Synopsis

Wyatt Westlock (POV Character) has one plan for the farmhouse she's just inherited -- to burn it to the ground. But during her final walkthrough of her childhood home, she makes a shocking discovery in the basement -- Peter, the boy she once considered her best friend, strung up in chains and left for dead.

Unbeknownst to Wyatt, Peter (POV Character) has suffered hundreds of ritualistic deaths on her family's property. Semi-immortal, Peter never remains dead for long, but he can't really live, either. Not while he's bound to the farm, locked in a cycle of grisly deaths and painful rebirths. There's only one way for him to break free. He needs to end the Westlock line.

He needs to kill Wyatt.

With Wyatt's parents gone, the spells protecting the property have begun to unravel, and dark, ancient forces gather in the nearby forest. The only way for Wyatt to repair the wards is to work with Peter -- the one person who knows how to harness her volatile magic. But how can she trust a boy who's sworn an oath to destroy her? When the past turns up to haunt them in the most unexpected way, they are forced to rely on one another to survive, or else tear each other apart.

*Blurb taken from Goodreads

Review

Written in elegant, atmospheric prose, I was dragged into the setting of this book at once. The Westlock farm creates an entangled and foreboding locale that amplifies the gothic feel within this story. Heavy themes are tackled here—namely the convergence of cult practices, religious zealousness, power-fueled greed, and patriarchal oppression. I’m hesitant to say this book is feminist since it truly is a gothic love story, but there are certainly some feminist undertones due to the power structures within, as well as the display of feminine rage at the end of the novel.

Wyatt as an FMC has a strength and wit to her that I was pleased to see within a YA (though these characters are all 18 or older). She does not become blinded for her feelings for Peter, nor does she allow others to drive the plot forward for her. Wyatt delves into the history of her father’s side of the family and is appropriately appalled. She also is hesitant to explore the destructive power gifted to her via the witches on her mother’s side of the family. There is an emphasis on balance here—the interwoven links between creation and destruction—and Andrew did well in displaying power of all kinds as a slippery slope into squashing those with less.

Pedyr’s (Peter’s real name) storyline also points out the violence of power—specifically when pursued by men—and I thought this was an interesting and well-executed perspective by Andrew. While Wyatt shies back from her power for fear of repeating past harms, Pedyr fights against the will of the beast (the creature that made him immortal) as it demands Wyatt’s heart as a final sacrifice. The concept of sacrifice gets threaded into most aspects of this story, as it’s Pedyr’s bones from his many past deaths, as well as Wyatt’s blood, that creates a vacuum of magic and power. Despite Pedyr’s wish to no longer suffer at the hands of the cult hosted by the Westlock’s, he cannot bring himself to kill the girl who finally made him feel loved, who finally gave him a semblance of family and belonging.

Together, Wyatt, Pedyr, and their best friend James, have created a family. They grew up together. They protected one another. And they love each other the way that family should. The relationship between the three of them makes up most of the beauty beneath the horror in this tale. I enjoyed the inclusion of James, which elevated this from a romantic tragedy, to a rooted system of different forms of love and pain. It was also fascinating that, while the beast is certainly an antagonist within the book, even it states that it never intended for Pedyr to suffer as he has. This beast from across the sky did not anticipate the bloodlust and power-hungry greed of men. He didn’t anticipate consistent ritual sacrifice of a child. And with this, Andrew twists the main villain of the story to be these men within the cult on the Westlock farm. I personally thought this to be a great take.

A solid text by Andrew that creates a gothic horror built around found family, tragic love, and the devastation of greed.

Critiques

There is an important concept that I never quite understood, and I can’t say if this is due to plot holes, or if I simply missed clues. The beast comes from “across the sky”, as does Pedyr. What this means, I have no idea. We know that the beast arrived from another dimension of sorts due to the the hole of darkness that lead to the Westlock’s being caretakers of the wood. We also know Pedyr wants to return across the sky so he can go home to his mother. This confused me, because I was under the impression the farm once belonged to his family, and the property is where his father made the self-sacrifice to save Pedyr’s life. The concept of “across the sky”, as well as the darkness that will eat the world if the beast doesn’t return, must allude to, or symbolize, something. I never quite grasped what that something may be. My instinct leads me to believe they are religious in nature, though I can’t say for certain since no religion is strictly referenced beyond the parameters of the cult. Since this was a large part of understanding the plot, it was disappointing to have such elusive prose around it.

Pedyr’s end broke my heart. It was tragic, certainly, but it also left a bad taste in my mouth, and this led me to drop a star off my rating. After so much abuse and dehumanization at the hands of the Westlock’s, it was awful to have his final moments be the same, but at the hands of Wyatt. She used him as a pawn to slaughter people, and while she does recognize this and lets him go, I was saddened that this character who never wanted to be a killer, and who made this notion clear to Wyatt, was then used by her as well. I both do and don’t understand this part of the story, and I honestly wish it had been removed entirely and the end rewritten. To know that Pedyr was misused up until his end is such a horrifying notion, and I found I couldn’t appreciate this plot point.

Content Note

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