Book links: Amazon, Goodreads

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Chuck Wendig is a New York Times bestselling author, screenwriter, and game designer known for novels like The Book of Accidents, Wanderers, and Wayward. He was a finalist for the Astounding Award and an alumnus of the Sundance Screenwriters Lab. He is also widely known for his popular writing blog, terribleminds, and lives in Pennsylvania with his family.

Publisher: Del Rey (US) / Cornerstone (UK) Length: 592 pages Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook, and Audiobook

I'm still fairly new to Chuck Wendig. I tried one of his books a while ago, but it didn't really wow me. Still, a lot of people love his work, so I wanted to give him another chance. And The Calamities sounded very much like my kind of thing: dark urban fantasy, horror-ish elements, demons, weird magic and a dysfunctional family with some very nasty secrets.

And it is definitely dark. And gory. And bleak. There are some genuinely brilliant moments here, and Wendig can write the hell out of a scene when he wants to. The whole idea of fiendish families trading human souls for power is great, and I really liked the world he built around it. The different families, their history, the elixir, the whole strange economy of souls - there is a lot to like here.

But... it's also a lot.

The book takes its time setting everything up, and for quite a while I felt like the characters were wandering from one plot thread to another, meeting people, getting involved in another complication, then wandering somewhere else. There are lots of interesting things happening, but I wasn't always sure where all of it was going. Even when everything finally starts coming together, I couldn't shake the feeling that the book was simply too long.

Which is a shame, because there is some really good stuff here. The world is imaginative, the horror can be excellent, and there are some wonderfully disgusting ideas. Wendig clearly had a lot of fun with this book, and it shows. I just wish he'd had someone take a pair of scissors to it.

I also liked the characters in places, although I never became particularly attached to most of them. Key was probably my favorite, and Silas was certainly memorable. The whole group has an interesting dynamic, but again, there are so many characters and side stories that some of them never quite got the attention I wanted.

The premise itself is probably what kept me going. There is something really fun about this hidden world of demonic families living alongside ordinary people, making deals for souls and building dynasties out of them. And underneath all the blood and flesh and general Wendig weirdness, there are some interesting ideas about inherited wealth, power and exploitation.

So yeah, mixed feelings. There is a lot here that impressed me, but also a lot that made me wish the book would just get to the point already.

A very dark, very ambitious and often brilliantly written book that I enjoyed more in individual moments than as a whole. I'm glad I read it, but I think it could have been considerably shorter.