The best fantasy thriller book reviews. Fantasy thrillers are suspenseful tales in which a protagonist’s survival is threatened in a fictional, dystopian or magical universe.
The Bottom Line: A remarkable superhero origin story that manages to inject plenty of new life into the genre. Reese Roberts, a vigilante crime fighter known as the Roach, has been on a half-decade bender in the years since a rookie cop put a bullet in his spine. Now confined to a wheelchair and deeply depressed, the novel opens as Reese rolls to the edge […]
The Roach, One of the Year’s Best Thrillers READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: Deadpool fans will adore this superhero thriller. Thrash deftly combines dark comedy and dystopian sci-fi to create one of the most original stories of the year. Thirty-five-year-old shapeshifter Harry McComber remembers the good old days, when a universally adored superhero named Enduro helped people. For his many acts of saving grace, Enduro was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the Congressional medal
Thrash, an Unputdownable Superhero Thriller by Jason Palmer READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: A hugely entertaining psychic thriller that fans of Black Mirror will relish. Gary Miller is deeply unhappy. The minister and junior college professor is having a crisis of faith, is tormented by repressed bisexual tendendies, and worst of all, is insanely jealous of his friend, retired professor Bob Harris. Despite having made the same unremarkable salary during their careers, Bob now seems
The Seven Experiments, a Hugely Entertaining Psychic Thriller by Stephen Kanicki READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: Buzzworthy. The Ninth House is a truly magical take on the secret society thriller. Yale’s freshman class may look homogenous, but there’s at least one outlier within: Galaxy “Alex” Stern. Alex has survived attempted murder, loser boyfriends and a hippie upbringing. Lightning strikes when she receives a full ride to Yale. But nothing in life is free, and Alex’s sponsors ask her to
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The Bottom Line: Atmospheric and engrossing, Damned is a perfect read for fans of gothic paranormal fiction. The first entry in the Magnus Blackwell series takes place on an island off the coast of Maine, more than a century after the series prequel. Architect Will Bennett has purchased Altmover Manor as a surprise for his fiancée, Lexie. After getting over the initial shock regarding the
The Bottom Line: Harry Potter meets The Hunger Games. Sadly, there’s no audiobook version, so fans will have to devour this book the old fashioned way. We’re not in Texas anymore, Bluebell. In the opening chapter of Shadowspell Academy, the compelling farm girl known as Wild says, “My family got kicked more often than most.” That turns out to be the understatement of the year.
Shadowspell Academy: The Culling Trials, by Shannon Mayer and K.F. Breene READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: A lush gaslamp thriller that seems destined for a second life on television. Blackwell is the story of a rivalry that descends into a battle for the ages. In 1886, wealthy Harvard student Magnus Blackwell befriends fellow freshman Jacob O’ Connor. Unlike Magnus, whose family is as close to royalty as they came in New England, Jacob hails from working class stock.
Blackwell, a Wondrous Gaslamp Thriller by Alexandrea Weis with Lucas Astor READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: For Game of Thrones completionists only. Game of Thrones fans come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from the literary to TV-only crowd. There are no reliable stats as to how many readers the TV-show has generated, but more than a few TV-to-book converts have complained that the epic is about as readable as Moby Dick (not very), and at best, are
Fire & Blood: 300 Years Before A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: only word word will suffice: Epic! For the uninitiated, Oathbringer is the third volume of the New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive. The epic fantasy series began its live on a website and is now a runaway bestseller. Roshar is the native name for the planet on which The Stormlight Archive is set. It is also the name of the supercontinent on which the main
Oathbringer: Book Three of the Stormlight Archive, by Brandon Sanderson READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: Fans of Dystopian, end-of-the-world lit, rejoice. If there ever was a perfect time for the uninitiated to read a Nora Roberts book, the time is now. Don’t look now, but Nora Roberts has just started a new series, and if this first installment is any indication, it’s going to be her most popular ever. It began on New Year’s Eve. The sickness
Year One, a New Paranormal Series by Nora Roberts READ MORE >
