Malum

By: Stacy Bender

Narrated by: Theo Holland

A dark, forgotten demon is freed to stride the city streets once more, taking lives as it burns through one body after another.

Josephine Chattoway, recently sold into marriage by an absent father, is escorted by her bohemian Aunt Sylvia to meet her erstwhile suitor. Along the way, she discovers the visions which have made her doubt her sanity for so long are real. They are also the key to unlocking powerful ancient protectors which will stand between a demon and countless innocent victims.

With a plucky batch of gargoyles and a not-quite mad scientist, Josephine and Sylvia must fight for a city that doesn't even realize its plight, knowing that if the demon finds Josephine, hell will reign on Earth.

©2018 Stacy Bender (P)2020 Stacy Bender

Very Interesting Concept

Josephine can see visions. And gargoyles are alive. And they talk to her. Malum is the story of a young woman who awakens the gargoyles who are charged with protecting the world from demons. The concepts explored in Stacy Bender's novel are very interesting and the descriptions of the gargoyles and the world they inhabit are rich and inviting.

I received this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

3.5* - interesting ideas in this story

I enjoyed reading about the ideas in this story. There are some good elements regarding plot and characters, and I have no regrets listening to the audiobook. It's hard for me to put my finger on why I didn't give it more stars. I wonder if it is because my mind couldn't resolve the humorous aspects and the gothic horror aspects. I guess I don't read enough stories that mix the two, and when I read/listen to stories I like to get pulled emotionally into the story. So I think that in my mind, the humorous aspects of the story seemed to neutralize the horror aspects? I think that's what happened, because the story started in a dark way but then it started getting whimsical, then it would get sinister again. I think that's too wide an emotional bandwidth for someone like me to bounce back and forth between. I think that I might have enjoyed the story better if it were strictly a whimsical fantasy gothic OR strictly a dark horror gothic.

The awkward inventor (who distractedly sounded like George W Bush in the narration, to my non-American ear), the eccentric aunt, the gargoyles - these are amusing elements that I really enjoyed. (Pedantic aside: I believe that, technically, they're grotesques, not gargoyles. It's too bad the author didn't have fun with this confusion in the story, I think she could have got some good humour mileage if her 'gargoyles' continually corrected other characters on mistakenly being called gargoyles. She might have had fun with the water irony, since gargoyles are water spouts and the gargoyle characters have an issue with a certain type of water).

I also wasn't keen on the personality of the young heroine. I prefer heroines with a bit more spirit. I wonder if the narrator's portrayal of her reinforced my perception of her as a meek doormat. Speaking of narration, it was a bit of an adjustment to my ears, to have a male narrator tell a story whose two main characters are females with extensive dialogue. The narrator didn't do a bad job at all, he told a good story and really enabled me to form a strong image/impression of each character. I think he would do a great job with suspense/horror fiction. I increased the playback speed slightly to suit my personal tastes. (I can't speak highly enough of the ability to change the playback speed. I guess it shows my age (I grew up in the era of books-on-cassette audiobooks), but I think this is one of the most brilliant aspects of audiobook technology!)

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Gargoyles, dragons and demons oh my!

This is the first book I have ever read by Stacy Bender and what a book to start with. Josephine has been sold in marriage by her ever so distant father. She is to wed Mr. Whitlock, Unfortunately he already has a long time love but in the 1800s it is illegal for them to marry… Let alone be together. Josephine has always seen things, when holding someone’s hand she can see the past and the future and that is always made her different. Her aunt Sylvia is the one she is closest to in the one she traveled with to the big city to meet in Mary her intended. In the big city Josephine will meet more than her betrothed. She will meet a gargoyle named Toby and many other gargoyles a dragon name Liza and with her help she is needed to defeat the demon that is killing people across the city. She will eventually meet her one true love, but will they both live claim their true heart desire? Should she have just eloped? This book was so good and it reminded me of books by Theopolis Monroe who I love. I can’t wait to read more by Stacy Bender and I must say the narration was really good and I had to laugh when he did the female voices. He did have a good character distinction and I could tell who was talking when they talked, but at first it sounded like he wasn’t used to doing female voices. In any event Long before the middle he found his groove and it was awesome! I recommend this book to anyone who loves the quirky, paranormal and just plain fun! Please forgive any grammatical punctuation of errors as I am blind and dictate my review but all opinions or my own.

I love a good fantasy book.

This book was very captivating. There were times that I felt like I had missed something or was trying to figure out how we had gotten to the current situation but that may have been distraction on my part. I really enjoyed the book and will probably listen again to see if I can figure out what I thought was missing.

Not bad but somehow not as gripping as expected...

There might be some spoilers below...

The premise sounded great: a girl with visions and power enough to wake up ancient protectors (gargoyles) and a powerful demon that must be stopped... all that sounded exciting and I started listening expecting great fun.
But, although all the elements of a good gripping fantasy tale are there, the book didn't work for me... I listened to the end, I had some fun, but not as much as I had expected, and I didn't have that feeling of not being able to put it down...

There are two things that probably made me indifferent to the story. One, Josephine as a character is, well, bland, there's nothing that makes her interesting. Yes, she's the one with great powers, she's the one that is the key to everything - and yet she does NOTHING, she's just there, present, like a mannequin; she's like this greyest of grey mice that hides in the corner and doesn't move cause it may be noticed, and makes others trip on it. I want more that that in my main character. I just could neither like nor dislike Josephine - I really hardly paid her any attention...
The other thing that doesn't work for me in the book is the villain of the story - the demon itself. It's supposed to be terrifying as hell, with almost limitless powers - and yet it's not scary at all; there's too little shown of its workings to make me really feel the threat it poses to the humanity...

But there are some things that save the book: the plot is quite fast, the gargoyles are interesting and funny, and the idea of introducing electricity as a weapon is a nice trick. But it's too little to really make me love the book.

So on the whole, I've decided on 3 stars - an OK story that gives me some fun but is not as gripping and engaging as to make me lose sleep over it...

As for the narration by Mr Holland, it is OK. I liked some of the voices more than others (aunt Sylvia's voice was quite unnatural and a bit irritating), but the pace of his reading is good. I could only wish for a bit more emotional variety in his interpretation:) But overall it's a 3.5 stars performance.

DISCLAIMER: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Imaginative

I received this book for free. I am voluntarily posting this review and all opinions expressed herein are my own.

This is an imaginative story with gargoyles, psychics and a bit of mystery all set in the Victorian era. And that's not all, there's lots of action as well. Somehow it all works, making it a very enjoyable, fast-paced read.

The narrator, Theo Holland, did an excellent job. He does various voices for all of characters and creatures - making it very easy to differentiate them. His narration made the story even more engaging.

Jumbled characters need clarity.

Stacy Bender brings the reader into an interesting world of Elizabethan mentality. There is magic hidden in this world and more than most people know. Join Josephine Chattoway in expanding your knowledge about how this world really works. You will find demons, gargoyles, science and magic abound behind every corner.

While the setting is intriguing the characters feel flat and jumbled. Strangely enough the gargoyles are the clearest characters in the book.

Kind of disjointed

The story was intriguing to be sure, very Victorian with an almost steampunk flare. The language I would put as PG13 and there are brief references to homosexuality but nothing crude. I felt the storyline a bit long winded yet disjointed and the narrator did decently with differentiations between characters but it took some getting used to.

Overall an enjoyable read but it’s not something I’d come running back to.


—I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

A Great Listen

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request, and have voluntarily left this review. Josephine finds herself in her aunts company as she travels to me her betrothed, a man her father basically sold her too. To Josephine's shock, she realizes that her aunt and herself have a similar ability and things just start getting strange, once the gargoyles show up. A highly entertaining demon hunting tale with quirky characters and an interesting plot. It was a great listen that ended too quickly.

Great audio book

I very much enjoyed this audio book. A very different take and very interesting. Narrator did a good job bringing it to life.