Reviews with content warning for Gore - The Fell of Dark

gay vampires ? incredible. i'm all for it. caleb roehrig's writing style is so funny and engaging and i admittedly have not engaged with much vampire media in the past but i've decided this is the superior iteration anyway

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aromarrie's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

this book is so incredible because at first, i hardly felt anything. i felt meh just as it seemed the mc felt meh because when you live in a town where vampires are the norm, there hardly seems to be many surprises to look out for. but then!! both me and august realized how wrong we really were.

as someone who constantly seeks out for good vampire stories, this one completely wowed me because it was just so obvious how much the author is enraptured with the lore of vampires. for a book that's only over 300 pages, there were like 500 pages worth of content that didn't feel overwhelming at all. if anything, there was so much precision and depth put into delving into the histories of these different groups of vampires, and those who hunt them. the more information we got, the more it came to my attention how much no matter what, a town used to vampires hunting in the night will never truly understand how high the stakes really are. vampires are mythic creatures of their own right, and despite all the myths, there's so much to unravel in how far back their origins and motivations go. the cover felt really deceiving, and the mc august, too--because it was difficult to pinpoint how far deep into the dark we would fall into, but the creeping void and terror of being thrust into a prophecy that is interpretated so differently among many says just enough.

i adored august's character, because his morality was always put forth to the surface because it's what this prophecy grasps for, and seeing him interact with different characters who had their own morals was phenomenal. there was very much some lighthearted moments included in this book, but it was just enough that it made all the haunting reveals and betrayals so much richer. i rooted not just for august, but for a lot of these characters because despite most of them being vampires or witches or sorceresses, "souls of the Devil" or whatever you call them, there was so much humanity and they had so much power. vampires were humans once, you know--witches and sorceresses capable of power so strong and yet are still underestimated even to this day, and it was that power and these human pasts that were explored to the fullest extent. that just went to show how much i could tell all the work and effort the author put into bringing this plot to life. so many threads and histories being entwined between different characters, and yet not once did it get tangled at any moment of this book.

i enjoyed the humor, i enjoyed the lore, and i enjoyed every single relationship and how complex the author formed each connection. if the author's motivations were to compel me to dig deep into the magic and lore of the supernatural, because there's so much potential swirling in there and this book is a huge example of that, then he definitely succeeded. i just loved all of it.

content warnings//: body horror, decapitation, kidnapping, graphic depictions of violence, references to Satan/the Devil, fire, anxiety, gruesome deaths, bits and pieces of gore, (a lot of) blood, possession, torture, attempted murder, occult (?), and animal deaths

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sonygaystation's review

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

This was so fun, I loved every minute of it!!! 4.5 stars easy. The whole time I was like “I LOVE how Buffy the Vampire Slayer this feels” only to read Roehrig’s thanks to the show in the acknowledgments (I love being right). The narrative voice was the perfect blend of genuine and snarky, which can be hard to pull off. Tone can land weirdly in fiction and I sometimes find myself more easily annoyed than the average person by funky tone, but I really, really enjoyed the humour in this book. I also really appreciated the subtle polyamory and the romance without it being an actual romantic endgame (a love triangle done right). I just had such a good time reading this and I would read it again in a heartbeat. More queer vampire stories please and thanks!!!! Extra brownie points if they make me laugh as much as this one does!

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bookcrushin's review

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adventurous dark funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

THIS BOOK IS SO GREAT! Paranormal queer books FTW!

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folkmare's review

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adventurous dark funny tense fast-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I loved this a lot but I think it got a little wrapped up in its own mythos. There are Too Many Ideas happening here, we have: vampire government, 2 separate vampire cults, vampire hunting knights, witches, and a reincarnating unknowable malevolent power. If this were a series, all that could be spread out a little wider but it isn't, so we hit the ground running.

I don't know why I picked this up expecting it to be bad, or cheesy. Maybe I just thought I was over the teen vampire novel. Apparently, I am not. I thought Auggie was delightful and funny and I loved the lack of commitment to a dramatic romance in favor of confused, horny, teenage mess. The whole thing is very silly, but pretty compelling, and I think this would make an IDEAL bad CW tv adaptation.

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