Netgalley ARC Review: This Eternity Of Masks And Shadows by Karsten Knight

San
Apr 18, 2020
4 min read

Updated: May 14, 2021

Book Details:

Author: Karsten Knight

Series: Stand-alone

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Thriller

Page Count: ___

Publisher: -

To be Published: 2 June, 2020 (Tentative)

Blurb:

Some vendettas have more lives than others.

The gods walk among us. Some lurk in the shadows, masquerading as mortals; others embrace their celebrity status, launching careers from Hollywood to Capitol Hill.

One of them just murdered Cairn Delacroix's mother.

As Cairn sifts through the rubble, she uncovers a conspiracy two decades in the making: a cursed island, the fellowship of gods who journeyed there, and the unspeakable act that intertwined their fates. One by one, the members of that voyage are dying, and Cairn's investigations land her in the crosshairs of the rogue goddess responsible.

With the help of Nanook, a polar bear god turned detective, Cairn descends into Boston's underworld of supernatural crime and political aspiration. To avenge her mother and unmask her assassin, she’ll first have to reckon with a gut-wrenching secret that will rewrite the life she thought she knew.

Shocking twists cascade toward an explosive finale in this thrilling new mystery from Karsten Knight, author of the WILDEFIRE trilogy and NIGHTINGALE, SING.

My Review

~~~May contain Spoilers~~~

My goodness... What a thrilling read it was! I give this book 4/5 stars

This was my first ARC on Netgalley and after reading it, I surely can say that it wasn't a bad decision at all. Also, this was my first time reading a book by the author Karsten Knight and this book has encouraged me to explore more of his other works.

As I was browsing through Netgalley, in search of an ARC, I was quite anxious. I have only ever read published works and that too after scouring through countless reviews sometimes. I decided to click on the 'Most Requested' section and there were quite a few books whose covers caught my eyes. When I came across TEOMAS, 2 things caught my eye immediately- The cover and the title. The cover is rather minimalistic but I loved how the font and cover background complimented each other. AS for the title, well, I can only say that I was immediately intrigued.

'Shadow(s)' is a common word used in the titles of many fantasy books. Combined here with the word, 'Mask', it immediately gave me the inkling that perhaps I was going to read something that was a fantasy mystery book. As soon as I read the blurb, I knew that my intuition was right! In the words of the author himself, one can expect- Mythology, Magic, Murder, Mystery (the 4 M's).

My usual blabbering aside, let's venture into the territory of the actual book review.

This book ticked off almost all of my expectations from it. I ended up breezing through the book in a few hours! It was a well blended mixture of different genres. The plot lines, although predictable at times, were carried out in a sufficiently well manner.

There were certain things in the story that I had predicted and was pleasantly surprised to find them true:-

Mami Wata wasn't really dead. I mean, how can a water spirit be killed by drowning? Sounds unreasonable, right? ✔️
Delphine has some connection with either Aether/Columbia or Mami Wata. Just a hunch. ✔️
Mami Wata is Columbia? Cairn is Mami Wata? ❌

There were some characters who I wish were more developed- Nook and Columbia. Nook's portrayal left me utterly confused. As for Columbia/Aether, her reason for her activities came out as dull; here, I was expecting some heart-wrenching tale of revenge or something like that but when her purpose was revealed, it left me underwhelmed.

As for the lead character, she was a delight; not perfect or likable all the times. At times, I felt that she was unrealistically good at certain things like fights, analyzing, etc. But then I reasoned- Well, she's a demigod. Maybe the author wanted to show how her abilities were elevated above other normal humans. Her lack of substantial character development is a secondary issue and doesn't really hamper the story, in my opinion.

I loved this concept of Gods taking a rebirth every hundred years or so and that they forget everything from their previous life. It highlighted a fact that aside from having some cool superpowers, they weren't really different from normal humans. I liked the attention paid to the portrayal of the incarnations and the sprinkling of myths throughout the story-span. I got to know about many other Gods and myth that hadn't been explored in the books I have read so far. The entire idea along with its execution made my reading journey an enjoyable one.

The relationship between the various characters was portrayed very well. We got to see different facets of the characters as they interacted with each other and with their surroundings. Our protagonist's queer relationships was represented in a believable manner. Out of all the relationships, Cairn and Vulcan's kinship as well as Cairn and Emille's father-daughter relationship are probably my favourites.

A nitpicking from my side is that I didn't get the explosive finale that I was promised. The climax was good but it ended up dampening my reading mood a bit. The epilogue, on the other hand, left me wanting for more.