Fiend

A dark family legacy comes to light in Fiend by Alma Katsu. The Berisha family is a powerful and wealthy family that runs one of the most successful companies in the world. No matter what happens in the world or who comes up against them, they always come out on top! A male heir must marry another Albanian to take the reins and be the keeper of family’s dark secrets.

That might have worked in ancient times but Dardan, the male family heir, but his sister, Maris wants to be the one to run their company. Nora, their younger sister is happy to sit back and watch as her two older siblings compete to be the head of the family. But will be the head of the family be a blessing or a curse?

Welp! I so wanted to love this one. Alma Katsu has written some amazing and hard to put down books such as The Hunger and The Deep. I had a hard time putting those gripping books down. I had such high hopes for this book but sadly Fiend failed to wow me. I didn’t mind this modern take on power and curses. I could not connect with any of the characters at all. I did not root for any of them. I didn’t want to boo or hiss at any of them either. None failed to cause a strong emotion or reaction from me.

It pains me to say that this book wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t great either. I wanted more horror or at least more horrific moments. I wanted more depth, more tension, more horror, more dread, and more atmosphere. This book felt very flat to me. I kept wondering when something BIG was going to happen. What did work in this book was the pursuit for power within a family. The competition to be the best and the one to run a company after the patriarch steps down.

Other reviews are enjoying this book more than I did so please read their reviews as well.

Thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Putnam | G.P. Putnam’s Sons and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.