By Sabrina Benulis
Harper Voyager, $22.99, 385 pages
Angela Mathers has come to the Westwood Academy to focus on her art and blend in after spending her life ostracized because she is a bloodhead – redheads who are watched to see if they fulfill a dark prophecy that would cause destruction and chaos in the world. Angela doesn’t think that she is anything special until she discovers powers she didn’t realize she had – now she has to learn about who she really is and make choices that could destroy her and everyone around her.
Good Story That Needs a Bit More Focus
Archon is the debut novel and new fantasy series by author Sabrina Benulis and she starts out with a very interesting concept – people with certain physical characteristics monitored, feared and abused because of their potential. Unfortunately, the story lacks focus in both the sheer volume of characters (each one having ulterior motives and power plays) and in Angela herself. She is a challenging character to understand as she goes from mistrusting to naively trusting within a few chapters. Additionally, she is puzzlingly surprised each time a demon or possessed person follows through with the evil act they’ve already told her they will commit which gets tiresome and makes the character more annoying than interesting.
Reviewed by Barbara Cothern
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