Book Review: This Dark Descent

The Author

Kalyn Josephson NYT Bestselling author of series like;

The Storm Crow Series

Ravenfall Series

This Dark Descent which is listed as Book 1# which means there is more story to come. Josephson is a Technical Writer, but that doesn’t stop her from writing fantasy-driven stories. Both Ravenfall and Hollowthorn are Middle-Grade books, while The Storm Crow and This Dark Descent are Young Adult books.

This is not the first series this author has written in Young Adult, but this is the first book of hers that I have read.

This book was Published on September 26, 2023, and I received it in my October Owlcrate Box. It is 400 pages, Hardcover and from what I read contained no editing issues. But, let’s get to the meat of the issue.

The Story

As a horse person, I’m always skeptical of books about horses. They aren’t always accurate if they are written from a fantasy/fiction perspective. Western books will usually get it right. However, in fantasy, there are rules to be bent. Enchanted horses aren’t going to be exactly similar to your standard horse. So we have to allow for the fantasy side to have a little wiggle room when it comes to what is and isn’t possible for a horse. That being said, I felt this book had a beautiful blend of realism and fantasy. It merges perfectly what horses are capable of usually, and what enchanted horses are capable of. The book also spells out perfectly the laws of physics concerning enchanted horses and where those limits are actually set.

So, it’s an enchanted race but not only that it’s like Maze Runner, meets Hunger Games but with horse racing. Mikira who is just one of the protagonists, is the eldest daughter of a renowned family of enchanted horse breeders and enchanters. However, the world they live in is pretty much ruled under the thumb of four High Houses. It’s like the Capulet's and Montague’s got together and added two more competing houses. (Romeo and Juliet)

Much like in Romeo and Juliet, these families are constantly feuding, challenging, bargaining, and sometimes killing each other. In the book, there is an old style of inheritance and it's not based on age but on works/actions set about by the current head of the household.

Mikira gets rolled up in the inner workings of these “Great Houses” when one Rezek Kelbra of House Kelbra, comes to arrest or take prisoner, her father for illegal enchanting because it's highly regulated. Mikira falls for what is possibly the worst deal in history and somehow finds her ranch, her family, and her father all on the line. Rezek gives her a challenge, win the Illinir, a death race that both houses and civilians compete in, and she gets her father back and they keep their ranch. One slight hitch, Mikira has to win on an unenchanted horse. The stakes are high and Rezek has poisoned the watering hole so no one will sponsor her. This is where we’re introduced to Damien Adair and he plays a vital role in not just the winning of the race, but the whole in HOW she will win the race.

The races themselves are brutal, magic-infused and trick the riders causing several deaths and injuries amongst them. Which is why they are run with enchanted horses. They are enchanted for speed, never to get lost, surefootedness, and bravery. All these play a huge part in actually being able to have a tenth of a chance to win the race.

I found the details in each race really nice. There’s a good amount of beef in the details, plus she’s fighting off other riders, and a wild card gets thrown into the mix as well.

I won’t spoil the ending, but I will say it wasn’t what I expected and it left me on a cliffhanger.

The Hero's Journey Breakdown

Let’s look at how well the story follows The Hero’s Journey

The Call to Adventure- Doesn’t have to be a call it can be a challenge and that’s Mikira’s Case. Rezek challenges her to take on an impossible quest/challenge and it pulls her from her Ordinary World and into the Adventure.

The Refusal- Mikira resists against the challenge, she doesn’t want to do the race but she has no choice. She’s afraid and fear is just one of the reasons a “hero” may refuse the call.

Meeting the Mentor- We don’t have a classic Mentor character but instead, Reid plays this role for Mikira as he teaches, trains, and supports her before and throughout the Illinir. Unlike classic Mentors, Reid leaves Mikira not because she has the tools to win, but because she betrays them in a really sucky way. Reid continues to mentor/support throughout the whole of the story.

Damien plays a mentor/love interest role for Arielle Kadar and in the same way as Reid, continues to support and mentor Ari not leaving her side at any point in the book.

Crossing the Threshold- This happens for both Mikira and Ari, but not in a Lord of the Rings way where Frodo leaves his entire Shire behind for the chasm that is Mount Doom. Instead, Mikira leaves behind the safety of her ranch for the uncertain world of the Great Houses, their drama, and the danger of the Illinir. For Mikira crossing the threshold is more the fear that her possible death in the race will leave her younger sisters with no one. The race itself is the tests, challenges, and trials a hero often faces, along with the complex social workings of day to day company of the other characters.

The Approach to the Inmost Cave- This I would surmise as the first three races of the Illinir, each one presents a different struggle/challenge and Mikira has to learn throughout all three. She has to come up with some pretty crafty ways to beat the challenges of all the races.

The Ordeal- This would be the final race, it’s also where secrets are revealed and alliances change. The final race gets pretty crazy, and some secrets Mikira was keeping come to the surface in a not so pretty way.

The Reward- This does come to pass in the book, but we don’t have the last four steps of the journey which I assume are expanded upon in the next book.

The Road Back

The Resurrection

The Return

The Freedom to Live

We have small snippets of these things, but not to the degree we would get from a single novel. These will be expanded upon in book two and possibly more. The book ends with trouble brewing between characters, and Damien’s dream of changing things still has to come to pass.

The Characters- In Depth

So you’ve got Mikira Rusel (Protagonist)

Arielle Kadar "Ari"(Protagonist/Ally/Herald)

Reid (Love interest? Comic relief, Trickster)

and Damien Adair (Love interest, Herald/Shadow)

In This Dark Descent, Mikira doesn’t have a Mentor per se, Reid kind of fits that role to a certain degree since he offers guidance, support, and advice along with medical care. However, the Mentor usually disappears from the Hero once the quest gets going or once the hero has the tools they need to further advance. Think of Gandalf from Lord of the Rings, he leaves Frodo not by choice but because Frodo has gotten all he can from Gandalf. BUT, where Gandalf leaves, Reid instead doesn’t leave/die he becomes a sort of enemy of Mikira. SO, while he does fill the mentor role, because this is book one and he’s also a Love Interest of Mikira, he kind of secondly fills that Mentor role with Love Interest being first. Josephson really perfectly puts these characters into play and when you read the story you can tell she’s thought a lot about their interactions, which is hard to do sometimes as a writer.

Arielle is more of a secondary protagonist/hero with her own B-Story which flows beautifully well with Mikita’s A-Story. She has her own family troubles, history, magic talents, and issues that make her useful to Damien Adair. Arielle also has her own motivations for helping Damien, Reid, and Mikira. While she is the protagonist/hero she is also Damien’s love interest and he is hers. Arielle is also put forth as possibly a future antagonist, as she is harboring a soul second to her own. This small detail is the pushing forward of the intro to the second book soon to come in the near future I hope.

Damien Adair is a Herald/Love Interest/Antagonist/Mentor to select characters throughout the book. He's rich, he's the youngest child of two other siblings, who are ally and foe. Damien is smart, gentlemanly, learned, inquisitive, generous, basically everything the other Great House brats aren't. However, he also plays the game. He's got an agenda, and he's moving pieces on the board just like everybody else.

Mikira, like Arielle, has something to lose/gain from the quest. She is the protagonist/hero/antagonist all rolled into one.

Each character plays small bits of these archetypes to really bring about what is a complex and thrilling story.

Thoughts

The story is a little slow to get going, but it’s a little necessary to set the scene and to fully witness the change between the first and second steps. Once the story picks up it’s pretty hard to put it down.

There are frustrating bits about the characters. Mikira is so untrusting of anyone, to the point where she betrays Damien later in the book and I was left wondering why Mikira would think this about someone who had done nothing but help her. Also why she wouldn’t just ASK Damien about the incident that spurred this betrayal? Arielle tries to tell her, but Mikira doesn’t listen. This is GOOD and BAD, it's really nice because this is a character flaw. Mikira sees all the Great Houses the same, they are all selfish, cheating, murdering a-holes who don’t change for anything. Mikira has had trust issues about Damien from the start, so it’s not like it came from nowhere, but I mean…. She had to have some trust in him.

It’s bad because it’s very frustrating for her to turn on a character that hasn’t done anything to cause distrust. All Damien talks about is changing the way things are done, bringing down the Great Houses, and making things more fair. Getting rid of the corruption. Although his methods are a little unorthodox (Killing) but, in the end, he’s been honest about his wants. However, Damien has created a small keyhole for distrust by keeping Mikira at arm's length about his “Family Business” and that is probably why Mikira can doubt his intentions so easily later. Still frustrating though.

This book is 400 pages long and it was a good read. Not a sprint.

I don’t really care for LGBT content in my fantasy/romance books, it’s just not how I fly and there was nothing like that in this book. There is mention of a same-sex couple, and another mention but that’s literally it. The romance is between young women and handsome men, which is what I really enjoy and can relate to.

There’s no swearing in the book and one sex scene between Arielle and Damien which is very sweet.

Dialogue is really good, not too confusing as it can get sometimes when you’ve got foreign names for countries, titles, statues, and buildings. The labels and titles flow really smoothly with the dialogue and they are really natural to read and understand.

I also really loved the integration of Jewish Folklore in the book. There's talk of magic, Golems, Ancient magic, Ancient languages, mysteries and it all really blends together with Mikira's whole story.

Ending Notes

This was a really nice read, I quite enjoyed it and if you like thrilling chases, races, and complex inner workings of houses fighting amongst themselves I would give this a read.

It was really nice to see the Jewish influence woven into the story and I really liked that aspect of the book. The “Kinnish” is really lovely.

Happy reading, and may you walk the road less traveled.

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