Review: Jack of Thorns by A.K. Faulkner
Blurb:
Can you change destiny?
Laurence Riley has seen the future, and all his visions are coming true. Just as he can't control the addiction that dominates his life, or the mindgames of his stalker ex-boyfriend, he also struggles with his untamed supernatural gifts.
Jack can help. His price is that Laurence keeps him fed with regular offerings of sex, but Laurence has fallen for someone way out of his league whose wild telekinesis keeps them even further apart, and his debt to Jack is piling up fast.
When he foresees the spread of a narcotic nectar that will leave a trail of death across San Diego, Laurence must find the courage to determine whether his visions are set in stone.
The past has taught him that the future can't be changed, but if Jack's poison wins, there won't be any future.
There's no time to lose.
Review:
This is the first book in a series that I am definitely invested in and want to learn more about. It’s a dark urban fantasy that deals with some pretty heavy topics, along with a magical issue. We have a drug-addict, a gaslighting manipulative little bleep bleep, an alcoholic, and another manipulative one that I actually liked more than I should have, and… Laurence’s mom. Thank you to Faulkner for adding this ray of sunshine to the book. Seriously.
The story is about Laurence, who can see the future in his dreams. Prior to the main storyline he sees some things that don’t agree with him, so he turns to drugs. After surviving an overdose, he moves in to live with his mom and works at her flower shop. Both Laurence and his mom are pagans, praying to a nature god. During one such prayer, asking his god for guidance and help, Laurence instead gets Jack.
Jack wants things from Laurence - mainly, he wants Laurence to take care of his plants and to fornicate. Doesn’t sound like a bad deal, especially since Laurence has slept his way through most of the city already, but things get complicated when Laurence falls in love. As in, movie-style, love-at-first-sight, this-is-the-one-for-me, all mushed in a blender along with “what’s wrong with me?” because Laurence does realize that his obsession with Quentin is a little strange based on his lifestyle. Unfortunately, the object of his affections is as chaste as chaste can be in this day and age.
So while Laurence is trying to do Jack’s bidding, keep away his manipulative ex, and make himself an important piece in Quentin’s life, he is also trying to turn his life around. His inner struggles with his dreams, learning how to control them better, and his own addiction, leads to a whirlwind of potential danger and a depressing lack of a sex-life.
Faulkner does an amazing job at balancing the internal and external struggles of the characters, building the relationships between all characters involved, and bringing an (at times) uncomfortable realism to the faults of all involved. Serious brownie points for Laurence’s mom - everything about her character was perfect for me, especially when she admitted her uncertainties.
I already mentioned earlier that this book contains drug use - Laurence fights with this. As heavy as this topic is for me, I do appreciate the fact that he doesn’t magically (no pun intended) get over his addiction. This is a struggle that at times is overwhelming and at other times it fades to the background, depending on the situation. And, even more realistically, by getting in the way of the situation sometimes.
Add to that the manipulative nature of Laurence’s ex that is never outright violent and very easy to justify, only to show how manipulative it is - it’s just a mixture of character study from both inside and outside perspectives.
And when we have Jack. Jack is… terrifying. I get goosebumps just thinking about him. There isn’t anything particular about his appearance or descriptions that make him scary (though the green-tinged skin and magic powers don’t help), but the way Faulkner writes him, made me think of those cordial and smiling characters that you never know what they’re thinking about, but you see how powerful they are. Add on to that how Laurance is afraid to stand up to this deity and follows his instructions with minimal resistance, and then you learn about Jack’s plans and… he is the perfect character to both stand in the way and push Laurence forward. A great balance that only makes Jack even better.
Now, I don’t want to skip out on Quentin - he is actually the second main character, not Jack - but Quentin to me fell a little flat. I mean, he was fully dimensional, had his own goals and needs, a backstory, epic magic powers and a very relatable reason on how it comes about, but he also has a mild(?) form of alcoholism that made me uncomfortable to read about from the moment I caught the pattern (maybe that’s why I didn’t like the character?). Having said that, I wasn’t… rooting for Quentin the way I did for either Laurence or (in some questionable moments) Jack.
Having said that, Quentin has his own reasons to be part of the story and part of Laurence’s life, which definitely have me interested. Having caught a glimpse at the other books in the series (10 so far), I have the feeling Quentin’s past and story will be explored in more detail in those future books and maybe then I’ll warm up to him more. Until then though, he will be a bit of a footnote for me.
I didn’t much care for the setting itself - as in the city/location. There’s the park, the flower shop and apartment, the farm, the flat - a bunch of places, but if you moved the entire storyline to a different city or even a different world, it wouldn’t make a difference to me. In fact, I wanna say this book is set in San Diego (I had to double-check it), but other than an ocean view and easy access to Mexico I… don’t get the location as being important.
Part of the blurb and how this series is marketed is “where X-Men meets The Magicians” and while I didn’t really get the X-Men vibes, I definitely got the same chill down my spine when reading this as The Magicians. Faulkner has a skill of giving you those chilling dark moments without them being dark enough to take me out of the book and needing a break.
I feel like I ranted about this one for a while, but there was just so much good thinking back about this story that I loved and I couldn’t help myself to make this shorter. This book was a definite win for me and I can’t wait to dive further into the rest of the series!
Summary
Genres: LGBTQ+ fantasy, urban fantasy, new adult romance
Romance: main plot with multiple facets and characters
Setting: urban, out world, San Diego
Highlights: combining druid magic with an urban setting
LGBTQ+ rep: main characters
Writing: third person, two POVs, past tense
