Readers are not prepared for Fiend. Alma Katsu is about to send shockwaves through the horror-loving community with this intelligent and streamlined novel that requires deep contemplation even as it scares the ever-loving daylights out of you.
The Faustian bargain is a perennial favorite within the horror genre, but when Alma Katsu uses it as the basis for the origin story of an immigrant family in Fiend, it becomes analogous to the American Dream itself in a powerful and unforgettable way.
The Berisha family have done well for themselves. As the owners of one of the largest and most successful import-export companies in the world, they induce envy in everyone their sphere of influence reaches—and no small share of resentment along with it. While they have never shied away from cutthroat tactics in business and pleasure, they are about to discover what happens when the knives are pointed at each other.
The line of succession within the Berisha family should be set in stone—it’s tradition after all. But that doesn’t mean each sibling is happy with it. Patriarchal power doesn’t work for all. Just ask the female members of the Berisha family.
As the shroud of secrecy begins to fall, no one is prepared for how it affects the other members of the family—hell, their hardly prepared for how it affects themselves. What ominous legacy hovers over the Berishas and is it truly possible to wrench control back?
In anyone else’s hands, Fiend would follow a traditional trajectory and drone on for far too long. But Katsu injects vitality into each point of view, ignores every plot pitfall, and does it all while keeping the book under 250 pages. Not to mention the sense of menace that makes turning the pages feel like forging an inevitable pact with the devil.
Alma Katsu is well known for her epic historical horror work. Novels that manage to take real events from the past and make them feel timely and relevant by mining new levels of awfulness from each. With Fiend, one can make the argument that she is doing the same, but opposite. Here readers get an ultra-contemporary storyline that vibrates with the gravitas of a historical rendering—and rather than epic, Katsu goes minimalist. And in doing so, somehow makes it feel Grand with a capital G.
You will no doubt hear Fiend compared to other works of horror with similar devilish themes, but Alma Katsu has never met a trope she can’t twist to her own purpose. Light a candle, pour yourself a dram of whiskey (or a cup of tea), and settle in because once you begin reading, not even turning the last page will break the spell Alma Katsu casts with Fiend.
BUY LINKS: Fiend by Alma Katsu
Disclaimer: A print galley of this title was provided to BOLO Books by the publisher. No promotion was promised and the above is an unbiased review of the novel.
