The Phenomenals: A Game of Ghouls by F E Higgins
| The Phenomenals: A Game of Ghouls by F E Higgins | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: Gina Garnett
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| Summary: Full of dystopian intrigue and interesting new monsters, this is an engrossingly dark read. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 225 | Date: August 2013 |
| Publisher: Macmillan | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-033050756 | |
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Once again, I’ve jumped right in here – going straight to the second book in a series. As it happens, A Game of Ghouls is not a bad one to do that with. You’re never left confused because you haven’t read the first one (A Tangle of Traitors) because they keep you up to date enough for it to be a fairly good stand alone. You want to find the first one though, because if it’s going to be anywhere near as good as this one it’s a book you want to read.
We (re)join the adventures of Folly (a hunter) Vincent (a thief) Citrine (a debutante) and Jonah (a giant) as they become more deeply involved in the intrigue miring the superstitious town of Degringolade. Accused of various crimes (some of which they have committed, some of which they haven’t) and labelled as Phenomenals (a term usually reserved for supernatural monsters) they live in secret, trying to stay out of sight, out of the noose and outside the attention of their powerful and influential enemies.
The overwhelming feeling of this book is the phenomenal (if you’ll excuse me) amount of effort that’s gone into creating this world. New seasons, new words even a new system of time measurement. It’s a compelling world, too, and compellingly dark. It’s not afraid of evil and has no shortage of murderers, the ghosts of murderers, torture, and the bad guys getting away with it (at least for now…) It’s almost gleefully dystopian and seems to take great joy in the suffering of the characters for our amusement, which makes it a really good find. It’s out to bring misery back into fashion (in the book world) and it might well succeed. The steampunk aspect makes a nice change from similar books and makes it feel, oddly, like Fable 2.
This is definitely one series that intends to continue and it’s left me really wanting to find out what becomes of everyone. I’m looking forward to the next one and looking forward to finding the first one, too. Really exciting stuff.
If this book appeals then we can recommend:
The Black Book of Secrets by F E Higgins The Eyeball Collector by F E Higgins
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Phenomenals: A Game of Ghouls by F E Higgins at Amazon.com.
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