Michael Karolewski: "The Prophet's Debt" (ARC Review)

Title: The Prophet's Debt [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Valcara Incorporated (2nd of 6 books)
Author: Michael Karolewski [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Afterlife, Urban Fantasy
Year: 2023
Age: 18+
Stars: 3.5/5
Pros: Creative spin on the afterlife. Good blend of fast-paced and introspective. Flawed yet relatable lead.
Cons: More complex and a tad less exciting than Book 1 (probably since the afterlife setting plays a smaller role). Sees the main character suffer a setback in terms of self-destructive habits. Ends on a cliffhanger.
WARNING! Imprisonment and torture of a kid. Attempted suicide. Death by fire. Stabbing. Animal death. Bug horror. Brainwashing. Alcohol and drug abuse. 
Will appeal to: Those who're looking for a fresh take on the afterlife. Those who can root for an antihero on an erratic redemption path.

Blurb: Rose Ryder may have prevented an apocalypse, but her work is far from over. After hearing her friend Jade call out for help from beyond the grave, Rose will stop at nothing to find her soul. Her quest brings her back to Valcara, where she learns her heroism on Earth has attracted the scorn of powerful Valcarans. However, she finds an unlikely ally in the corrupt soul who previously exploited her: Anita Munroe. Back on Earth, Rose encounters treacherous factions in her covert mission to expose interdimensional collusion. A paranormal support group led by a suspected murderer. A sinister magic company that conceals corporate sins with shiny marketing tricks. And most troubling for Rose, the unexpected return of a villain from her past. At every turn, Valcaran interference bleeds through, revealing startling connections between the mortal world and the afterlife. Contending with betrayal and renewed fears of cosmic devastation, Rose realizes that rescuing Jade's soul from damnation may require dooming her own...and the world she gave up heaven to save. (Goodreads)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I received a review copy from the author after joining his mailing list and volunteering to read this book. This didn't influence my review in any way.

RICH TAPESTRY

I stand by my word about the Valcara Incorporated series: it's a very imaginative (if a bit disheartening 😂) spin on the afterlife, with strong imagery and an interesting protagonist to boot. To be precise, in this second installment, the narrative is split between Rose (former office drone and unacknowledged world saviour) and Dan (paranormal investigator and inexperienced mind-hopper), whose paths skirt each other and loosely dance around the same people and/or situations, until they come together and a certain reveal takes place (honestly, I didn't see that one coming). Dan brings a different perspective to the table - one that straddles the line between the magical and the mundane instead of the one between life and afterlife - and comes with his own (double) baggage, which makes for an intriguing backstory. The plot is complex and rich, with on one hand Dan's investigation into a little girl's disappearance (which will open a whole can of worms), on the other Rose's attempt to save her friend Jade's soul by infiltrating a paranormal support group and a "paranormal professionals" organization, thus playing double agent for different factions, all while making a startling discovery about the state of her own soul (another twist that I didn't see coming). Oh, and did I mention that, in the meantime, someone is still causing monsters from the Void to bleed out of portals and onto Earth? [...]

CHANGE OF SCENERY

If I have to be honest, though, I found myself liking The Prophet's Debt a tad less than its predecessor. Part of it is due to my personal preferences - there's a huge amount of double-crossing and infiltrating in this book, which is not something that I tend to enjoy, and an even huger amount of (often new) characters involved, which made it a little challenging for me to keep everyone straight/invest in everyone (well, in the good/not evil guys at least 😅...not to mention, there's a bunch of characters we can't be sure of either way, while others exist in a grey area, which is fine, but sometimes confusing). Also, after all the growing she did in Book 1, I wasn't a fan of Rose's going back to self-destructive mode. I mean, I can see where's she's coming from - she literally gave up Heaven to prevent an apocalypse, only for her heroism to be scorned by Valcara's powers-that-be and go unrecognised by the very people she saved - but she touches some very low points in the story, seemingly going back to square one (to be honest, her heroic streak never really fails her, but it causes her to perform some, um, misguided actions), not to mention, she can't seem to be nice to her only two real friends at the same time...I'm not sure if we're meant to ascribe her setback/attitude to depression or cosmic despair - though I'd bet on the second - but as I said, it seems to negate the progress Rose made in The Soul Sector, up to a point. However, in terms of creativity and scope, the Valcara Incorporated series is still going strong, and I'm looking forward to following Rose (and hopefully Dan) in her (their) next adventures, from Earth to Valcara...and beyond. 

For my "The Soul Sector" review (first installment in the series) click here.

For more Adult books click here.

For more Afterlife books click here.