Review: Alexander Death

ALEXANDER DEATH
(The Paranormals #3)
JL Bryan
Paranormal Young Adult
e-book
Available Now
Received from author for review

Warning: synopsis and review contains spoilers from previous two books

THE STORY
After witnessing Seth cheating on her firsthand, Jenny allows herself to be whisked away by Alexander, a man whose ability to control the dead is a complement to her own dangerous gift to spread disease, deciding time away from her mortal life as Jenny Morton is exactly what she needs to remember the immortal she once was and could be still.

As Jenny disappears with Alexander, Seth shakes of the effects of Ashleigh's latest manipulation and mounts an all-out search to find her, dealing with the repercussions of the CDC's continued investigation of the deaths of hundreds of Fallen Oaks residents at Jenny's hand while he waits for any word on her whereabouts.

When Seth finally locates Jenny at Alexander's side, he finds the girl he fell in love with may be not only beyond his reach physically, but mentally and emotionally as well, and even memories of all their past lifetimes together may not be enough to bring her back to him.

MY THOUGHTS
The moment a very young Jenny Morton released her pox on a rattlesnake she hoped to turn into a playmate but instead watched in horror as it died a gruesome death she made herself a permanent fixture in our minds and hearts, the pain and vulnerability resulting from her curse so tangible we almost didn’t want to continue her story knowing things for her would inevitably get far worse before she was granted happiness. The road through the trilogy has been a dark and twisted one, Mr. Bryan’s ability to inflict shallow emotional wounds that make us feel just enough of Jenny’s hurt without overwhelming us to the point we can no longer bear to read creating a reading experience we won’t soon forget. This final installment is as difficult to read as its predecessors, Jenny’s story reaching perhaps its lowest point yet as past and present collide to bring the truth of the six paranormals’ existence fully into the light.

Alexander Death manages to be both the most enjoyable and least enjoyable of the three books, Jenny’s downward spiral into someone we don’t recognize as a result of an intimate betrayal and insidious manipulation unbelievably painful to witness, but at the same time our faith that Mr. Bryan will not lead us into the darkness without providing a flame to guide us back out is at its highest, and we just have to call on our patience as we read, continually scanning the blackness for that first flicker of orange to appear. Still distraught by the events at the conclusion of Tommy Nightmare, it’s easy for us to understand Jenny’s willingness to shed the sweet human innocence of this most current reincarnation and embrace the power memories of her past life help her to harness, but her change takes its toll on us as readers and we long for the moments when her need for Seth was strong and pure and something to truly envy before it was so monstrously corrupted.

Added to the despair over Jenny’s new persona is the pain of Seth’s unwavering devotion to her now that he’s been freed of Ashleigh’s disgusting influence. Though we can’t help but still want to see a grand show of groveling for his past behavior, our love for Seth returns to its previous fervor as we watch him endlessly search for what has slipped through his fingers. Seth therefore continues to ascend as Jenny so tragically descends, and we spend much of the story wondering how and if they might ever meet in the middle again, or whether their feet have carried them too far in opposite directions to find their way back. We know each of them has an unbelievable strength of will however, allowing us hope that all will be well eventually despite the staggering evidence that continues to suggest otherwise.

As with the previous two books, Alexander Death has some bothersome drug use and some more detailed sex scenes, so it's recommended more for older readers. Overall though, Mr. Bryan has written a brilliant series that challenges us emotionally and proves to us that he has little fear of knocking his characters down before slowly building them back up. For those who like dark and gritty tales with characters who scratch, tear, and claw at you until they work themselves under your skin permanently, this series is for you.

Rating: 4/5

Guest Post + Giveaway: JL Bryan and The Paranormals Series

Today is the last day of the promotional tour for JL Bryan's beautifully dark Paranormals series and I'm honored to be the very last stop! If you haven't been following the tour, you can find all the details and previous tour stops listed on the tour page at Kismet Book Touring. JL is offering up some pretty unbelievably fabulous giveaways for this tour, so be sure and check the bottom of the post for all the specifics on how to enter! Without further ado though, I'd like to welcome JL back to the blog to share with you some thoughts that have reminded me exactly why I love being a book blogger so much.

A LONG, STRANGE, PARANORMAL TRIP

So, this is the last day of the Paranormals tour. This has been a fantastic celebration of the release of the third book in the trilogy, and I want to thank all of the tour hosts for their generosity in sharing their blogs. I also want to thank Danny and Heather from Kismet for making things easy, and for putting together all the great prizes and trick-or-treater characters!

It's fitting that the tour began on Bewitched Bookworms and ends here on Supernatural Snark. I first released Jenny Pox in July 2010. I queried lots of bloggers to review it, but as an unknown indie author, I initially got few responses.

The few bloggers who featured the book back then included the Bewitched Bookworms, Darkeva, the Caffeinated Diva, and Supernatural Snark. The response from these bloggers gave me the sense that the book might be something valuable that would eventually find lots of readers. The Bookworms actually featured me several times in 2010, back when nobody had heard of Jenny Pox and nobody was reading it.

Over a year later, the book has grown into a trilogy, and they often show up on the Horror and Contemporary Fantasy bestseller lists on Amazon. It's always stunning to me how many book bloggers are eager to help spread the word about the books! Countless bloggers have helped make this happen (including The Bookish Brunette, who even made Team Seth and Team Alexander buttons).

The first two books enabled me to take a couple months of leave from work when my son was born on June 2. I can't begin to describe what it meant to me that I was able to spend so much time with him. Now, I'm leaving my day job altogether to focus on writing and baby care, so expect a lot more books from me!

As a writer, you spend huge numbers of hours alone, creating and refining your stories. The biggest surprise about going indie is that I'm not doing this alone at all – I've met so many amazing, intelligent, funny, and generous book bloggers who are so helpful. This doesn't even begin to mention the great community of indie authors I've met, which would take a whole other post!

This journey has been fun, exciting, mysterious, and full of surprises. Sometimes everything just comes together at once, spontaneously, in a way you never could have planned. Sometimes, it's kismet.

So this post is just a big “thank you” to all the bloggers and readers who have made this amazing process unfold over the past fourteen months. I appreciate every one of you, and I look forward to years of adventures to come! Thanks for being there.

You're so very welcome JL! Finding authors like you has been one of my favorite parts of running the blog, and I'm thrilled to be able to promote the Paranormals series to any and all who will listen:)

GIVEAWAY #1

I've got two very special giveaways on the blog today! The first is my tour stop "treat" which includes a signed set of all three books in the Paranormals series: Jenny Pox, Tommy Nightmare and Alexander Death. To enter please just leave a comment on this post with a valid email address so I can contact you if you win. This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only and will run through midnight EST on Friday, November 11th after which time a winner will be chosen and announced on the blog.

*please note that the Paranormals series is recommended for older young adult readers as it contains more graphic sexual content and some drug use*

GIVEAWAY #2

Your eyes are not deceiving you my friends, this giveaway is for a Kindle Fire! YAY! The winner will receive a Kindle Fire skinned in the their choice of Paranormals artwork and loaded with an AMAZING indie library. Simply fill out the form below (just once during the course of the tour, so if you've already filled it out at a different stop, you don't need to enter again) and you're entered to win the latest and greatest from the biggest name in eReaders. Open to US and Canadian residents only, see full contest rules HERE.



A huge thank you to JL for offering up such amazing giveaways and to the wonderful girls of Kismet Book Touring for putting together a fantastic tour:)



Alexander Death week:
Monday, October 31st - The Slowest Bookworm
Tuesday, November 1st - Buried In Books
Wednesday, November 2nd- Paranormal Opinion
Thursday, November 3rd - Belle Books
Friday, November 4th - Supernatural Snark

Guest Post + Giveaway: JL Bryan and The Paranormals Series

Today I'm super excited to be one of three blogs revealing the cover for the third book in JL Bryan's deliciously dark and fascinating young adult series focusing on a young woman named Jenny and her unusual ability to spread disease at the barest touch. As you can see, this newest installment is titled ALEXANDER DEATH and will be releasing in October. JL is joining me on the blog to talk a little bit about how he came up with the title for the series itself, and be sure and check the bottom of the post for details on the giveaway and the other participating blogs!

A PARANORMAL PREDICAMENT

When I finished Jenny Pox, I realized there was much more room to explore Jenny's story and her background, but I wasn't sure whether I would actually get around to writing follow-up books or not.

The reviews for the book often said that they would like to see a sequel and learn more about Jenny, and I also heard from a number of readers by email and social media asking whether there would be a sequel. Since I was interested and the readers were interested, I decided to build onto the story. I didn't just want to do a sequel, or an episodic series, but a deeply integrated trilogy where everything was woven together in a satisfying way.

The clearest place to begin was the question of Ashleigh's opposite. If Seth and Jenny were opposites, with their powers to heal and to spread plague, then Ashleigh clearly had an opposite, whose touch had the opposite effect from making people feel love.

Some people have asked why Tommy's touch spreads fear instead of hate. My thinking is that hate is not necessarily the opposite of love. Our strongest hates are personal and often originate in love—we hate the friend or lover who betrays us, for example. That kind of hate is powered by the previous feelings of love that existed.

To me, fear seems like the most direct opposite of love. Love draws people together, while fear separates us from each other. This can be fear of people who are different from you, which can often be alleviated just by getting to know an individual from the feared group. There is also the way fear affects our personal relationships. Fear of getting hurt can stop a relationship from ever forming, or lead to jealousy and conflict within a relationship. So we have love pulling people together in an affectionate, positive and helping way, while fear pushes people apart, divides them, and even makes them willing to use violence.

So, there was Ashleigh's opposite. A couple of other paranormals, Alexander and his opposite Esmeralda, came into the story to shed some light on Jenny's past lives and to move events forward. In Alexander, we have a second person Jenny can touch, so this is the first time in her life she's had relationship options. She can be with Seth or with Alexander, and there are some pros and cons to each of them...

Finally, the series itself needed a name. Jenny and Seth aren't an established kind of paranormal being, like a vampire or werewolf, so this was a challenge. They are fragments of the original chaos that reigned before the universe was created (fellow ancient mythology geeks, you know what I'm talking about). Appropriate words might have included “djinn,” “demons,” “gods,” or the simple Lovecraftian “Old Ones.” These all had connotations that I didn't want to deal with, however. These characters repeatedly reincarnate among humans, but they are not human souls. They're sort of the creatures that snuck in under the cracks in the door to our world. They don't belong here.

In the end, I decided the best word was a general one: paranormals. This makes their supernatural nature clear, but it also points to one of the central conflicts faced by Jenny and Seth, which is their endless struggle to be like “normal” humans, when it is impossible for them to do that.

This is why the trilogy that begins with Jenny Pox is now known as The Paranormals, Book One through Three. Because when you've written more than a quarter-million words about a certain group of characters, it's nice to have an actual word to call them.

Thanks so much for stopping by JL! For more information on both JL and
The Paranormals series (highly recommended, though definitely for older YA audiences as there is some more explicit sex and violence in both published works) you can find him here:

Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter

GIVEAWAY

As today is the one year book birthday of JENNY POX (Happy Birthday Jenny!), JL has generously offered up e-book copies of both JENNY POX (book 1) and TOMMY NIGHTMARE (book 2) to one lucky winner. To enter, please just leave a comment with a valid email address so I can contact you if you win. Since these are e-books, this giveaway is international and will run through midnight EST on Friday, July 29th after which time a winner will be chosen and announced on the blog.

Be sure and check out the other two participating blogs as they will have fun guest posts and birthday giveaway celebrations as well:

The Slowest Bookworm
Bewitched Bookworms