Destroyer of Light by Jennifer Marie Brissett

The Matrix meets an Afro-futuristic retelling of Persephone set in a science fiction underworld of aliens, refugees, and genetic engineering in Jennifer Marie Brissett's Destroyer of Light

Having destroyed Earth, the alien conquerors resettle the remains of humanity on the planet of Eleusis. In the three habitable areas of the planet--Day, Dusk, and Night--the haves and have nots, criminals and dissidents, and former alien conquerors irrevocably bind three stories:

*A violent warlord abducts a young girl from the agrarian outskirts of Dusk leaving her mother searching and grieving.

*Genetically modified twin brothers desperately search for the lost son of a human/alien couple in a criminal underground trafficking children for unknown purposes.

*A young woman with inhuman powers rises through the insurgent ranks of soldiers in the borderlands of Night.

Their stories, often containing disturbing physical and sexual violence, skate across years, building to a single confrontation when the fate of all—human and alien—balances upon a knife’s-edge.

TITLE: Destroyer of Light
AUTHOR: Jennifer Marie Brissett
PUBLISHER: Tor Books
YEAR: 2021
LENGTH: 304 pages
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Science Fiction, Retelling
RECOMMENDED: N/A

*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book. 

Partial Queer Rep Summary: Genderqueer/Nonbinary Minor Character(s).

DNF 24% in.

I wasn’t connecting with the story and then it started getting very graphic and I decided to stop reading. The twins were cool at first but their characters felt kind of gimmicky and mysterious in a way I don’t like.

The world building was confusing and there were too many settings that seemed to have very different rules but the scenes jumped between them too quickly for me to get a handle on any one setting and I felt lost.

Partial CWs for xenophobia, kidnapping, drug use, toxic relationship, sexual content, blood, violence (graphic), gun violence (graphic), rape (graphic), child abuse (graphic), child death, death.

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