Book Review: What Preys Within by Brett Gurda

Goodreads Summary: Every soul harbors a war.
A dark prophecy claims its prey. An innocent child becomes the infernal's key to unleashing the pits of Hell.

Eric Vayne, a former fighter fueled by wrath, is haunted by demons from years ago. Tragedy has aligned him with exorcists, against the infernal. Together, they venture beyond the veils of flesh to face down the devil's chosen.

Unworthy heroes with darker pasts confront damning lies in the Holy See. These contemptible few raze against the gates of Hell, daring to kill the parasites that leave only ruin in their wake.

Embark on a fast-paced and gut-punching journey. Witness morally gray characters seeking truth in the shadows of Rome. Enter the fallen souls where demons reign.

Goodreads Rating: None, yet.

Genre Listing: Fantasy, Fiction, Exorcism

Goodreads Challenge: 20/60

Reading Challenge: #24 Free Space Pick any Book! (Find the full challenge here

Book Review:

I apologize in advance. The review for this is going to be kind of short. It's been a rough week, and I'm somewhat exhausted. This is sort of an author request or more aptly, one I offered to do. We connected on Reddit, and I told Brett that I'd pick up his book on Kindle Unlimited. Honestly, I was interested when he described What Preys Within as a Horror/Fantasy Blend that includes Medieval combat with demonic possessions. It seemed like a really unique concept, so I had to check it out. 

What Preys Within caught my interest pretty quickly. Most of the story follows Eric Vayne, a former fighter whose wife is possessed by demons, resulting in the death of their daughter Rose. The thing that struck me as the most fascinating part of this story is the way the possession works in What Preys Within. The possessed soul becomes a battlefield where Eric and the priests that accompany him to fight to save the guardian. 

Right away, there's a sense of pity for Eric and the situation he's in. As a reader, I could understand why he wanted vengeance, but also why he blamed himself. The name Wrath kind of follows him into the soul's battle. There was a pretty big twist in his story that I wasn't expecting. The ending made me wonder if this is going to be the start of the series. I won't really get into that because it will give spoilers.

Overall, I really liked What Preys Within. I thought it was unique and creative. It was easy to feel for the main character. I think the only thing is that I wanted more. Maybe a little more of Eric fighting within the souls prior to coming in contact with Damon. There's kind of a twelve-year gap where I think there could be some interesting suspense building. 

Book Review of The Merciless by Danielle Vega

Goodreads Summary: Forgive us, Father, for we have sinned
Brooklyn Stevens sits in a pool of her own blood, tied up and gagged. No one outside of these dank basement walls knows she’s here. No one can hear her scream.

Sofia Flores knows she shouldn’t have gotten involved. When she befriended Riley, Grace, and Alexis on her first day at school, she admired them, with their perfect hair and their good-girl ways. They said they wanted to save Brooklyn. They wanted to help her. Sofia didn’t realize they believed Brooklyn was possessed.

Now, Riley and the girls are performing an exorcism on Brooklyn—but their idea of an exorcism is closer to torture than salvation. All Sofia wants is to get out of this house. But there is no way out. Sofia can’t go against the other girls . . . unless she wants to be next. . . .

In this chilling debut, Danielle Vega delivers blood-curdling suspense and terror on every page. By the shockingly twisted end, readers will be faced with the most haunting question of all: Is there evil in all of us?
Goodreads Rating: 3.62 with over 7,000 ratings
Genre Rating: Horror, Young Adult, Paranormal, Exorcism
Get the book: Amazon, Book Depository
2017 Reading Challenge: #19 A book you chose because of the cover

Review:

I've meant to read The Merciless by Danielle Vega for a while. I originally saw it on Net Galley when I was still active on there. I had no clue what it was about but wanted to read it because it was girly pink with a pentagram. Literally, the only reason I wanted to read it. Eventually, I learned it was about Exorcism, and that got me a lot more intrigued. The best way I can describe this book is the movie Mean Girls had a relationship with the movie The Craft and had an affair with Pretty Little Liars, and the result was The Merciless.

I feel torn on this book. I like the idea of it, and the sequence of events was fascinating, but I hated the characters. All of them. I don't feel like there were any strong characters or even had any redeeming qualities. All of the characters felt extremely one dimensional to me. There wasn't anything to connect me to them what so ever. You get very little detail about any of their lives, and they all seem incredibly fake. I think the only character I actually liked was Sofia's grandmother and the only word she says in the entire book is "Diablo."

I know some of this was probably meant to create some mystery revolving around their sins, but the lack of detail just made the characters feel like placeholders. Had there been some character development, I think it could have been a really interesting book. It definitely was twisted, but being messed up and gory isn't enough to make me love it or really even like it. The only reason I actually finished it was because it was so short and it was the book I said I was definitely going to read this month. I felt like Sofia's big sin was predictable. Grace and Riley's sins were underwhelming. Alexis' sin was the only one that actually shocked me, but she kind of gave off the psychopath vibe anyways. Brooklyn was just weird.

Maybe I had too high of hopes for this, but I was just really unimpressed with the whole story. Don't even get me started on the relationships. Or why Riley has it out for Brooklyn. I'm not going to make any promises about reading the second book in the series. I don't really have any desire to at this time, but stranger things have happened.