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chanhebert's review
4.0
Not at all what I was expecting but very pleasantly surprised! I never knew if I wanted to feel sorry for Phoenix or yell at him. Very well written and loved the ending. I literally could not put the book down and stayed up until after 2am to finish it.
joyousreads132's review
4.0
Yet again, I find myself in uncharted territory. The Slayer's Apprentice is a dark psychological thriller that would lead its readers into the twisted minds of the killer and his favourite victim. Spine-tingling suspense, vomit-inducing gore, this book is the stuff that sleepless nights are made of.
It started off with the kidnapping of a problematic, rebellious fourteen year-old boy by a psychotic killer who gets his kicks out of killing tandem victims. The intricate, elaborate way in which he did his kills were sometimes poetic and disturbingly artistic. The methods he used to torture his victims bears no repeating. You'll get more fun in reading them yourself rather than reading me rehash them.
The fourteen year-old boy eventually escaped the clutches of the killer along with a toddler that TCS (the crucifix slayer) abducted. Four years have passed and no one knew whatever happened to the boy, until a bar tender named Phoenix Love gets entangled with Senior Constable Daniel Hart. What proceeded was a series of events that would shed light to all the killings and the eventual fall of The Crucifix Slayer.
This book was absolutely brilliant! The author bundled his story well and hid clues in the crevices of his novel. The psychology here was especially complex - and I'm not talking about the killer's himself but of the victim. You'll find yourself at odds and doubting your initial suspects. Priest did a fantastic job of insinuating, planting seeds in your head but never with a concrete deduction.
My only beef with this book is that sometimes, it read like a psycho analysis of a patient. There's several pages where not only did it give me a play by play of what had happened so far but it was like a glimpse into the psychosis of someone's mind. That would've been okay had it not been the clinical way that the narrator spoke. It's almost like reading a textbook or a study.
I should say that while this book has romance, it's really very subtle. There's a lot of tender moments between Phoenix and Daniel but they're overshadowed by how quickly Phoenix's moods would change. More often, it seemed like Daniel's attachment was one sided just because of the way Phoenix played with Daniel's feelings and affections. I felt for Daniel. His infatuation with Phoenix reached into addiction status and Phoenix's inability to trust him fully just magnified that.
This book is not my typical read and there's definitely nothing Erotica-ish about this. Sexual abuse was alluded to and the TCS's victims were positioned in a way that you'd think intercourse was done before they died. But there's absolutely nothing sexual about this book other than the tensions between Daniel and Phoenix.
Twisted and disturbing, The Slayer's Apprentice is a tasty psychological thriller that would keep you guessing in anticipation of the killer's next moves.
It started off with the kidnapping of a problematic, rebellious fourteen year-old boy by a psychotic killer who gets his kicks out of killing tandem victims. The intricate, elaborate way in which he did his kills were sometimes poetic and disturbingly artistic. The methods he used to torture his victims bears no repeating. You'll get more fun in reading them yourself rather than reading me rehash them.
The fourteen year-old boy eventually escaped the clutches of the killer along with a toddler that TCS (the crucifix slayer) abducted. Four years have passed and no one knew whatever happened to the boy, until a bar tender named Phoenix Love gets entangled with Senior Constable Daniel Hart. What proceeded was a series of events that would shed light to all the killings and the eventual fall of The Crucifix Slayer.
This book was absolutely brilliant! The author bundled his story well and hid clues in the crevices of his novel. The psychology here was especially complex - and I'm not talking about the killer's himself but of the victim. You'll find yourself at odds and doubting your initial suspects. Priest did a fantastic job of insinuating, planting seeds in your head but never with a concrete deduction.
My only beef with this book is that sometimes, it read like a psycho analysis of a patient. There's several pages where not only did it give me a play by play of what had happened so far but it was like a glimpse into the psychosis of someone's mind. That would've been okay had it not been the clinical way that the narrator spoke. It's almost like reading a textbook or a study.
I should say that while this book has romance, it's really very subtle. There's a lot of tender moments between Phoenix and Daniel but they're overshadowed by how quickly Phoenix's moods would change. More often, it seemed like Daniel's attachment was one sided just because of the way Phoenix played with Daniel's feelings and affections. I felt for Daniel. His infatuation with Phoenix reached into addiction status and Phoenix's inability to trust him fully just magnified that.
This book is not my typical read and there's definitely nothing Erotica-ish about this. Sexual abuse was alluded to and the TCS's victims were positioned in a way that you'd think intercourse was done before they died. But there's absolutely nothing sexual about this book other than the tensions between Daniel and Phoenix.
Twisted and disturbing, The Slayer's Apprentice is a tasty psychological thriller that would keep you guessing in anticipation of the killer's next moves.
dreamerfreak's review
5.0
Wow. A gripping, emotional thrill-ride with an ending I never expected. I love this book. Good going, Zathyn.
podperson2206's review
5.0
This was really fantastic it is so unlike Zathyn's other work but really an amazing read that I could not put down!
jaimesamms's review
5.0
My Review: I hardly ever read suspense. Throw in a serial killer and the dark, dangerous recesses of a broken mind, and it is totally not my bag of goodies. So why I bought this book, I will never know. But I did, and since I shelled out good money for it, I figured I'd better read it.
Everything about this book got under my skin. It dragged me into the mind of a young man shattered by the horrible things he'd seen and done, and twisted the idea of love into obsession and manipulation. It showed the very darkest side of human nature, and the worse places a man, even a good man, will go to prove he's right.
Every character in this book lies, most especially to themselves. So how can it be a good book? How can you possibly like these people, weak, fragile, self-deceiving, manipulative creatures that they are?
Well, that's the amazing thing. You do fall in love with them. Somehow, the author draws you in and makes you care, and want them to overcome and survive. You want to bad guy to get his, and you yearn for the HEA, as unlikely as it is that such an ending could possibly happen under the circumstances. And I'm not going to go into that here, because even if you think you won't like this kind of a dark, gritty tale, you have to read this. I guaranteed you won't regret it. I didn't.
As dark as it gets, there is an equal amount of selflessness and honesty, even if it's hard to recognize and harder to hold onto. We've all heard the saying, nothing worthwhile in life is easy, and this book shows just how hard it can be to rise above the very human desire to look out for number one. What makes it work is a healthy dose of uncertainty that anyone is going to come out the end of the ordeal, and the honest reality that nothing is ever guaranteed.
Zaythan Priest knows his shit, folks. You want to know how to write a compelling, satisfying, completely worth-every-penny-and-more story, you want to know how to grip your audience by the balls and keep them frantically reading till way into the night? This, my friends, is how it's done. Read. Study. Learn. Some day, I want this kind of writing chops.
My Recommendation: Read it. Just. Read. It.
Everything about this book got under my skin. It dragged me into the mind of a young man shattered by the horrible things he'd seen and done, and twisted the idea of love into obsession and manipulation. It showed the very darkest side of human nature, and the worse places a man, even a good man, will go to prove he's right.
Every character in this book lies, most especially to themselves. So how can it be a good book? How can you possibly like these people, weak, fragile, self-deceiving, manipulative creatures that they are?
Well, that's the amazing thing. You do fall in love with them. Somehow, the author draws you in and makes you care, and want them to overcome and survive. You want to bad guy to get his, and you yearn for the HEA, as unlikely as it is that such an ending could possibly happen under the circumstances. And I'm not going to go into that here, because even if you think you won't like this kind of a dark, gritty tale, you have to read this. I guaranteed you won't regret it. I didn't.
As dark as it gets, there is an equal amount of selflessness and honesty, even if it's hard to recognize and harder to hold onto. We've all heard the saying, nothing worthwhile in life is easy, and this book shows just how hard it can be to rise above the very human desire to look out for number one. What makes it work is a healthy dose of uncertainty that anyone is going to come out the end of the ordeal, and the honest reality that nothing is ever guaranteed.
Zaythan Priest knows his shit, folks. You want to know how to write a compelling, satisfying, completely worth-every-penny-and-more story, you want to know how to grip your audience by the balls and keep them frantically reading till way into the night? This, my friends, is how it's done. Read. Study. Learn. Some day, I want this kind of writing chops.
My Recommendation: Read it. Just. Read. It.
nhiguera's review
2.0
Hmm... So this was really kinda creepy Phoenix's personality was very dark and that led to Echo's being the same. Was nice not to know the ending to one of these kinds of books i usually can see it coming early on, but i didn't see this one. It was an interesting read, not sure if it's my thing though.
Spoiler
I kind of wish that Phoenix had ended up being the killer, it would have made me feel better about the way he treated Daniel and Echo.kaje_harper's review
4.0
3.5 stars. This book has a wonderfully twisty plot written in a very cool, almost police-report style. There are moments when the characters interact in intense and interesting ways, but the focus of the book seems to be more about the two-fold mystery: who is the killer, and what is behind Phoenix's abnormal and conflicting behavior?
For the most part, I thought the plot worked and held interest. I definitely didn't see that last twist coming. The varied suspects were all plausible, and the investigation moved well.
Phoenix's psychosis and instability were well portrayed, as were his moments of vulnerability. Daniel's obsession was hard to understand, but once established it motivated his behavior well. The frustration of the detectives was plausible and almost palpable. An interesting mystery and psychological study written in a descriptive style that appealed to me much more as a procedural mystery than as a romance.
For the most part, I thought the plot worked and held interest. I definitely didn't see that last twist coming. The varied suspects were all plausible, and the investigation moved well.
Spoiler
The one plot element I couldn't accept was the authorities leaving Echo in Phoenix's custody. There was no blood relationship, and Phoneix was clearly troubled, borderline psychotic, sleepwalking without being arousable at one point, left the boy alone in the apartment at age 5, and had a history of his own abuse, a possible link to murders, and an obsession with pedophiles. Looking at the actual evidence, there was less reason to think the killer abducted Echo and saddled himself with a toddler, than to believe Phoenix did so after escaping in order to give himself someone to care for. The time of Phoenix's escape was purely speculation. No matter how attached Echo was to him, I believe child services would have had to place Echo with an approved stable foster family, allowing Phoenix to petition for custody later if he could get approval as a foster parent after undergoing psychiatric evaluation, income and background checks and so on. Kids are taken from beloved biological parents all the time when said parents have mental health and legal issues that might endanger the child. No regular cop's word of mouth is likely to alter child services policy. Leaving him with Phoenix felt like an over-convenient plot device.Phoenix's psychosis and instability were well portrayed, as were his moments of vulnerability. Daniel's obsession was hard to understand, but once established it motivated his behavior well. The frustration of the detectives was plausible and almost palpable. An interesting mystery and psychological study written in a descriptive style that appealed to me much more as a procedural mystery than as a romance.