes clear that Cassius's father has been taken. The boys begin spending all of their time together, for better or worse.
There are hijinks. There is mystery as Cassius struggles to remember what happened the night he, apparently, died and who took his father. There's horror as Cassius learns he feels nothing, needs blood and raw meat to satisfy his hunger pangs, isn't healing but can take major damage and no longer needs to breathe. His eyes also go blood red, fingernails go all clawlike and teeth become fangs when he's hungry or angry. So that adds the mystery of is he a zombie or vampire or what kind of supernatural creation? I think he has more vampire traits, but Sterling decides he's a zombie based on sunlight not burning Cass and Cass did rise from his own grave. I'd argue that many fledgling vampires have similar debuts in fiction, but whatever Cass is is honestly a new thing unique to this story. He's meant to be dead, so how and why he's still active is a mystery of its own. There's a cult, apparently, responsible for this and still after Cass, who seems to be "the key", bringing either witchcraft or demon worship/dark arts into the mix.
Through all of this, Star, as Cass has nicknamed him, is learning that he may not be asexual as he had previously thought. There are sparks between him and Cassius, who is openly gay. Their friendship to bromance to romance is so cute and sweet and I love how Star never sees Cass as the monster others might. They're precious and I want a happy ending for them so much.
But that's where the book fumbles. The ending. It doesn't have one because there were meant to be more episodes. I have so many questions and the final pages of this installment gleefully add another mystery to the mix rather than answer anything. I hate that I can't just roll on into the next part of this story, but I loved too much of this to give it less than 5 stars.
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- Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2024
- Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2018
