I received a review copy of this book for my stop on the blog tour at Donnie Darko Girl.
Destruction combines contemporary and fantasy into a novel that is unlike any I've read. One of the things that intrigued me the most about this family was that they're dark wizards who want to be good. Reading this novel wouldn't have been the same if they wanted to embrace their dark side because that would have been expected.
David is a character who made me feel sad, angry, and hopeful at the same time. Sad because he's lost time with two of his children and finds out they've been abused for years. Angry because he was selfish in maintaining two relationships at the same time resulting in two separate families that are now brought together as one. Sometimes I thought he couldn't have bungled a decision any more than he did while other times he handled things in a way that showed how much he cared.
The secret that David's wife, Amanda, reveals goes further than you think, and it is a shocking twist. The plot of Destruction is rich with interesting conflicts that kept me hooked to see how they'd be resolved - if David and Amanda could work through their issues to save their marriage, how David's two children would integrate into his family with Amanda, and how the family would deal with being dark wizards.
Everything about this family was interesting, and there was a lot of drama between the parents and between the siblings. Destruction begins as a contemporary, and I almost forgot that it was also fantasy so it was a surprise when the subtle magical hints that were dropped along the way ended up being more than they first seemed. I had a blast reading Destruction and look forward to seeing where the next book takes me.
4
