Hell hath no fury like Amanda Grey.
In the second instalment of Shades of Hell by Bronx-native Alcy Leyva, Amanda Grey is back and better than ever. Well, sort of. She’s dead now, having died in the apocalypse that she accidentally started, and trapped in Hell. Much to her simmering, rage-filled disappointment disgust, Grey discovers that none of the promises made to her by the angel-ish beings Ada and Bill were honoured, no one knows what happened to Donaldson, and Petty has been kidnapped by the devil (?). And, all of this Pales in Comparison to the fact that she just woke up to find none other than Gaffrey Palls—yeah, the guy who tried to kill her and roped her into this whole waking nightmare to begin with—waiting for her on the Other Side.
Oh, and she’s wearing a dress. Being dead really sucks for Amanda Grey.
Luckily, Grey isn’t the sort to let this kind of thing get her down, and waking up in Hell isn’t going to stop her from finishing what she started, either. Asserting her characteristic snark and unyielding pessimism, in And Then There Were Dragons Grey will traverse the Nine Circles of Hell to rescue her sister. Along the way, she’ll be joined by unsettling newcomers and many of the characters we love…or hate…or love to hate (whatever): Cain, the sexy, sadistic former-Angel of Death; Palls; even D, the ex-roommate literal-demon boyfriend you never knew you wanted so badly. Grey will take a horrifying trip down Memory Lane, be forced to eat at the underworld version of Olive Garden, read—er—see “tweets” in the most obnoxious way possible, and be stretched far, far outside of her comfort zone, not that she ever had a particularly large one to begin with.
It’s not all fire and brimstone, though, in And Then There Were Dragons. Leyva’s twisted fairytale—and that’s exactly what it is: the most horrible version of Alice in Wonderland you’ve ever read (sorry, Mr. Carroll) with a healthy dose of Dante for good measure—digs back to its roots, providing snapping social commentary on everything from consumerism, social media addiction, and—of course—fake news. After all, a good fairytale is one that doesn’t shy too far away from being a cautionary tale, and Alcy’s version Hell (demons and devils and all other weirdness aside) doesn’t look too much different from the world we are living in today. It’s more Idiocracy meets Zombieland than Orwell’s 1984 and Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, but it’s accurate and frightening AF just the same. Still, its no match for Amanda Grey—a ballsy, socially-anxious chick from Queens who would love nothing more than to be left the hell alone.
The penultimate entry in the series, Dragons is markedly shorter than its predecessor, which is probably a good thing for those readers who might need to take this mixture of gore-and-hilarity in small doses. But, if you thought Leyva outdid himself in bizarro horror and nightmarish versions of reality in And Then There Were Crows, then buckle up, Dollface, because it’s only going to get weirder here on out. After all, the only thing worse than Hell for Grey is what comes next: Heaven.
And Then There Were Dragons is available as of July 30th 2019 from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
Will you be reading And Then There Were Dragons? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
For Amanda Grey, stopping the all-encompassing Apocalypse fated to plunge our entire existence into never-ending darkness … just kind of sucked. Sure, she had managed to capture every demon set loose on New York City. And yes, she ended up thwarting an evil angel’s plans to destroy humanity. But she also lost her sister, her apartment, and—oh yeah—Amanda Grey totally died and got her soul banished to hell as a result.Luckily, she’s not the type to take that kind of thing lying down.AND THEN THERE WERE DRAGONS thrusts Amanda Grey into a whole new world of weird as she ventures out into the fiery wastelands, decrepit cities, and Olive Gardens of the afterlife in search of her sister and her own redemption. As the penultimate entry in the Shades of Hell Series, Amanda will be coming face-to-face with the truth behind the demon Shades, as well as a destiny she sure as hell didn’t ask for.
