Looking For a Good Book

Mourning Mayne is the reluctant heir to one of the world’s most powerful families, a dynasty whose wealth and influence come from a very dark source: they are fiends who buy human souls and turn them into an elixir that sustains their supernatural power. When Mourning’s estranged father summons him home and unexpectedly names him heir, Mourning is pulled back into the family business he has spent years trying to escape. Soon he finds himself caught up with Key, a woman who traffics in souls, Quinn, an artist with secrets of her own, and Silas, another member of the strange world of fiends. Before long, family politics, occult mysteries, demonic creatures, and some very unpleasant discoveries collide.

I’m a big fan of Chuck Wendig, so I was looking forward to The Calamities. I enjoy his writing in general (it was his dark, YA Miriam Black series that first got me interested in Wendig) and I really enjoy his horror because it tends to sit nicely between psychological horror and splatterpunk. He can make you uncomfortable with an idea and then, just when you’re settling into that discomfort, throw something thoroughly disgusting at you. There’s plenty of that here.

The world Wendig creates is fascinating. The idea of powerful families of fiends quietly manipulating the world through the buying and selling of human souls is wonderfully dark. There’s a little bit of supernatural crime family, a little bit of dark fantasy, and a whole lot of horror. The characters are not exactly nice people, either, but Wendig has a knack for making even deeply flawed and sometimes horrible characters interesting enough that you want to know what happens to them.

And there are some wonderfully grotesque moments. Wendig clearly hasn’t lost his ability to make the reader squirm. The horror ranges from the psychological and existential to some very visceral body horror. There are creatures and situations here that are going to stick with you, whether you want them to or not.

My biggest problem with the book is that it feels a little meandering. There is a lot going on, and while much of it is interesting, not all of it feels necessary. The story takes several detours while establishing the mythology, the various families, the characters, and the rules of this world. I occasionally found myself wondering when we were going to get back to the part of the story that had initially grabbed me. It’s possible, likely even, that some of this has to do with the fact that this is the first of a two part series. The book concludes with the ominous note: “The story of The Fiends will conclude in book two.”

Still, this is Chuck Wendig, and even when the story wanders, the writing remains entertaining. There is an energy and imagination to his work that keeps the pages turning, and The Calamities certainly has some memorable ideas. It also feels very much like the beginning of something larger, which makes sense given that this is the first book in The Fiends series – which would also explain the possible meandering.

This is not for the fainthearted. Aside for the various means of horror, the book sits at nearly 600 pages … and it’s only the beginning.

Looking for a good book? The Calamities by Chuck Wendig is a dark, disturbing, occasionally disgusting (in the very best way, for those who enjoy such) horror/fantasy novel with a fascinating supernatural family at its center. It’s not as tight a story as I would have liked, but there is plenty here for fans of Wendig’s particular brand of horror, with more to come.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

4.0 stars. 

* * * * * *

The Calamities

author: Chuck Wendig

series: The Fiends #1

publisher:  Del Rey

ISBN:  9798217091812

hardcover, 592 pages