Happy Thursday my lovely readers. I’m back again, two posts in a row. Today I’m excited to be part of another blog tour with The Write Reads. I’ve discovered and enjoyed such a range of book and This time for Fantasy, LGBTQ+ new adult novel White Trash Warlock by David R. Slayton is no exception. So before I share my review, here is a little bit more about the book.
White Trash Warlock by David R. Slayton Published by Blackstone Publishing on October 13, 2020
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, LGBTQ+
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Goodreads
Guthrie was a good place to be from, but it wasn’t a great place to live, not when you were like Adam, in all the ways Adam was like Adam.
Adam Binder hasn’t spoken to his brother in years, not since Bobby had him committed to a psych ward for hearing voices. When a murderous spirit possesses Bobby’s wife and disrupts the perfect life he’s built away from Oklahoma, he’s forced to ask for his little brother’s help. Adam is happy to escape the trailer park and get the chance to say I told you so, but he arrives in Denver to find the local magicians dead.
It isn’t long before Adam is the spirit’s next target. To survive the confrontation, he’ll have to risk bargaining with powers he’d rather avoid, including his first love, the elf who broke his heart.
The Binder brothers don’t realize that they’re unwitting pawns in a game played by immortals. Death herself wants the spirit’s head, and she’s willing to destroy their family to reap it.CAWPILE - 6.15
My Review
When I started reading this book, I had absolutely no clue what I was getting myself into. When I put my name down for the book, I really just wanted to read something different and I certainly got that.
At the start the book, we are introduced to Adam Binder, who is gifted with the Sight. He lives with his aunt, Sue after his brother and mother shipped him off to Liberty House, a psychiatric hospital. After he left at age 18, he’s floated through life, honing his skills and finding magical objects that doesn’t belong in the mortal world, he’s hoping it will lead to his father. Until his distant brother, Robert ‘Bobby’ send a 911 call, that could only mean one thing, something was very wrong. Magically. Robert’s wife Annie hasn’t been herself for a long time, Robert saw something on her that is unexplainable to anyone but the Binder family. Magic is part of their bloodline and it looks like that the world he longs to forget has come to live in his household. The only person who can help his wife is Adam.
Between the alternating perspectives of Adam and Robert we see the torn relationship between brothers. As children they we succumbed to the brutality that was their father and how it tortured their mother. How Adam’s gift became the curse of family and his life. I really enjoyed seeing how their relationship developed throughout the book, what once we once so fraught with detest, they begin to rekindle what has been lost for so long.
Adam has vulnerabilities, he hasn’t had the easiest of upbringings. Being in a psych ward has really felt the hardships of being in love or finding that special guy. He feel’s his so called gift is just another way to turn people away, or maybe he turns himself away to save him the pain. But an incident within the book sees him tying his life to someone else’s magically. I really enjoyed the queer representation and his vulnerabilities combined as I was hopeful throughout the whole that he finds someone worthy.
David R Slayton, has created a strong premise for his debut book. I admit it took a while for me to get into and at time it was a bonkers storyline but somehow it worked. The second half it really kicked off and I really enjoyed the world building of how the worlds coexisting within each other and the presence of classic fantasy creatures drifting between the mortal and immortal world. This was a really enjoyable new adult queer fantasy novel and I look forward how it will progress in the sequel.
Thank you to The Write Reads and David R. Slayton for sending me a copy in exchange for a review.
Great review Emma!