Um...wow?

I was not expecting this.

Okay, let me back up... Disclaimer, known Flewwelling for years, blah blah, good friends, blah blah, read damn near everything she's written, blah blah blah.

I've read the first three Helix novels, and, while I enjoyed them, they've never been my favourite works from the author. To me, it always felt like Flewwelling was origamiing herself into unnatural shapes to explain the science behind werewolves, etc. The books got a bit tech heavy.

Then along comes this book (that, truth be told, I didn't even know she'd written until a few hours before I got my copy) and it grabbed me by the face and smacked me around...in the best way.

This novel opens with unexpectedly brutal action. It then proceeds to carry on with even more brutal action, and about the last quarter of the book is strap-your-ass-in, hands-and-feet-inside-the-vehicle-at-all-times, airsick-bags-are-in-front-of-you, now-hold-the-fuck-on! action.

Yes, there's some tech along the way. But it's tempered with some fantastic dialogue, amazing scenes that I need to let you discover like I discovered (I'll just say two things: zombie town, and vampire abilities), and an author who knows her concepts well enough to give you the cringe-inducing, yet spit-take funny lichen-thrope line. Oh, and there's vampires and zombies and world domination thrown in, too.

And I've got to say, the antagonist in this book (don't wanna give names, cuz I don't want to spoil anything) is the grossest, nastiest, and most subversive villain I've read in a long time. I enjoyed the heck out of them.

Seriously, this is the novel I've been waiting for Flewwelling to write for years, because I knew she had it in her.

She kicked ass with this one.

Go buy some protective headgear and a cup, and then read this.

Seriously. ( )