The Diabolic~S J Kincaid | Review

Title: The Diabolic
Author: S J Kincaid
Genre: YA Science Fiction
Length: 416 Pages
Release: November 2016
My Rating: 4/5 Stars

I received a copy of this novel through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review

I've wanted to read an S J Kincaid novel for a long time and for some reason have never picked one up. When I found this on Netgallye the premise was so promising that I had to request it. And I am very glad that I did. 

From the blurb I was not entirely sure what I would get in picking this up. In a lot of ways this exceeded my expectations greatly. Nemesis, the main character who is a Diabolic--a special type of humanoid creature created to act as a body guard for a certain individual--was a very compelling main character. She was created and taught that she could only love one person, that she could not feel regular human emotions, that she was a thing rather than a person. It was a fantastic journey as she grew and faced who she was, what she was, and who she wanted to be. 

The writing style, while not overly complex, was utterly compelling. Nemesis was forced to charade as Donia, the only person that mattered in her world, in the clutches of the society's evil emperor. The way her journey was constructed and presented was beautifully done. You could feel what she felt as she tried to come to terms with the emotions that she was never supposed to have. 

There was some romance in this, but I really liked the way it was done. It wasn't forced or overly dramatic. It was real in a way that is completely skipped over by so many novels I read these days. 

There is violence, political intrigue, and manipulation. But none of it is over the top. And it reads so seamlessly and quickly. The beginning is somewhat slow and a few things were not explained/explored as I would have liked, but that was easily trumped by all of the things that I did like. 

The ending was wonderful. It was so open. There are so many different ways that things could be interpreted and so many things that could have happened after the novel ended, some good, some bad. And I loved that about it. This was a very solid read and I look forward to reading more by S J Kincaid in the future.