B.C. Johnson: "Riven" (Reissue)

Title: Riven (formerly The Bad Rescue of Devon Streeter) [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Riven (1st of 2 books)
Author: B.C. Johnson [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic, Supernatural
Year: 2015 [reissued 2026]
Age: 14+
Stars: 5/5
Pros: Engulfing, epic story, full of action and feelings. Main characters you get to really care about. Great mythology.
Cons: There's a lot going on, so you need to pay attention. Also, the mix of genres (see labels) might not appeal to some readers.
WARNING! Blood and gore, violence, death, body horror, bullying, epilepsy attacks. Underage sex (without protection, too...but heck, it's the end of the world) with an adult (well, new adult) is alluded to, though not described (we only get the prelude).
Will appeal to: Those who love quirky stories with a strong vocabulary. Those who'd rather read about M\F friendship than romance. Those who want to meet new kinds of monsters.

Blurb: Devon's a teenage medic. Bloom's a wannabe gunslinger. Just two best friends hanging at the end of the world. When Earth and another world smashed together, everything went sideways. Some people survived, some inhumans too, and they all made for bad neighbors. Fighting for scraps on the face of a changed world, Devon and Bloom have to face alien magic, inhuman monsters, and the inescapable fact that the Merge is going to change them. Deviate them into...something else. But when circumstance flings Devon and Bloom apart, can they find each other across the wild wastelands? Will they recognize each other when they do? (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I received this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review back in 2015, and decided to brush up my post and rehash it to celebrate the book's recent reissue. The fact is, I realised that the original review would sound both weird and outdated to anyone reading it 11 years later, since it not only refers to a slightly different version of the story - with a different cover and title, even - but starts with a rant about the prejudices that surround indie books, addresses ARC issues and mentions preorders...In the end, I kept part of the rant, but I cut it much shorter at least 😅.

DANGER ZONE

OK, so...this is an indie book. One that came out in 2015 and fell through the cracks and was set aside until the author decided to do some edits and put it out again this year.
Many prejudices surround those novels that don't take the traditional publishing route. Bad editing, amateurish writing, uninteresting stories. Of course, they don't need to be true every time (not to mention, the reverse may be true sometimes). In this case? none of the above applies. The fact that Riven was self-published only tells the sad tale of book industry being often short-sighted and unwilling to give a chance to things that don't fit in a box. Seriously, I can't believe that anyone would pass up a story so imaginative, enthralling, and with likeable characters to boot. A well-written one, too (shock, right? 😉). OK, end of rant...
The premise here is that the Earth and another world smashed together, for reasons unknown, and this created a series of portals (or Breaches) through which all kinds of cool-but-deadly monsters poured in. Not only, but people who gravitated around the Breaches got infected with magic, and most of them didn't make it. Those who did have been "deviated" - that is, turned into superpowered freaks, who subsequently can change the still normal people around them.  Also, there's a fun catch: magic can block technology - the newer and more sophisticated, the better. In the post-apocalyptic, monster-ridden American wastelands, two 16 y.o. friends (a girl and a boy) who had to grew up too fast (when the story starts, it's been two years since the Merge) have acquired medical and gun skills, and get separated during one of their missions. The path to their reunion will be rife with danger, pain, loss, strange encounters, betrayals, and most of all, it will test their humanity in multiple ways - assuming they can retain some of it. [...]

FRIENDS AND HEROES

B.C. Johnson makes you care for his characters (dog included - and in case you're wondering, no, he doesn't die). Even the 3rd-person POV can't prevent the reader to get attached to them. Also, Devon and Bloom share a wonderful bond that will cause your heart to melt. Maybe I'm biased, because I love books with male\female friendships, but I just adored them together - and I promise you will, too. The two of them tell the bulk of the story, but there are a couple of chapters told in different points of view, too - and the characters in question aren't any less fleshed out because of the short screen time they get. Their voices are distinct and interesting - especially Sirine's (speaking of which, watch out, you're in for a surprise toward the end). Seriously, all these people feel so real and human (where that applies, that is 😉), for better or worse. And our main characters show us that "heroic" is more a quality of the heart than a product of magic or superpowers.
After years of reading UF, I can assure you that the monsters are all fairly original in their conception - though an unfortunate incident occurred about those whom B.C. Johnson calls the Shades. They sport something that you might have read about in The Girl from the Well already...moving tattoos. It's not a rip-off though. In the afterword of the original version, Johnson stated he'd been working on this novel for three years, so it was just bad timing on his part that his book came out after Rin Chupeco's. Anyway, you'll find that the moving tattoos have a unique purpose (and essence!) here...
Riven is many things. It has a sci-fi premise and a strong magic twist. It's a post-apocalyptic fable that sprinkles the gore with a poetic dressing and peppers it with humour. It's a love story in the widest, purest sense between two friends of different genders. It's a tale of powerful individuals and ordinary heroes. It's quirky and funny and emotional and brutal rolled into one. It's got action, friendship, end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it, and even a little romance. You have no excuses for missing this one out 🙂.

For quotes from this book click here.
For more books that defy categories click here.
Like this book? You might also be interested in E.S. Wesley: "The Outs"*; Edward Aubry: "Prelude to Mayhem"; James Wymore & Aiden James:"Fractured Earth". 

* This book appears to be out of print, but if you can find a second-hand copy, it's absolutely worth a read!