Submerging Inferno (Men of Myth Series 1) by Brandon Witt

[reviews_and_ramblings]

There are two main points coming to mind as soon as I finished this book: that it’s clear the book is written by a man and that this man is young. I don’t know, maybe is the writing style, maybe is the reference to the “male” prettiness of the main characters, or something else, but to me it was like a mark all over the book. I’m not saying the book is too “virile”, on the contrary, there is a lot of emphasis on the love word, something that usually I don’t find with male writers, it’s only that I felt the “masculinity” of the story.

Aside from that, the author has woven a complex urban fantasy tale, with a mix of fairy tale and paranormal elements. In the middle of this “magick” melting pot, there is the love story between Finn, an handsome and very young warlock, and Brett, a man without roots trying to understand if he is the villain or the hero of this story.

As strange as it sounds, it was almost funny reading their story because they are so young, both of them I think under 25 years old. While Brett is living alone since when he was kicked out by his grandparents, Finn is still living in the comfortable, and welcoming embrace, of his family, a family that is a collection of extraordinary characters. They were never alone, and among the paranormal events they are living, there are also way more “ordinary” events, like being caught while having sex. Actually their same story started in a very conservative way, Brett and Finn paired by Finn’s brother in law on the assumption, you are gay, he is gay, you are both single and under 25… you are perfect together! Even if usually the algorithm doesn’t work like that, in this case it was right, since Finn’s paranormal family will help Brett reconcile with his unknown past.

I’d like to add that the “comfortable” feeling of Brett and Finn’s story, their almost comedy-like relationship, is something that doesn’t extend outside them; any other relationship, sexual or not, Brett is having outside that bond is all other than comfortable, sometime even brutal and for sure scaring. That is probably one of the reasons why Brett clings to Finn, he is able to be “normal” only in the not-normal context of their story. It was quite disconcerting to have this contraposition, horror outside, romance inside, but the author presented it in a way that it worked.

I have to warn the reader, this is book 1 in a series, and so it doesn’t have a real happily ever after, actually it’s not even a happily for now, but I’m confident the author will give us something more in the following books.

Amazon: Submerging Inferno: Men of Myth (Volume 1)
Amazon Kindle: Submerging Inferno: Men of Myth (Volume 1)
Paperback: 398 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace (January 25, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1456558927
ISBN-13: 978-1456558925

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