Guest Review: Chey's boyfriend spills his thoughts on The Darkening Dream by Andy Gavin

Title: The Darkening Dream
Author: Andy Gavin
Publisher: Mascherato Publishing
Age Group: Young Adult
Category:  Paranormal/ Dark Fantasy
Release date: December 22, 2011
Pages: 382 (ebook)
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Source: Author
Goodreads | Amazon | Author

1913, Salem, Massachusetts – Sarah Engelmann’s life is full of friends, books, and avoiding the pressure to choose a husband, until an ominous vision and the haunting call of an otherworldly trumpet shake her. When she stumbles across a gruesome corpse, she fears that her vision was more of a premonition. And when she sees the murdered boy moving through the crowd at an amusement park, Sarah is thrust into a dark battle she does not understand.

 With the help of Alex, an attractive Greek immigrant who knows a startling amount about the undead, Sarah sets out to uncover the truth. Their quest takes them to the factory mills of Salem, on a midnight boat ride to spy on an eerie coastal lair, and back, unexpectedly, to their own homes. What can Alex’s elderly, vampire-hunting grandfather and Sarah’s own rabbi father tell them? And what do Sarah’s continuing visions reveal?

No less than Gabriel’s Trumpet, the tool that will announce the End of Days, is at stake, and the forces that have banded to recover it include a 900 year-old vampire, a trio of disgruntled Egyptian gods, and a demon-loving Puritan minister. At the center of this swirling cast is Sarah, who must fight a millennia-old battle against unspeakable forces, knowing the ultimate prize might be herself.

Hello everyone, this is Santi for another guest review, it’s been a while! This time I’m reviewing The Darkening Dream by Andy Gavin. First of all, it was written by the creator of CRASH BANDICOOT!  How cool is that?! And second I just want to say that I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many kinds of magic or deities together in a story (outside of Supernatural. Chey and I never miss it). Also the plot involves a lot of twists and it gets weird at some points but I seriously loved it.

The main character, Sarah, was such a wonderful girl. She was so smart she could put everyone to shame but at the same time she showed emotions like everyone else which made her both unreachable and relatable at the same time. Together with her best friend Anne, Anne’s twin brother Sam and the new exotic guy in town, Alexandros, she starts digging deeper into her scary and disturbing dreams to encounter power and creatures beyond her wildest dreams and hopefully put an end to those that seek the destruction of the world as we know it.

The book constantly changes perspectives and that’s always a plus. The author does a really great job at making all of his characters relatable at some level and introduces you to a whole new world each time he speaks from the mind of a new being, be it human, vampire, witch, etc.

 Plot-wise, the story is really complex. A lot of stuff go on at the same time but keeping track of all the events and getting deeper and deeper into the story is what matters, right? This book had tons and tons of action, romance, sex and the aforementioned weirdness that made me cringe and want to keep reading at the same time.