A review by mousie
Spoiling the Machine by Daniel May

4.5

This was such an interesting read! It was very atmospheric, and very engrossing -- I started reading it before bed just to see what it was like, then found myself staying up much later than planned because I just HAD to see how it ended. It was a mind-bending clash between what we accept as reality and what we never thought to believe. The romance is MMF, but this isn't really a ~romance story. It's a story about a man trying to cope with the loss of two of the most important people in his life, with a little bit (a lot) of the impossible mixed in.

I have to be honest, I spent...pretty much all of the book confused, but not in a bad way. There are just so many omg, wait, what? moments throughout the book that after a while, my brain suspended its disbelief and just hung on for the ride. Again, not in a bad way. I was fascinated by the idea that Spoilerthere are people whom Death doesn't take slash people who can trade themselves to Death so that someone else important to them will survive instead. Also, the rollercoaster of twists towards the end Spoilerwhere we go from thinking Kel's chasing Death to realizing that's Tomas to thinking Tomas is Death to realizing Death is a completely DIFFERENT, terrifying thing was INSANE in only the best way!!

I really adored the small pack of teenagers that latched onto Kel, I loved Yam, and I would honestly read an entire set of short stories featuring Maddox and Mikhail and all the others, because they were so fascinating in their unique brands of insanity. This is definitely one of those books that needs to be re-read, because there are so many details I'm sure I missed the first time through that I will appreciate a second time around.

I received a free ARC from the author and am voluntarily leaving a review.