Brother.

Emica did a fantastic job with this story. It is a true honor to get to know her and work with her. Brother is a wonderful debut book and I hope for all the best for your future works! [img=recommend]

Four Stars. A fun novel and respectable authorial debut. There’s good to be found in Brother. Brother’s strength lies in its take on the supernatural, particularly its antagonist. While it's quickly shown that detectives Jonathan and Jace face a literally inhuman foe, they play the case straight. There is no Secret Supernatural Special Ops Unit, no backup from Area 51. The monster’s abilities are served as is and the reader is left to make their own conclusions. This technique heightened my interest in the story as I wondered more about the villain’s motivation and what crime they’d commit next. As the heinousness of the crimes--not to mention the body count--increases, it’s obvious some sinister magic is in the mix. Brother’s not all guts, however. There’s two stories here, the first of J&J tracking the killer, the second of fighting their own personal demons, raising sons beneath the ominous umbrella of a killer running around. Food in Brother is a continuous theme; the comfort of the family meal, the joy of cooking, even the care of ordering vegan cuisine for a coworker. Meals are described as copiously and continuously as a banquet scene straight out of Game of Thrones, and while I initially scratched my head over this, believing such description did little to serve the plot, there came a scene when that communal food (or lack thereof) suddenly mattered and I was metaphorically punched in my metaphorical guts. Oh, how agonizing it doth feel to lose what we didn’t know we had. Brother is about more than tracking a monster. Grammar and punctuation can be spotty, but I found nothing so distracting I couldn’t read. Brother’s dialogue, while functional, would benefit from increased identity and individual character expression. While each character is defined by their actions, they speak similarly enough I had to pay close attention to dialogue tags to remind myself who is saying what. However, none of the characters sound mechanical or dead, and they probably speak more similarly to the way people speak in day to day life. Brother reads easily, like a prime time episode of a crime show, one where the focus is as much on the family of characters as the monster. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

I am the author of 6 published novels (The Eternal Reflection novel series) and was asked to review the book. The opinions here are mine alone. This is an interesting novel that seems to have many intersecting genres. At first, when I read it, I thought it was pure mystery. However, the surprise came when I read on, realizing that the murderer has potentially many supernatural and symbolic elements. Although I read until chapter 14 and am waiting for the book to conclude, it seems to blend mystery, horror, and religious fiction. This adds plenty of complexity to the novel, which is very intriguing to read! Plenty of religious and literary symbolism inside adds an interestingly complex plot with many interwoven dimensions. The pacing is moderate to fast, with well-defined plot points. Also, the writing style, at a structural level, has good pacing. Fast and slow-paced scenes are balanced to develop the lives of the characters. The characters are multi-dimensional people with their pasts, literary past-times, and interests revealed slowly. There is minimal info-dumping, which is good, as the worldbuilding and characterizations are woven into dialogues and action. This is good writing. As I read on, the characters' voices become pretty unique and distinguished. There seems to be quite some tension between some of the characters, like the pastor, detectives, main characters, and their siblings. I hope to read on and find out - they add a large-than-life approach towards blending character and plot development. The only flaw that I can see are slight formatting issues with the dialogues. I have informed the author on how to fix them. Hopefully, after this review, she will fix them. However, they do not take away from the well-written reading experience. I patiently and excitedly await the release of chapters 15 onwards!

Each chapter keeps me on my seat wondering what is happening next. I feel like I'm really getting to know the characters as the story keeps going. Can't wait to see what happens next!