H.R.R. Gorman

New Ideas for a Well-Trod Genre

This is the first story I finished reading all the way through on Inkitt, and that alone tells me that Brian's story rose above the crowd. Similarly to other reviewers, I thought the characters - especially Lea - were very well planned and had multiple layers. Lea was an excellent choice for main character and as a narrator, and I actually enjoyed the friendship with Liam in the first half of the book.

While Lea was an excellent main character, I felt that the twist relationship was slightly strained, if only due to the speed with which it occurred. After the first half of the book with Liam, the story suddenly switched to having more narrators, introduced a very quickly rising romantic relationship, and introduced the primary plot point, the combination of which left me a little shell-shocked. Everything that I had issue with would likely be cleaned up with editing or after serious beta-reading - the captivating plot and background information is already there.

Of a slightly less pressing matter, I'm not convinced that this should be classified as science fiction; a virus-based explanation doesn't seem to make it significantly different enough from fantasy.

That being said, all of the issues with the story do not overshadow the interesting pieces of the story. I enjoyed the romantic tension and the portrayal of homosexuality and bisexuality. I also believe that the story has a lot of well-thought-out background information, and I wouldn't be surprised to find that Ms. Brian has a notebook of research or other ideas to back up everything that I just read! With an ending like the one presented here, I fully expect to see more of the immortals in the future. Well done.

Very Well Written

The story was very character driven, and the development of Cas from beginning to end was quite smooth. It could get dark and very harsh at times, but a few minutes wait to re-set the stomach and I was always back on track. Extremely (possibly excessively) masculine, heavily violent, and filled with excitement. Excellent job overall.