Love is Red
Summary (from the publisher): This electrifying, addictive, and hypnotically beautiful debut spins suspense and literary fantasy into a stunning epic—the first volume in the Night Song Trilogy—ablaze with fear, mystery, and possibility.
Katherine Emerson was born to fulfill a dark prophecy centuries in the making, but she isn’t aware that this future awaits. However, there is one man who knows the truth: A killer stalking the women of New York, a monster the media dubs the “Sickle Man” because of the way he turns his victims into canvasses for his mesmerizing, twisted art.
Unleashed upon Manhattan after lying dormant for centuries, the Sickle Man kills to harvest the precious hues of his victims. As his palette grows, so too does his power. Every death brings him closer to the one color, and the one woman, he must possess at any cost.
While the city hunts the Sickle Man, Katherine must decide what to do about two men who have unexpectedly entered her life: handsome and personable David, and alluring yet aloof Sael. Though she’s becoming increasingly torn between them, how well does she really know them? And why is she suddenly plagued by disturbing visions?
Told from the alternating viewpoints of Katherine and the Sickle Man, Love Is Red is a riveting thriller that unfolds into an intense story of obsession and control, desire and fate. Katherine may not realize it yet, but with this haunting novel—as arrestingly original as Marisha Pessl’s Night Film, Patrick Süskind’s Perfume, and Lauren Beukes’s The Shining Girls—her moment of awakening is here. And soon she will find herself fighting a battle at the edges of our world, among forces more dangerous than we can possibly imagine.
Katherine Emerson was born to fulfill a dark prophecy centuries in the making, but she isn’t aware that this future awaits. However, there is one man who knows the truth: A killer stalking the women of New York, a monster the media dubs the “Sickle Man” because of the way he turns his victims into canvasses for his mesmerizing, twisted art.
Unleashed upon Manhattan after lying dormant for centuries, the Sickle Man kills to harvest the precious hues of his victims. As his palette grows, so too does his power. Every death brings him closer to the one color, and the one woman, he must possess at any cost.
While the city hunts the Sickle Man, Katherine must decide what to do about two men who have unexpectedly entered her life: handsome and personable David, and alluring yet aloof Sael. Though she’s becoming increasingly torn between them, how well does she really know them? And why is she suddenly plagued by disturbing visions?
Told from the alternating viewpoints of Katherine and the Sickle Man, Love Is Red is a riveting thriller that unfolds into an intense story of obsession and control, desire and fate. Katherine may not realize it yet, but with this haunting novel—as arrestingly original as Marisha Pessl’s Night Film, Patrick Süskind’s Perfume, and Lauren Beukes’s The Shining Girls—her moment of awakening is here. And soon she will find herself fighting a battle at the edges of our world, among forces more dangerous than we can possibly imagine.
Review: I received an advance reader's edition of this novel from HarperCollins.
"Love is red. [...] It smells like pavements washed by the rain. It smells like the nape of your lover's neck. It smells like fresh dirt. It sounds like a match being struck, and a jar being opened. It feels like a hand on the swell of your hip. It sounds like a song sung in the dark" (165).
Bridging both suspense and fantasy genres, this novel alternates in perspective between the "Sickle Man" who is killing women in New York City, and Katherine Emerson, an New Yorker who is unknowingly destined to fulfill a dark prophecy. As fear mounts in the city over the growing number of murdered women, Katherine feels torn between two love interests - the charming and affable David and the dark and mysterious Sael. Meanwhile, the killer gets closer and closer to capturing his true target - Katherine. Interspersed throughout the narrative are excerpts from the fairy tale called The Maid of Morwyn, about a captivating maiden from centuries ago.
It quickly becomes obvious that the killer is not a mortal man. He seems capable of reading others' thoughts and has heightened senses. The anonymous killer's perspective is conveyed in second person point of view, placing the reader directly in the driver seat of the killer, while still keeping his identity veiled. "You call out to the boy with your mind to see if he can hear you. He turns to you without a sound, away from the other children, and gazes at you with his huge shining eyes. You gaze back. You are enthralled. It is wonderful, like coming across an animal you have not seen before. You hold out your hand" (105).
As the killer murders his victims, he collects different emotions from each, leading up to love, represented by Katherine. I loved the eloquent descriptions used that perfectly captured the feeling of each emotion. For example, "Wistfulness is apricot, the color of the rose that your crush wore to the dance and the last patch of the sky above you when you sat alone at a white linen table, pretending to have a good time; it feels like the smallest, tiniest toe of a baby's foot, a baby who isn't yours; it tastes like the fuzzy warmed skin of a summer fruit; it sounds like the tap of a microphone being tested" (108). So beautiful, that it was almost (almost) able to distract me from the violent killings that precedes the capture of each emotion.
I was intrigued by the concept that this is a century's old story that is being revisited after years of dormancy. However, I'm afraid the conclusion did not tie the different threads of the novel together. I'm afraid I left feeling like I hadn't understood how everything is supposed to tie together. Is Katherine supposed to be the Maid of Morwyn? Is the killer truly gone? What will happen to the child of Katherine's roommate? What is the significance of Katherine's visions of the murdered women? This is the third in a trilogy so I'm guessing that the plot will deepen and be more fully explained in later books, because as a standalone novel, there is much left undeveloped.
Stars: 3
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