Alisa and Ray think they're the only vampires left until they witness a series of brutal murders. The plot contains profanity, sexual situations and violence. Book #2 Last Vampire series; Book #2 of Thirst No. 1 bind-up.

*WINNER OF THE 2021 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE* *ONE OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2021* Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction Shortlisted for the 2022 DUBLIN Literary Award "Astonishingly good." —Lily Meyer, NPR "So incantatory and visceral I don’t think I’ll ever forget it." —Ali Smith, The Guardian | Best Books of 2020 One of The Wall Street Journal's 11 best books of the fall | One of The A.V. Club's fifteen best books of 2020 |A Sunday Times best book of the year Selected by students across France to win the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, David Diop’s English-language, historical fiction debut At Night All Blood is Black is a “powerful, hypnotic, and dark novel” (Livres Hebdo) of terror and transformation in the trenches of the First World War. Alfa Ndiaye is a Senegalese man who, never before having left his village, finds himself fighting as a so-called “Chocolat” soldier with the French army during World War I. When his friend Mademba Diop, in the same regiment, is seriously injured in battle, Diop begs Alfa to kill him and spare him the pain of a long and agonizing death in No Man’s Land. Unable to commit this mercy killing, madness creeps into Alfa’s mind as he comes to see this refusal as a cruel moment of cowardice. Anxious to avenge the death of his friend and find forgiveness for himself, he begins a macabre ritual: every night he sneaks across enemy lines to find and murder a blue-eyed German soldier, and every night he returns to base, unharmed, with the German’s severed hand. At first his comrades look at Alfa’s deeds with admiration, but soon rumors begin to circulate that this super soldier isn’t a hero, but a sorcerer, a soul-eater. Plans are hatched to get Alfa away from the front, and to separate him from his growing collection of hands, but how does one reason with a demon, and how far will Alfa go to make amends to his dead friend? Peppered with bullets and black magic, this remarkable novel fills in a forgotten chapter in the history of World War I. Blending oral storytelling traditions with the gritty, day-to-day, journalistic horror of life in the trenches, David Diop's At Night All Blood is Black is a dazzling tale of a man’s descent into madness.

A fae prince with a poisoned heart. A mortal girl with a magical voice. Neither one believes in fairy tales.City waitress Lara has the voice of an angel and no idea she's marked as the fated mate of a silver-eyed royal from another realm. When she falls into Faery and meets an obnoxious huntsman who mistakes her for a troll, she's amazed to discover he's the cursed Prince of Air in disguise. Ever's mother, the queen, is less than impressed. The opposing court of techno-loving Unseelie wants her as their very own pet. And an evil air mage wishes her dead.Held captive by Elemental fae in the Land of Five, she's certainly hit rock bottom.But songs wield power, and Lara happens to be a true diva. Now if only she can use her newfound magical skill to make the Prince of Never a little less attractive. The first thing she wants is to find a way back home, and the last is to fall in love.Black Blood Fae is an enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance series, each book starring a different cursed prince and his human fated mate.

Set during World War I, this monumental philosophical novel about human despair inspired Albert Camus' own writing and prefigured the greater existential movement. Blood Dark tells the story of a brilliant philosopher trapped in a provincial town and of his spiraling descent into self-destruction. Cripure, as his students call him—the name a mocking contraction of Critique of Pure Reason—despises his colleagues, despairs of his charges, and is at odds with his family. The year is 1917, and the slaughter of the First World War goes on and on, with French soldiers not only dying in droves but also beginning to rise up in protest. Still haunted by the memory of the wife who left him long ago, Cripure turns his fury and scathing wit on everyone around him. Before he knows it, a trivial dispute with a complacently patriotic colleague has embroiled him in a duel.

In a world where the dead walk, however poorly, for a corpse to sit up at his funeral and curse his ex-partner is shocking but not unheard of.ÿMurder, mayhem, and mirth follow, involving partner Bernie McKay, "Hat" Stetson and his redneck friends, Justin Waley the sword-swinging accountant, and Rod Parker the troll-like deputy sheriff in a search for stolen gold, for revenge, for the truth. ~~~~~ Excerpt ~~~~~ "Hyaw Raw Yaw!" Bernie McKay jumped and looked around in the dim room.ÿSomeone was coming at him from the kitchen!ÿHe had stumbled away from the stair, so he ran and ducked behind the couches around the coffee table, heart beating quickly.ÿIt came into the light from the window. "No!ÿYou're dead!" Uncle Albert's face gleamed waxily, pulled back and fixed into a scowl, teeth gleaming.ÿHis eyes were swelling, popping out, despite the embalming.ÿHe cawed and croaked, no longer able to speak intelligibly ? but hatred still animated him enough to send him shambling around the coffee table and its couches.ÿHis best suit was incongruously festive, the diamond winking from his tie, shirt sleeves open where he'd lost his studs, black shoes scuffed. "Harr Yaw!" "Back ? get back?"ÿBernie danced sideways, spun a chair into the thing's way. It patiently fumbled the fallen chair aside, never taking its gaze off him.ÿ"Raw Raw Rawrr."ÿIt came on, not fast, not slow, more than ever like some wind-up machine, clumsy, powerful, unsophisticated. Bernie was frightened, but despite that he had a sudden flood of unreality.ÿIt was too absurd a picture, himself confronting this tenacious dead thing from which all rationality had departed.ÿWhat would the neighbors think?ÿA flash of anger shook him. "You stupid asshole!" he barked.ÿ"You can't come in here like this?" Ignoring him, it got close enough to lunge.ÿSweating, Bernie danced around again, brief anger gone and choky fear back.ÿIt wouldn't ever stop coming?ÿHe gripped the smaller of the couches.ÿWhen it turned and started for him again, he aimed the couch like a pool cue and thrust with panicky strength. It was too slow to dodge and was bowled over backward.ÿShrieking You old bastard, Bernie was running for it even as it fell.ÿHe grabbed a chair and made a full overhand sweep with it, staggering as its legs bounced off the ceiling.ÿIt came down with diminished force on Uncle Albert's unprotected head. Wood or bone crunched, and Bernie raised the chair again, panting, glaring.ÿThis time he swept it around in a lower arc, but the corpse let itself fall backward to raise its arms.ÿThe chair crashed into them and did little harm.ÿBefore he could pull it back, Uncle Albert, cawing, had seized it.ÿFor a moment there was a nightmarish tug of war over the chair, then Bernie released it, falling back to the fireplace. The corpse struggled slowly to its feet; Bernie wasted time fumbling for the poker because he couldn't bear to look away from it.ÿWhen he finally had it, the corpse was upright and swinging the chair back over its head, stumbling toward him. Quickly Bernie ran at it, taking advantage of its slow clumsiness, to shove it.ÿBut that brought him face to face with it, and into its evil putrid chemical odor.ÿHe almost panicked, eyeball to eyeball with Death. Hysterically he shoved it away, screaming, "Die!ÿDie!ÿDie!" and swinging the poker again and again, smashing the face, the head, the chair it finally brought forward, following it up as it staggered backward, as it fell, striking and striking and striking, screaming and screaming.ÿ"Dirty rotting scoundrel!"

"Vuong's writing is engaging, and his worldbuilding treads a finely drawn line between recognizable and novel, making this work easily accessible and broadly appealing. Enriquez's vibrant illustrations keep a central point of view in their orderly panels, with a decidedly mangalike feel. . . . A fun, quick read sure to hook fantasy fans." --Kirkus Reviews Told in dual perspectives, this fantastical debut graphic novel with the wit of Nimona and the adventure of Amulet is a whirlwind journey involving mages, mercenaries, escape plans, food fights, and more! Centuries ago, magic mysteriously appeared in the kingdom of Allia. At first, the mages who could wield it became servants to the king, using their newfound powers for the betterment of society. However, an evil group of mages called Blackbloods went rogue, siphoning magic from their peers before they were stopped. But after that, the king imprisoned all mages, Blackblood or not. Years later, mage siblings Kanna and Kita are in hiding, careful to avoid being taken by the King's Guard. Despite the looming threat of imprisonment, Kita dreams of becoming a powerful mage, while Kanna is content living in the shadows. Kita gets the chance to prove himself when bandits invade their camp, only to realize that he lacks control over his magic when they kidnap Kanna. Now Kita, with the help of a mercenary, Toran, must rescue his sister from the dangerous gang, while Kanna tries to find her own way to escape. What do the bandits want with Kanna? And will Kita be able to save his sister without getting found out as a mage?

The dark and alluring first novel in New York Times bestselling author Anne Bishop’s beloved Black Jewels series introduces Jaenelle Angelline, a witch with astonishing power and a dangerous destiny, and Daemon Sadi, the lethal Warlord Prince born to be her lover. Seven hundred years ago, a Black Widow witch saw an ancient prophecy come to life in her web of dreams and visions. Now the Dark Kingdom readies itself for the arrival of its Queen, a Witch who will wield more power than even the High Lord of Hell himself. But she is still young, still open to influence—and corruption. Whoever controls the Queen controls the darkness. Three men—sworn enemies—know this. And they know the power that hides behind the blue eyes of an innocent young girl. And so begins a ruthless game of politics and intrigue, magic and betrayal, where the weapons are hate and love—and the prize could be terrible beyond imagining...

The sixth gripping thriller in the No.1 bestselling crime series from the award-winning Stuart MacBride. Scotland’s finest see first-hand how starting again can be murder... ‘MacBride is a damned fine writer’ Peter James

Celebrating the African contribution to Mexican culture, this book shows how religious brotherhoods in New Spain both preserved a distinctive African identity and helped facilitate Afro-Mexican integration into colonial society. Called confraternities, these groups provided social connections, charity, and status for Africans and their descendants for over two centuries. Often organized by African women and dedicated to popular European and African saints, the confraternities enjoyed prestige in the Baroque religious milieu of 17th-century New Spain. One group, founded by Africans called Zapes, preserved their ethnic identity for decades even after they were enslaved and brought to the Americas. Despite ongoing legal divisions and racial hierarchies, by the end of the colonial era many descendants from African slaves had achieved a degree of status that enabled them to move up the social ladder in Hispanic society. Von Germeten reveals details of the organization and practices of more than 60 Afro-Mexican brotherhoods and examines changes in the social, family, and religious lives of their members. She presents the stories of individual Africans and their descendants--including many African women and the famous Baroque artist Juan Correa--almost entirely from evidence they themselves generated. Moving the historical focus away from negative stereotypes that have persisted for almost 500 years, this study is the first in English to deal with Afro-Mexican religious organizations.