School Library Journal
05/21/2021
Gr 10 Up—Harley has been waiting her whole life to be 18, when she can get an apartment and remove herself and her sister, Ray, from her neglectful and abusive father. One night, with her sister safe at a friend's house, Harley and her best friend Kai go to a concert, where she allows herself to dance with a guy named Draven. One week later, Draven is the newest employee at the deli where Harley works. Then on her 18th birthday, creatures attack her. When she wakes up, Draven describes a world separated from ours by a veil, where Hell, demons, and divine beings are very real. The veil can be opened with a Key…and Harley might be it. Now they race against the clock to protect our world and keep Harley alive. With a story structure reminiscent of Sarah J. Maas's works, this is a paranormal tale of an underdog hoping for a bit of peace, free of the men who try to control her, but who instead is thrown into a world she didn't know existed. Harley is a very strong character, though the trauma she's experienced at the hands of her father has taken its toll, making her feel worthless. Harley is consumed by her instant attraction to Draven, who feels something for her but runs hot and cold, and their romantic scenes read like adult romance. The story is slow to start but interesting to follow, and while it resolves at the end, the epilogue promises another book. Harley and Kai are white and Draven is described as having golden skin. VERDICT An engrossing read for fans of urban fantasy, and an underdog story that teeters on the line between young adult and new adult.—Melyssa Kenney, Parkville H.S., MD
Kirkus Reviews
2021-04-16
A teenage girl joins forces with a divine being to fight the forces of hell in Lee’s cosmic fantasy YA romance.
Seventeen-year-old Chicagoan Harley Ward has an abusive, alcoholic father, and she has a plan to rent an apartment for herself and her 7-year-old sister when she turns 18. She usually has a firm grip on her emotions, but this changes when she meets Draven, an attractive guy with amber eyes, chiseled muscles, and a mischievous smirk, at a club; he later gets a job at the deli where she works. This complicates her relationship with her best friend, a nice boy named Kai. Things get more complicated when Harley is attacked by ghoulish men and a horde of zombies whom Draven and Coach Hale, Harley’s Krav Maga instructor, handily destroy. It turns out that Draven is a 500-year-old demon-fighting Judge, and Coach Hale is actually Anka, a good demon; the attackers were minions of “greater demon” Marid, and they were hunting Harley because she’s “the Key” that can release Marid from hell. Harley develops the ability to shoot flames from her fingers and gets a magic tattoo that temporarily shields her from Marid’s demons—although snake demons, alligator demons, terrierlike demons, and hypnosis demons continue to plague her. They have seven days—plenty of time for Harley to make out with Draven, but if he touches her for too long he could drain her of life. Over the course of this fantasy novel, Lee manages to work creatively from the familiar Buffy the Vampire Slayertemplate: an angst-y teen with the weight of the world on her shoulders battling a monster menagerie while navigating a relationship with a broody, dangerous boyfriend. Her prose is sharp and evocative whether the peril that Harley is facing is domestic (in the case of her father) or demonic (“One demon leaps and lands atop me, wrestling me to the ground with the weight of a fucking truck. Jesus, what do they feed these things? Bricks?”). The result is a lively, imaginative love story with plenty of hellish energy.
An entertaining fable with supernatural combat enriched with intricate psychology and passion.
