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A review by evavroslin
Devil's Row by Matt Serafini
4.0
I haven't read "Feral" but I read that this book is meant to serve as a prequel and the events in this book are set 300 years before those of "Feral" so readers should go into the book expecting that. If you read "Feral" then I'm not sure if I can comment as to whether you would enjoy this volume, but I imagine fans who are invested in the characters would like to see them in their prior incarnations.
Chapter 1 starts with a seventeen year-old, Claude, and he's a soldier. He's dying on the battlefield and he talks about how his home life was that of a forced labourer, lamenting a life cut short too soon when a werewolf comes by and let's just say this wolf doesn't sparkle at him or regale him with conversation. We don't see him again for a while, but he serves a good purpose.
We then switch to the viewpoint of Elisabeth, a female werewolf who becomes very badly wounded and sees her lover killed. She spends the rest of the book fighting for her own life and hunting those that did this to her and her lover.
We also have vampires represented mainly by Cordin (my apologies if I misspelled that) and although his point of view was less interesting to me, he did have a fair amount of interactions with werewolves, which made his parts more interesting.
On the human side, we have hunters. Sebastian is one of them. He's part of a garrison that hunts supernatural creatures led by Garrick. I found his point of view to be a tie with Elisabeth's for most captivating throughout the book.
Overall, I tend to prefer supernatural books that focus on one or two supernatural creatures at most so it was a bit challenging for me to follow along with the werewolves (who I was most interested in), plus vampires, plus witches/demon types, and then the human hunter element. Each of them is steeped in a deep history that runs quite extensively throughout the book.
From a violence standpoint, there is that in spades, so readers looking for gore won't be disappointed. There's also a fair bit of graphic sex, although it serves its purpose well and doesn't detract from the plot.
One of the strengths of this book is in its characterization. The author did a wonderful job making the reader understanding the points of view of the central characters and their beliefs from Elisabeth to Garrick and Sebastian.
Readers who tend to like their horror mixed in with a historical feel will really dig "Devil's Row." For those who love werewolves but not necessarily the historical feel, this book may not sate their hunger, so really it is a matter of personal taste, but personally I love historical novels (depending on the era) and I love werewolves, so while it wasn't a complete match made in heaven for me, it was a very enjoyable read that had a lot of interesting dimensions to it that your standard werewolf book doesn't. If you're a werewolf fan looking for a different kind of read, definitely pick up "Devil's Row" or if you're someone who likes the combination of historical horror, I think you'll be into it, too.
Chapter 1 starts with a seventeen year-old, Claude, and he's a soldier. He's dying on the battlefield and he talks about how his home life was that of a forced labourer, lamenting a life cut short too soon when a werewolf comes by and let's just say this wolf doesn't sparkle at him or regale him with conversation. We don't see him again for a while, but he serves a good purpose.
We then switch to the viewpoint of Elisabeth, a female werewolf who becomes very badly wounded and sees her lover killed. She spends the rest of the book fighting for her own life and hunting those that did this to her and her lover.
We also have vampires represented mainly by Cordin (my apologies if I misspelled that) and although his point of view was less interesting to me, he did have a fair amount of interactions with werewolves, which made his parts more interesting.
On the human side, we have hunters. Sebastian is one of them. He's part of a garrison that hunts supernatural creatures led by Garrick. I found his point of view to be a tie with Elisabeth's for most captivating throughout the book.
Overall, I tend to prefer supernatural books that focus on one or two supernatural creatures at most so it was a bit challenging for me to follow along with the werewolves (who I was most interested in), plus vampires, plus witches/demon types, and then the human hunter element. Each of them is steeped in a deep history that runs quite extensively throughout the book.
From a violence standpoint, there is that in spades, so readers looking for gore won't be disappointed. There's also a fair bit of graphic sex, although it serves its purpose well and doesn't detract from the plot.
One of the strengths of this book is in its characterization. The author did a wonderful job making the reader understanding the points of view of the central characters and their beliefs from Elisabeth to Garrick and Sebastian.
Readers who tend to like their horror mixed in with a historical feel will really dig "Devil's Row." For those who love werewolves but not necessarily the historical feel, this book may not sate their hunger, so really it is a matter of personal taste, but personally I love historical novels (depending on the era) and I love werewolves, so while it wasn't a complete match made in heaven for me, it was a very enjoyable read that had a lot of interesting dimensions to it that your standard werewolf book doesn't. If you're a werewolf fan looking for a different kind of read, definitely pick up "Devil's Row" or if you're someone who likes the combination of historical horror, I think you'll be into it, too.