Book Review- Engines of the Broken World

Engines of the Broken World by Jason Vanhee

♦publisher: Henry Holt
♦release date: November 05, 2012
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦Rating: ♥♥♥♥

Review:

Review: Wickedly haunting from the first breath.

What an ironic place for a beginning… at the end of everything. For Merciful and her brother Gospel, they thought it was just the two of them at end of their own little world, until the dead rose from the basement to tell them otherwise.

In a world that’s growing increasing thin and frail, Merciful and Gospel must find a way to remain. Even if that means embracing the words of the animal-like minister and listening to the dead ramblings of the creature living inside their dead mothers body.

Caught in the space between child and adult, Merciful and Gospel must make decisions that affect their lives but also that of the world. When their mother dies, their world seems to die with it. Surrounded by snow, and trapped within their home the cold creeps in all around them. Quickly, Merciful and Gospel find that they are running out of supplies to survive, other than the old widow who is walking distance away, they are without a wisp of a soul to run to.

With the body of their dead mother under the table in the cellar, guilt rises up in Merciful’s throat, and slowly begins to choke her, while her dead mother’s distant lullaby haunts her.  All the while, the one thing they need to fear is the more sinister than holy minister, who preaches from his animal form. One who watches with his yellow eyes leaving discontentment and uneasiness, making sure God’s rules are enforced at any extent.

With echoes of the dead haunting them, they soon realize that they are the last ones living in a broken world. One that is so lonely and corrupt, that even God himself has turned his back on it. A world so thin, that other worlds can breach the veil and speak through their dead.

A dark fantasy horror, this book has an intrigue that sets it apart from all others, hitting on the points that seemingly form together to create a great horror. With the dead stored in the cellar, speaking from beyond the grave. Each corpse, with its own motive, wanting to pull you under their own spell. With the only creature left to speak with is that of a God made creature that preaches the Lord’s will, you soon realize the end is near for Merciful and Gospel. Leaving you fearing that it might just be the end of the world.

A story that is wickedly enthralling, as it closes the door on what we know of our world, forcing us into an alternate realm. A world of time that has passed them by, one that is vanishing within a fog, taking with it pieces of their own world along with literal pieces of them.

Staring into the image of milky white eyes of the dead, leaves a shuttering suspense that sticks with you like a chill through the rest of the book. 

Jason Vanhee is a fresh voice giving a new perspective to Y.A. horror with his own unyielding writing style which grips you and pulls you under its evil lair.  Haunting you with its lullaby, even after you close the cover.