cbr17bingo: diaspora—a lot of the non-human creatures settled in the U.S. after fleeing the Holy Order in Europe, especially Poland.
Who knew Veronica Roth had written so many books? I kind of lost sight of her after the Divergence trilogy, but she has a number of other publications to her name now, and I’m glad I decided to start exploring them. This novella is an urban fantasy set in Chicago. It follows Dymitr, who makes a deal with Ala, a zmora—a fear-eating creature—to help him find Baba Jaga. They end up teaming up with Niko, a strzygon who feeds on anger. It’s a fast-paced book set over the course of perhaps 24 hours or so.
We are told, or at least it’s heavily implied, early on who Dymitr is, but we don’t know of all of his secrets, and it’s interesting to watch them slowly be revealed to us as readers and to the other characters. Dymitr is the most well-fleshed character, probably because he gets the most attention in the book, and there is an upcoming sequel that I hope will provide even more nuance to Niko and Ala.
I loved this take on Slavic folklore, which I didn’t know much about. Many of these creatures are caught between cultures and hunted by a group called the Holy Order, which doesn’t view them as people. Of course there are dangerous beings around, but some of them, like the zmory and strzyga have found ways to survive without turning to violence. The zmory, for example, are running a theater that plays horror movies as a way to eat fear without having to hunt humans.
I’m really looking forward to the sequel!