In post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, dreams come true. So do nightmares.
Ever since a shift in reality twenty years ago, peoples’ dreams and nightmares come alive, spreading chaos and destruction. Monsters ravage cities, bottomless chasms split roads, and gold rains from the sky – the possibilities are limitless, unpredictable and often deadly.
Eden Maybrey is a hunter of these “shades”. When a friend tasks her with tracking down and eliminating an evil shade, the hunt threatens to expose Eden’s deepest, darkest secret. To find her prey, she is forced to team up with Vaughn Taylor, a hunter who hates shades with a passion – and who won’t hesitate to put a bullet in Eden’s head should he figure out the truth.
Book 1 in a new urban fantasy series with a twist: no vamps or weres – instead, dreams and nightmares coming alive.
Would you really want your dreams to come true?
Title: Nightmare City| Series: Nightmare City #1 | Author: P.S. Newman | Publisher: Self-published | Pub. Date: 26 November 2019 | Pages: 359 | ISBN: 9781698565439 | Genre: Urban Fantasy | Language: English | Starred Review: Yes | Source: Netgalley
Nightmare City Review
I picked this book with Lilyn for a buddy read, hoping for something fairly light and fun. For me, it definitely delivered in a big way!
I’m very loud about my love for the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews. While Nightmare City didn’t quite fill the Kate-shaped hole in my heart, it gave me some very similar vibes which I’ve been missing since the series ended.
Nightmare City packs a ton of original ideas into a genre that often feels a bit predictable. I love the idea of literal nightmares being the main supernatural baddie here. It lends itself well to an insane range of possibilities, and it kept things very fresh. I really loved Eden’s character as well, she’s complex and I appreciated that she didn’t just make cookie-cutter urban fantasy/romance type decisions. She’s her own person, despite her origins. She faces a lot of tough choices as the story takes its course, and doesn’t always make what would seem like the obvious or easy decision.
The central plot with the doppelganger did drag a little bit for me in the middle. The longer it went on, the less logical Eden’s decisions seemed to me and it did fall a tiny bit into the predictable trappings of the genre. I know I’m not alone in this, because this is where Lilyn fell off the buddy read wagon. It definitely recovered itself towards the end, and the action of the novel helped to balance things out, but I wish it had been just a little bit tighter. I would have also liked to know more about the Surge – first books in a series sometimes tend to get bogged down by the world and history building, but with this one I found that it was the opposite and I wanted more background. Ditto with regards to SHAID – we get some info on their board and goals, but not as much as I would have liked. Maybe I’m just a weirdo but even on the legal side of things, I wanted to know more about the implications and repercussions on SHAID’s activities.
Even with these few complaints, I’m absolutely going to be seeking out the second book in this series once it’s available. This was a great opening to an intriguing new world and I’m excited to see what post-Surge LA holds next for Eden!
You can find this book at many retailers via clicking on the appropriate link on Goodreads (Buying direct from retailers is a good way to support indie authors); however, in the spirit of supporting literacy programs, we would like to point out that you may be able to purchase this book through BetterWorldBooks.
Sam joined the Coolthulhu Crew in December 2018. She reviews science fiction and horror for the site and is our resident Canadian.
