Dark Magic: The Chronicles of the Underworld

Raluca Narita | Underworld Publishing House, LLC 400p, e-book, $6.99, ISBN 979-89876762-0-2

Opening with the “red beauty” of Lucifer’s bloody escape from his prison in Hell, and ending on a most infernal cliffhanger that will have urban fantasy fans eager for more, Narita’s assured debut offers a complex, compelling heroine, a vividly inventive contemporary world of gods and Brothers Grimms, and the generous abundance of mysteries and engaging characters that it takes to launch a successful series. Our narrator is Primrose, the goddess of death and Gatekeeper of the Underworld, a curiously bored woman who wears faded jeans and a Mickey Mouse T-shirt to the annual meeting of the High Court of gods and other supernatural entities in the swank New York headquarters of Grimm Enterprises, a multimedia conglomerate specializing in fantasy and run by a pair of immortal siblings.

There she learns that the murderous Lucifer has escaped— and, still spurned by her long-ago rejection, is targeting her. With Atlas Grimm she sets out to Boston—and then other farflung locales—to track down the riddling Devil, who’s on a murderous rampage crafted to get under Primrose’s skin. He and Atlas both know that Primrose harbors a shocking secret, one she can’t quite explain herself: lately, she’s started to— ick—care about humans. Just why she does so is one of many puzzles that Narita deftly develops amid the novel’s many introductions, as Primrose faces Hellhounds, shapeshifters, FBI spooks, and other surprising dangers. Dark Magic is structured as a realms-crossing adventure, a dark mystery—why does Primrose have visions of loving and mourning a human?— and a tour of Narita’s universe, familiar in some ways but alive with fresh possibilities.

The marvel of it all is that, despite the novel’s length and its density of invention, the story surges ahead, building to a potent emotional eruption as Primrose surprises everyone—including the Devil himself— with her depth of feeling. This is very much a first chapter, though, with much left unresolved.

The goddess of death faces the devil and her feelings for humanity in this inspired debut.

Great for fans of Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series, V.E. Schwab.