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The Summoner's Circle #1
Evocation
The Devil knows your name, David Aristarkhov.
As a teen, David Aristarkhov was a psychic prodigy, operating under the shadow of his oppressive occultist father. Now, years after his father’s death and rapidly approaching his thirtieth birthday, he is content with the high-powered life he’s curated as a Boston attorney, moonlighting as a powerful medium for his secret society.
But with power comes a price, and the Devil has come to collect on an ancestral deal. David’s days are numbered, and death looms at his door.
Reluctantly, he reaches out to the only person he’s ever trusted, his ex-boyfriend and secret Society rival Rhys, for help. However, the only way to get to Rhys is through his wife, Moira. Thrust into each other’s care, emotions once buried deep resurface, and the trio race to figure out their feelings for one another before the Devil steals David away for good…
The first book in a spellbinding and vibrant new series from The Sunday Times bestselling author of A Dowry of Blood.
As a teen, David Aristarkhov was a psychic prodigy, operating under the shadow of his oppressive occultist father. Now, years after his father’s death and rapidly approaching his thirtieth birthday, he is content with the high-powered life he’s curated as a Boston attorney, moonlighting as a powerful medium for his secret society.
But with power comes a price, and the Devil has come to collect on an ancestral deal. David’s days are numbered, and death looms at his door.
Reluctantly, he reaches out to the only person he’s ever trusted, his ex-boyfriend and secret Society rival Rhys, for help. However, the only way to get to Rhys is through his wife, Moira. Thrust into each other’s care, emotions once buried deep resurface, and the trio race to figure out their feelings for one another before the Devil steals David away for good…
The first book in a spellbinding and vibrant new series from The Sunday Times bestselling author of A Dowry of Blood.
301 pages, Hardcover
First published May 28, 2024
About the author
S.T. Gibson
14 books4,088 followersS.T. Gibson is a poet, author, and village wise woman in training.
She holds a Bachelors degree in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and a Masters of Theological Studies from Princeton Theological Seminary.
She holds a Bachelors degree in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and a Masters of Theological Studies from Princeton Theological Seminary.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,424 reviews
February 14, 2024
Rhys calls his wife "little goddess" and from the very first moment he said that I fell in love with this story.
Evocation is a contemporary somewhat gothic paranormal novel about generational curses, magic, secret societies, complicated people and love in unlikely configurations. It’s incredibly fun, Rhys, Moira and David has such an engaging dynamic and I absolutely adored my time with this!
Evocation is a contemporary somewhat gothic paranormal novel about generational curses, magic, secret societies, complicated people and love in unlikely configurations. It’s incredibly fun, Rhys, Moira and David has such an engaging dynamic and I absolutely adored my time with this!
November 10, 2023
actual rating: 4.5 stars
November 30, 2023
4.5 stars
trouple with a black girl, exes to rivals to lovers, tarot cards, magic and astrology… this book was literally MADE for me. the astrology was written so well. usually when astrology is written in books it’s very surface level. the tarot were written good as well, you can tell the author really does this shit fr! i liked that rhys and moira had a really good relationship with each and always set boundaries. this was also just genuinely very fun and all around well written.
trouple with a black girl, exes to rivals to lovers, tarot cards, magic and astrology… this book was literally MADE for me. the astrology was written so well. usually when astrology is written in books it’s very surface level. the tarot were written good as well, you can tell the author really does this shit fr! i liked that rhys and moira had a really good relationship with each and always set boundaries. this was also just genuinely very fun and all around well written.
May 21, 2024
I would like to thank NetGalley and Angry Robot for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.
Okkkk I'm going to get this out of the way first and foremost, because my feelings about this particular point was so vicious at times that I refuse to blame myself. Brace yourself.
Straight up this whole poly thing was a mess. For me, the relationship stuff read so flat that I could not have cared less who kissed who. So no, imo this book did not need a throuple with constipated energy and no sex appeal. Stop it. Daphne, Velma and Fred had more chemistry. I'm very much hoping that Book 2 will eradicate this nonsense and it will read like either Book 1 never happened, or just like a flashback of an "experimental college experience" that RhysDavidMoira don't talk about anymore but remained friends despite/because of it all. Ok I'm done thinking about this now.
But also...
...here are some OTHER things I was uncool about:
1 thinking someone is a "deity" because they wear shimmer in their makeup, can plot a star chart, read tarot and give great hugs is...an interesting take. Especially when the book is literally about a pact with an "i'm coming for your soul-your body/brain is an inconsequential happy meal" demon, and additionally features a haunted house that actively hates David and wants to kill him. That's the story I came for.
But stg throughout 75% of this book I was hoping a rift would open up at Beacon Hill and claim them all just so I wouldn't have to read the word "goddess" ever again. Moira reads tarot with some zodiac sparkle, wields crystals and cries when she sees dead people. Calm down. That kid from Sixth Sense was more put together than this caricature of a southern "daddy raised me right/meemaw" gal.
It was a lot.
For me.
And I'm a yoga-crystal-meditation-stevie nicks fan.
Yes, I white saged after this.
Moving on.
2 The Tone: There's a Secret Society that evokes both Victorian-occultist sentimentality and regular, ritualistic summoning of netherworld denizens (with a side of cigar and sexism), a demon possessed workaholic lawyer/spirit medium & psychic intuitive under thirty, a mansion with its own agenda, a surname in demon Collections...sounds marvelous yeah? Now slap some lidocaine on that, imagine making conversation with an upper echelon "Kitty" while wearing off-the-rack Target, and recalibrate your mouth dreams to yearn for a pistachio latte from Tatte (Charles St. location in Beacon Hill). Everything will taste like ash in your mouth after that.
There's academia, there's library-core, there's prosecuting, there's childhood trauma.
But all of this landed like a derivative, "dark academia meets bougie Boston" pinterest board and I'm sort of mad about that. Because there was just sooooo much potential here. And though this wasn't the greatest read for me, I still really enjoyed the ending! And I definitely liked David Aristarkhov!
So I'm very much hoping S.T. Gibson will take the bones of Book 1 and do the opposite of what a series typically does and magic a 5 star Book 2, with or without the help of any and all demons or divine light beings or whatever (cringe) goddess is on call for bestselling authors these days! Definitely curious to read the prequel, Odd Spirits, and to see where this series goes next! There's still a demon to vanquish after all, and I'm weirdly invested in Gibson's secret Society occultists leveling up, and bringing some hellfire in the next installment to make up for everything that led to this less than sparkling review.
Okkkk I'm going to get this out of the way first and foremost, because my feelings about this particular point was so vicious at times that I refuse to blame myself. Brace yourself.
Straight up this whole poly thing was a mess. For me, the relationship stuff read so flat that I could not have cared less who kissed who. So no, imo this book did not need a throuple with constipated energy and no sex appeal. Stop it. Daphne, Velma and Fred had more chemistry. I'm very much hoping that Book 2 will eradicate this nonsense and it will read like either Book 1 never happened, or just like a flashback of an "experimental college experience" that RhysDavidMoira don't talk about anymore but remained friends despite/because of it all. Ok I'm done thinking about this now.
But also...
...here are some OTHER things I was uncool about:
1 thinking someone is a "deity" because they wear shimmer in their makeup, can plot a star chart, read tarot and give great hugs is...an interesting take. Especially when the book is literally about a pact with an "i'm coming for your soul-your body/brain is an inconsequential happy meal" demon, and additionally features a haunted house that actively hates David and wants to kill him. That's the story I came for.
But stg throughout 75% of this book I was hoping a rift would open up at Beacon Hill and claim them all just so I wouldn't have to read the word "goddess" ever again. Moira reads tarot with some zodiac sparkle, wields crystals and cries when she sees dead people. Calm down. That kid from Sixth Sense was more put together than this caricature of a southern "daddy raised me right/meemaw" gal.
It was a lot.
For me.
And I'm a yoga-crystal-meditation-stevie nicks fan.
Yes, I white saged after this.
Moving on.
2 The Tone: There's a Secret Society that evokes both Victorian-occultist sentimentality and regular, ritualistic summoning of netherworld denizens (with a side of cigar and sexism), a demon possessed workaholic lawyer/spirit medium & psychic intuitive under thirty, a mansion with its own agenda, a surname in demon Collections...sounds marvelous yeah? Now slap some lidocaine on that, imagine making conversation with an upper echelon "Kitty" while wearing off-the-rack Target, and recalibrate your mouth dreams to yearn for a pistachio latte from Tatte (Charles St. location in Beacon Hill). Everything will taste like ash in your mouth after that.
There's academia, there's library-core, there's prosecuting, there's childhood trauma.
But all of this landed like a derivative, "dark academia meets bougie Boston" pinterest board and I'm sort of mad about that. Because there was just sooooo much potential here. And though this wasn't the greatest read for me, I still really enjoyed the ending! And I definitely liked David Aristarkhov!
So I'm very much hoping S.T. Gibson will take the bones of Book 1 and do the opposite of what a series typically does and magic a 5 star Book 2, with or without the help of any and all demons or divine light beings or whatever (cringe) goddess is on call for bestselling authors these days! Definitely curious to read the prequel, Odd Spirits, and to see where this series goes next! There's still a demon to vanquish after all, and I'm weirdly invested in Gibson's secret Society occultists leveling up, and bringing some hellfire in the next installment to make up for everything that led to this less than sparkling review.
May 16, 2024
Buddy read with Basil!
I'm glad Basil and I were on the same wavelength because this was a huge miss for us.
TLDR: I expected something along the lines of an adult version of Krystal Sutherland's The Invocations, sprinkled with the dark and suffocating vibes of Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House. But instead, this was all just #ThroupleProblems with sprinkles of the occult.
Worst of all, it read like a fanfic. Like David, Rhys, and Moira were stand-ins for original characters from an established story and the entire occult vibes was just set dressing.
One huge issue I had with this (that I also had with An Education in Malice) was that everything felt so lite when it came to the dark themes. I wanted something much more heavier and depressing, like how I felt when I read A Dowry of Blood.
But I got the feeling that ST Gibson was holding back so much. This felt like YA instead of Adult (minus some of the more explicit sex scenes). I'm so, so disappointed.
I was here for the magic and demons, but that took a huge backseat to the poly relationship. You can tell that the author did research on Moira's field of magic (astrology and being a medium), but for the darker types of magic, the author didn't really bother to dive too much into lore. The Lesser Key of Solomon was mentioned, but that was pretty much it. Chaos magic made an appearance, but it felt more like a soft launch for Book 2.
I was disappointed by the demon possession plotline. I thought it'd be a major part of the story, but like I said with the above, it felt very watered down and tame. David sounded like he caught magic covid instead of being cursed by his ancestor and possessed by a centuries old demon.
It would've been great if there had been some kind of dialogue with the demon, or if the demon actually manifested as a real being on any sort of plane (physical, astral, whatever).
Idk.
And at the end, it felt like Moira just existed for the sake of having a WOC character to add diversity to a book about two queer white dudes. I actually loved her character, but lbr, the major focus was on David and Rhys.
Moira was basically the hinge that allowed Rhys and David to get back together. Like she just gave up and realized that Rhys and David were meant to be.
And what was even worse, most of the time Moira ended up playing the mom role to two grown men who acted like teenage boys.
Gross.
The angst between Rhys and David was annoying to read about. And somehow, I ended up liking David and Moira's platonic relationship much more than either Rhys/David or Rhys/Moira. Lbr, Rhys was such a mid love interest for either David or Moira. Hell, I was rooting for David/Moira (like those two seriously vibed), but, alas, David was strictly gay.
Oh well.
I highly doubt that I'll pick up the sequel because I didn't care about the relationships at all.
But the other day, Basil told me there was a goddamn PREQUEL to this novel that established our three MCs. That wasn't mentioned in any promos that I remember. Wth. And judging by the reviews, it wasn't received well.
Basil and I said we weren't too interested in requesting anymore of the author's arcs, but we're interested in looking into the trad pubbed version of Odd Spirits just to see if it catches our eye or sparks our interest. Knowing me, I might find it as meh as Evocation.
Anyway.
If you like contemporary romances with a splash of fantasy, then this is for you. If not, I'd skip this.
Thank you to Angry Robot and NetGalley for this arc.
I'm glad Basil and I were on the same wavelength because this was a huge miss for us.
TLDR: I expected something along the lines of an adult version of Krystal Sutherland's The Invocations, sprinkled with the dark and suffocating vibes of Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House. But instead, this was all just #ThroupleProblems with sprinkles of the occult.
Worst of all, it read like a fanfic. Like David, Rhys, and Moira were stand-ins for original characters from an established story and the entire occult vibes was just set dressing.
One huge issue I had with this (that I also had with An Education in Malice) was that everything felt so lite when it came to the dark themes. I wanted something much more heavier and depressing, like how I felt when I read A Dowry of Blood.
But I got the feeling that ST Gibson was holding back so much. This felt like YA instead of Adult (minus some of the more explicit sex scenes). I'm so, so disappointed.
I was here for the magic and demons, but that took a huge backseat to the poly relationship. You can tell that the author did research on Moira's field of magic (astrology and being a medium), but for the darker types of magic, the author didn't really bother to dive too much into lore. The Lesser Key of Solomon was mentioned, but that was pretty much it. Chaos magic made an appearance, but it felt more like a soft launch for Book 2.
I was disappointed by the demon possession plotline. I thought it'd be a major part of the story, but like I said with the above, it felt very watered down and tame. David sounded like he caught magic covid instead of being cursed by his ancestor and possessed by a centuries old demon.
It would've been great if there had been some kind of dialogue with the demon, or if the demon actually manifested as a real being on any sort of plane (physical, astral, whatever).
Idk.
And at the end, it felt like Moira just existed for the sake of having a WOC character to add diversity to a book about two queer white dudes. I actually loved her character, but lbr, the major focus was on David and Rhys.
Moira was basically the hinge that allowed Rhys and David to get back together. Like she just gave up and realized that Rhys and David were meant to be.
And what was even worse, most of the time Moira ended up playing the mom role to two grown men who acted like teenage boys.
Gross.
The angst between Rhys and David was annoying to read about. And somehow, I ended up liking David and Moira's platonic relationship much more than either Rhys/David or Rhys/Moira. Lbr, Rhys was such a mid love interest for either David or Moira. Hell, I was rooting for David/Moira (like those two seriously vibed), but, alas, David was strictly gay.
Oh well.
I highly doubt that I'll pick up the sequel because I didn't care about the relationships at all.
But the other day, Basil told me there was a goddamn PREQUEL to this novel that established our three MCs. That wasn't mentioned in any promos that I remember. Wth. And judging by the reviews, it wasn't received well.
Basil and I said we weren't too interested in requesting anymore of the author's arcs, but we're interested in looking into the trad pubbed version of Odd Spirits just to see if it catches our eye or sparks our interest. Knowing me, I might find it as meh as Evocation.
Anyway.
If you like contemporary romances with a splash of fantasy, then this is for you. If not, I'd skip this.
Thank you to Angry Robot and NetGalley for this arc.
February 22, 2024
Okay this is going to be really long so for the people who dont want to read the whole thing here are the bullet points on why I hate this book and is the worst thing I’ve read this year
1. The way Moira was written ( she lacks depth and its clear that the author really only cared about the two men and their romance)
2. Moira’s character suffered from the strong black woman/meemaw stereotype
3. Moira was cheated on
4. Didn’t like the prose - felt very fanficy (very descriptive for no reason) and the dialogue between Rhys and Moira felt scripted so didn’t believe in their love
5. not the fun toxic gay relationship I like too realistic to be fun
6. Moira was never treated like a real person by Rhys - he treated her like salvation and loved her for how he made her feel
7. Didn’t like how David’s addiction was written
8. Book was advertised as polyamorous and it is by the dictionary definition in reality the romance is between David and Rhys two ex lovers and ex best friends who still have feelings for one another after almost a decade for separation and who should honestly just be together by themselves and fuck each other up and leave Moira out their mess
9. Moira was a side chick in her own marriage, was cheated on and instead of being rightfully angry Gibson wrote her to be okay with it because it was “inevitable”….el oh el
10. Moira was given the fandom treatment - the way fandom treats the female characters, saying the female character is a “girlboss” and a “bad bitch” and nothing else and going back to obsessing and discussing the male characters and their favourite gay ship
11. Rhys as an entire character fuck him
i dont even know where to start with this review. I have so many problems with this book and I hate that. I really do cause this was on my 24 books to read in 2024 and was a highly anticipated read because when I read a Dowry in Blood back in 2021 when it was still self published, it changed my life and rewired my brain, it was that kind of 5 star read. Ironically this book also rewired my brain by how fucking awful it was, it was that kind of 1 star read. It was soo bad that after I finished it I literally had to take a walk, reconnect to nature caused I just…could not believe what I just read and the fact that this has so many glowing reviews…I must’ve gotten the wrong arc. Like S.T Gibson owes me $1500 for making me read this during Black History Month. And I mentioned BHM because my main problem with this book is how Moira, the black female “main character” is written and treated.
Moira was done so fucking dirty in this book I dont think I would ever get over it. Like this book isn’t racist but…..its giving racism babes. Like Moira deserves so much fucking better than the bullshit David and FUCKING RHYS put her through (rhys is also one of the main problems I have with this book but im not gonna get into that now. Lets just say I never met a good male character named Rhys… fuck all Rhys’). The way Moira was written… it was giving a fujoshi trying to beat the misogynist allegations, it was giving how male shounen authors write their female characters, it was giving how fandom treats female characters. Like How they ignore the female characters in favour of the male characters and their prefer mlm ship and to beat the misogynist allegations, they simply just hail the female character as a “girlboss” and as a “bad bitch”. Never discussing the female character in any shape of form that explores her depth and treats her as a real character that has flaws and weaknesses that contributes to the story. That’s how Moira was written. It was just abundantly clear that the author only cared about David and Rhys and their relationship because Gibson barely gave Moira any depth and substance to her character. All Moira ever was was the caretaker, the emotional support system for both Rhys and David. To me it seems as if Moira only purpose was to serve as conflict between Rhys and David, an obstacle, she was never written to be a real character with depth, and the barely there depth she was given, it was in relation to David. All Moira ever was, was a “goddess” and a person to depend on. She was never treated as a real person by David and Rhys, especially Rhys. Rhys treated her as his salvation, treated her like an object that showed he was normal and good and that he wasn’t the person he was when he was with David. What attracted Rhys to Moira was that she wasn’t David. Thats fucking it. And I dont know if im explaining it well how Rhys constantly calling Moira a goddess, constantly saying she comes first and shes the best thing that ever happened to him is, actually not good. Like I said earlier Moria was simply a salvation to Rhys and him calling her a goddess wasn’t some cutsie romantic shit and was extremely similar to how fandom treats the forgotten female character Like if you’ve ever been in a fandom you know what I’m talking about.
Additionally Moira’s character was kinda giving the meemaw stereotype but softcore. Like it was giving the strong black women stereotype.Gibson just utterly fuck up Moira’s character and it was so clear that she only really cared about Davi and Rhys and im like ???? why not just write a mlm story. Moira was the mature one, the emotionally intelligent one, the support system, but no one actually supported Moira. Everyone just used her and this is why im saying that S.T Gibson owes me $13430 for making me read this shit during black history month cause Gibson hated Moira like im sorry i had to say it. Never fleshing out her character, making her into a stereotype, making her the side piece in HER OWN FUCKING MARRIAGE. and this is like the cherry on top of the whole shitpie that is Moira’s character. This book was advertised as polyamory so im thinking im about to get some delicious angst and yearning and sexy times between all three characters but nope. Not all three characters are romantically involved with each other David only likes Rhys and Rhys is in “love” with both David and Moira and Moira only gets to be together with Rhys….Now i know this type of relationship happens in poly relationships not everyone is dating everyone in the relationship but the way this particular relationship was written…again you can’t convince me that Gibson didn’t hate Moira. Like I said earlier it was so fucking clear that she only cared about Rhys and David relationship and she could’ve just written a mlm relationship. Like there was absolutely no love and respect for Moira and when you read this book you know that the main romance is between David and Rhys and the only reason its a throuple is because Rhys and Moira were a pair packaged. You cannot convince me that Rhys loved Moira. They have been married for 5 yrs together for longer and Rhys was still in love with David his best friend was still hung up over him and in the end he cheated on Moira with David. All the chemistry and the subtext shows that Rhys is in love with David and David is in love with Rhys and that Moira was the fucking side chick in her own marriage. SHE DESERVED BETTER. Like i keep repeating this book couldve been so much better (not by much mind you) if Gibson just wrote it as a simple mlm romance story cause shes not equipped to write a good poly relationship ( a dowry of blood might’ve been a fluke) and she’s certainly not fucking equipped to write a black female character. Like how you gonna have Moira be fucking okay with Rhys cheating on her just because she was “expecting it” which is a terrible thing in on itself and then to not make her get angry ??? get upset??? just calmly accept her husband being in love still being in love with his ex ???? mind you literally two chapters before the cheating happen Moira told David that he would never come between her and Rhys so for Moira to just calmly accept the cheating and the betrayal to act like its was inevitable and therefore its okay it doesn’t make sense to get mad is just fucking awful god awful shitty fuck up writing. Like wow the way Moirs was written it was like i was transported back to the fucking early 2010s. And again the strong black woman/meemaw stereotype is coming into play with Moira’s reaction to Rhys cheating on her. Moira was never allowed to be mad it seems, always caring and being considerate to Rhys and David’s feelings and relationships and it just makes me mad cause those two shitheads do no deserve her (okay only Rhys was a shithead).
And this brings me to issue number 3 (yes we’re not done yet). Rhys. Worst character ever written he was so fucking self righteous. I know i just went on about Rhys never loving Moira only David but tbh I don’t believe Rhys actually likes David either. Like the way Rhys treated David was fucking awful and throughout the book all I was thinking was that David and Moira should leave Rhys with his power and money, the only two things he really cared about, and run away. Like Rhys was just fucking awful and did not care/love REALLY love either Moira and David. He treated Moira not like a real person but as a God/salvation which makes sense cause he’s catholic. He only loved hoe Moira makes him look. And he only loves David when David is sober…again which makes sense cause hes a fucking piece of shit Catholic thats so fucking self righteous ugh I hate him. And the way the story never conveys that Rhys is ever in the wrong when hes ALWAYS in the wrong. Like Rhys is treated as the good guy when hes fucking awful. Hes so fucking toxic and yh this book was advertised as having s toxic relationship but this toxic relationship wasnt the fun gay toxic relationship that I like but like it was very fucking realistic and it was like David and Moira (especially Moira) were my homegirls dealing with a toxic asshole and I try to tell them to fuck that man and leave him but they wouldn’t. Like this toxic relationship was not fun at all and its because Rhys did not love Moira or David at all. And I truly do believe this and part of the reason why is Issue #4
The fucking writing… It’s so ironic that one of the reasons i really a dowry of blood is cause its writing. I love purple lyrical prose and a dowry of blood had that however i dont need my book to have lyrical writinh for it to be good for me to love the writing sometimes i find that lyrical writing actually takes away from the book (the song of achilles) and that good really fucking good writing and prose can be simple and still beautiful ( robin hobb i love you). But the writing in Evocation wasn’t lyrical and purple prose but it wasn’t the simple but yet beautiful prose either. I felt like i was reading a fanfiction, it was overly descriptive and it was all show and tell Gibson told us everything and that’s partly why I don’t believe in Rhys and Moira’s love because it felt very scripted and force and like if Rhys was not only trying to convince Moira that he does love her despite still being hung up over his ex, but he was also trying to convince us the reader….and baby it did not work.
Issues number whatever atp I forgot, how David’s addiction was written. It wasn’t written well. It wasn’t written and treated like a disease which addiction is. This book makes you want to believe that David is this awful unloveable asshole and yh he was an asshole in the beginning but tbh not that much of an asshole and he was quite cute and adorable. And yes he has flaws but he truly wasn’t this awful guy that the book and especially Rhys, treated as. David was the only well developed character in this book and he was so interesting but I hate the way his addiction was handle and I hate the way his relapsed was handle and how Rhys immediately resorted to anger when he realize and treated David as a fucked up and treated it as if was inevitable and unsurprising that David relapsed instead of being sympathetic and realizing that something had to be deeply wrong for David to relapsed after 3 fucking years of sobriety. Im not saying David shouldn’t be held accountable and responsible for his actions but the way Rhys reacted knowing that his actions and his selfishness was what led to David relapse was so fucking disgusting to read and the way the book never paints Rhys as in the wrong is sooo…ugh its so annoying. But yh I dont like the way David’s addiction was handled not saying David should be coddled but he needed sympathy and concerned considering the situation and him impulsively relapsing after 3 years of sobriety and not anger and disgust from Rhys and his self righteousness.
Yeah i hated everything about this book the only thing I liked was David’s and Moira’s friendship but even that has a bitter aspect to it considering how Gibson wrote Moira’s character.
Anyways Thank you Angry Robot/Netgalley for granting me an arc for what was unfortunately a highly anticipated read for an honest review 🙂
1. The way Moira was written ( she lacks depth and its clear that the author really only cared about the two men and their romance)
2. Moira’s character suffered from the strong black woman/meemaw stereotype
3. Moira was cheated on
4. Didn’t like the prose - felt very fanficy (very descriptive for no reason) and the dialogue between Rhys and Moira felt scripted so didn’t believe in their love
5. not the fun toxic gay relationship I like too realistic to be fun
6. Moira was never treated like a real person by Rhys - he treated her like salvation and loved her for how he made her feel
7. Didn’t like how David’s addiction was written
8. Book was advertised as polyamorous and it is by the dictionary definition in reality the romance is between David and Rhys two ex lovers and ex best friends who still have feelings for one another after almost a decade for separation and who should honestly just be together by themselves and fuck each other up and leave Moira out their mess
9. Moira was a side chick in her own marriage, was cheated on and instead of being rightfully angry Gibson wrote her to be okay with it because it was “inevitable”….el oh el
10. Moira was given the fandom treatment - the way fandom treats the female characters, saying the female character is a “girlboss” and a “bad bitch” and nothing else and going back to obsessing and discussing the male characters and their favourite gay ship
11. Rhys as an entire character fuck him
i dont even know where to start with this review. I have so many problems with this book and I hate that. I really do cause this was on my 24 books to read in 2024 and was a highly anticipated read because when I read a Dowry in Blood back in 2021 when it was still self published, it changed my life and rewired my brain, it was that kind of 5 star read. Ironically this book also rewired my brain by how fucking awful it was, it was that kind of 1 star read. It was soo bad that after I finished it I literally had to take a walk, reconnect to nature caused I just…could not believe what I just read and the fact that this has so many glowing reviews…I must’ve gotten the wrong arc. Like S.T Gibson owes me $1500 for making me read this during Black History Month. And I mentioned BHM because my main problem with this book is how Moira, the black female “main character” is written and treated.
Moira was done so fucking dirty in this book I dont think I would ever get over it. Like this book isn’t racist but…..its giving racism babes. Like Moira deserves so much fucking better than the bullshit David and FUCKING RHYS put her through (rhys is also one of the main problems I have with this book but im not gonna get into that now. Lets just say I never met a good male character named Rhys… fuck all Rhys’). The way Moira was written… it was giving a fujoshi trying to beat the misogynist allegations, it was giving how male shounen authors write their female characters, it was giving how fandom treats female characters. Like How they ignore the female characters in favour of the male characters and their prefer mlm ship and to beat the misogynist allegations, they simply just hail the female character as a “girlboss” and as a “bad bitch”. Never discussing the female character in any shape of form that explores her depth and treats her as a real character that has flaws and weaknesses that contributes to the story. That’s how Moira was written. It was just abundantly clear that the author only cared about David and Rhys and their relationship because Gibson barely gave Moira any depth and substance to her character. All Moira ever was was the caretaker, the emotional support system for both Rhys and David. To me it seems as if Moira only purpose was to serve as conflict between Rhys and David, an obstacle, she was never written to be a real character with depth, and the barely there depth she was given, it was in relation to David. All Moira ever was, was a “goddess” and a person to depend on. She was never treated as a real person by David and Rhys, especially Rhys. Rhys treated her as his salvation, treated her like an object that showed he was normal and good and that he wasn’t the person he was when he was with David. What attracted Rhys to Moira was that she wasn’t David. Thats fucking it. And I dont know if im explaining it well how Rhys constantly calling Moira a goddess, constantly saying she comes first and shes the best thing that ever happened to him is, actually not good. Like I said earlier Moria was simply a salvation to Rhys and him calling her a goddess wasn’t some cutsie romantic shit and was extremely similar to how fandom treats the forgotten female character Like if you’ve ever been in a fandom you know what I’m talking about.
Additionally Moira’s character was kinda giving the meemaw stereotype but softcore. Like it was giving the strong black women stereotype.Gibson just utterly fuck up Moira’s character and it was so clear that she only really cared about Davi and Rhys and im like ???? why not just write a mlm story. Moira was the mature one, the emotionally intelligent one, the support system, but no one actually supported Moira. Everyone just used her and this is why im saying that S.T Gibson owes me $13430 for making me read this shit during black history month cause Gibson hated Moira like im sorry i had to say it. Never fleshing out her character, making her into a stereotype, making her the side piece in HER OWN FUCKING MARRIAGE. and this is like the cherry on top of the whole shitpie that is Moira’s character. This book was advertised as polyamory so im thinking im about to get some delicious angst and yearning and sexy times between all three characters but nope. Not all three characters are romantically involved with each other David only likes Rhys and Rhys is in “love” with both David and Moira and Moira only gets to be together with Rhys….Now i know this type of relationship happens in poly relationships not everyone is dating everyone in the relationship but the way this particular relationship was written…again you can’t convince me that Gibson didn’t hate Moira. Like I said earlier it was so fucking clear that she only cared about Rhys and David relationship and she could’ve just written a mlm relationship. Like there was absolutely no love and respect for Moira and when you read this book you know that the main romance is between David and Rhys and the only reason its a throuple is because Rhys and Moira were a pair packaged. You cannot convince me that Rhys loved Moira. They have been married for 5 yrs together for longer and Rhys was still in love with David his best friend was still hung up over him and in the end he cheated on Moira with David. All the chemistry and the subtext shows that Rhys is in love with David and David is in love with Rhys and that Moira was the fucking side chick in her own marriage. SHE DESERVED BETTER. Like i keep repeating this book couldve been so much better (not by much mind you) if Gibson just wrote it as a simple mlm romance story cause shes not equipped to write a good poly relationship ( a dowry of blood might’ve been a fluke) and she’s certainly not fucking equipped to write a black female character. Like how you gonna have Moira be fucking okay with Rhys cheating on her just because she was “expecting it” which is a terrible thing in on itself and then to not make her get angry ??? get upset??? just calmly accept her husband being in love still being in love with his ex ???? mind you literally two chapters before the cheating happen Moira told David that he would never come between her and Rhys so for Moira to just calmly accept the cheating and the betrayal to act like its was inevitable and therefore its okay it doesn’t make sense to get mad is just fucking awful god awful shitty fuck up writing. Like wow the way Moirs was written it was like i was transported back to the fucking early 2010s. And again the strong black woman/meemaw stereotype is coming into play with Moira’s reaction to Rhys cheating on her. Moira was never allowed to be mad it seems, always caring and being considerate to Rhys and David’s feelings and relationships and it just makes me mad cause those two shitheads do no deserve her (okay only Rhys was a shithead).
And this brings me to issue number 3 (yes we’re not done yet). Rhys. Worst character ever written he was so fucking self righteous. I know i just went on about Rhys never loving Moira only David but tbh I don’t believe Rhys actually likes David either. Like the way Rhys treated David was fucking awful and throughout the book all I was thinking was that David and Moira should leave Rhys with his power and money, the only two things he really cared about, and run away. Like Rhys was just fucking awful and did not care/love REALLY love either Moira and David. He treated Moira not like a real person but as a God/salvation which makes sense cause he’s catholic. He only loved hoe Moira makes him look. And he only loves David when David is sober…again which makes sense cause hes a fucking piece of shit Catholic thats so fucking self righteous ugh I hate him. And the way the story never conveys that Rhys is ever in the wrong when hes ALWAYS in the wrong. Like Rhys is treated as the good guy when hes fucking awful. Hes so fucking toxic and yh this book was advertised as having s toxic relationship but this toxic relationship wasnt the fun gay toxic relationship that I like but like it was very fucking realistic and it was like David and Moira (especially Moira) were my homegirls dealing with a toxic asshole and I try to tell them to fuck that man and leave him but they wouldn’t. Like this toxic relationship was not fun at all and its because Rhys did not love Moira or David at all. And I truly do believe this and part of the reason why is Issue #4
The fucking writing… It’s so ironic that one of the reasons i really a dowry of blood is cause its writing. I love purple lyrical prose and a dowry of blood had that however i dont need my book to have lyrical writinh for it to be good for me to love the writing sometimes i find that lyrical writing actually takes away from the book (the song of achilles) and that good really fucking good writing and prose can be simple and still beautiful ( robin hobb i love you). But the writing in Evocation wasn’t lyrical and purple prose but it wasn’t the simple but yet beautiful prose either. I felt like i was reading a fanfiction, it was overly descriptive and it was all show and tell Gibson told us everything and that’s partly why I don’t believe in Rhys and Moira’s love because it felt very scripted and force and like if Rhys was not only trying to convince Moira that he does love her despite still being hung up over his ex, but he was also trying to convince us the reader….and baby it did not work.
Issues number whatever atp I forgot, how David’s addiction was written. It wasn’t written well. It wasn’t written and treated like a disease which addiction is. This book makes you want to believe that David is this awful unloveable asshole and yh he was an asshole in the beginning but tbh not that much of an asshole and he was quite cute and adorable. And yes he has flaws but he truly wasn’t this awful guy that the book and especially Rhys, treated as. David was the only well developed character in this book and he was so interesting but I hate the way his addiction was handle and I hate the way his relapsed was handle and how Rhys immediately resorted to anger when he realize and treated David as a fucked up and treated it as if was inevitable and unsurprising that David relapsed instead of being sympathetic and realizing that something had to be deeply wrong for David to relapsed after 3 fucking years of sobriety. Im not saying David shouldn’t be held accountable and responsible for his actions but the way Rhys reacted knowing that his actions and his selfishness was what led to David relapse was so fucking disgusting to read and the way the book never paints Rhys as in the wrong is sooo…ugh its so annoying. But yh I dont like the way David’s addiction was handled not saying David should be coddled but he needed sympathy and concerned considering the situation and him impulsively relapsing after 3 years of sobriety and not anger and disgust from Rhys and his self righteousness.
Yeah i hated everything about this book the only thing I liked was David’s and Moira’s friendship but even that has a bitter aspect to it considering how Gibson wrote Moira’s character.
Anyways Thank you Angry Robot/Netgalley for granting me an arc for what was unfortunately a highly anticipated read for an honest review 🙂
August 20, 2023
I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affects my opinion of the book
I don't think I've ever become so obsessed with a book this quickly.
An occult dark academia atmosphere infuses every page of this book, and S.T. Gibson proves once again that she understood the assignment. She has quickly become an author who I rely on for the decadent gothic aesthetics I adore, with this story being one I couldn't help but become thoroughly wrapped up in.
But my friends...the characters. THE CHARACTERS.
This is such a deliciously messy dynamic of three, with David (our resident Medium), Rhys (David's Sorcerer ex boyfriend) and Moira (Rhys' Astrologer wife) all becoming entangled in a family curse alongside secret society rivalry. Seeing them try to work together, while also figuring out their own dynamic - learning how to exist together and communicating what they need - honestly just had me grovelling over them all.
Justice for David. My sweet precious troubled child just wants a friend :(
I absolutely would have died for him and I think I almost did.
I would have loved for this to lean even more into the academia vibe, with the story being largely focused on the curse than anything else. BUT I also did not have a single complaint while reading, just happily vibing with the story and being thoroughly swept up in it all. I have a feeling too that the secret society shenanigans will become even more prevalent in book two.
It was really quite impressive how inflated the drama of it all felt. Differing from your grand fantasy stories and their epic save-the-world plots, this one covers a much more secluded group and their individual dramas. It felt deeply personal, and like you yourself are involved in the mess of their lives. Between that and the characters themselves, it's hard not to become invested.
Safe to say, I adored this. I haven't stopped thinking about it since reading and I already want book two, which will be an excruciatingly long wait. Maybe I'll prepare my defence for David in the meantime...
REP: POC, LGBTQ+, Polyamory
I don't think I've ever become so obsessed with a book this quickly.
An occult dark academia atmosphere infuses every page of this book, and S.T. Gibson proves once again that she understood the assignment. She has quickly become an author who I rely on for the decadent gothic aesthetics I adore, with this story being one I couldn't help but become thoroughly wrapped up in.
But my friends...the characters. THE CHARACTERS.
This is such a deliciously messy dynamic of three, with David (our resident Medium), Rhys (David's Sorcerer ex boyfriend) and Moira (Rhys' Astrologer wife) all becoming entangled in a family curse alongside secret society rivalry. Seeing them try to work together, while also figuring out their own dynamic - learning how to exist together and communicating what they need - honestly just had me grovelling over them all.
Justice for David. My sweet precious troubled child just wants a friend :(
I absolutely would have died for him and I think I almost did.
I would have loved for this to lean even more into the academia vibe, with the story being largely focused on the curse than anything else. BUT I also did not have a single complaint while reading, just happily vibing with the story and being thoroughly swept up in it all. I have a feeling too that the secret society shenanigans will become even more prevalent in book two.
It was really quite impressive how inflated the drama of it all felt. Differing from your grand fantasy stories and their epic save-the-world plots, this one covers a much more secluded group and their individual dramas. It felt deeply personal, and like you yourself are involved in the mess of their lives. Between that and the characters themselves, it's hard not to become invested.
Safe to say, I adored this. I haven't stopped thinking about it since reading and I already want book two, which will be an excruciatingly long wait. Maybe I'll prepare my defence for David in the meantime...
REP: POC, LGBTQ+, Polyamory
August 21, 2023
EVOCATION navigates complex themes around fidelity, addiction, and childhood abuse. As always, I've elected to provide the following content guidance. If you choose to read, please do so with self-compassion.
This work contains:
- Discussion of and depiction of alcoholism
- An addiction relapse
- Smoking
- Marriage in trouble
- Discussions of physical and emotional childhood abuse
- Discussions of infidelity
- Life-threatening magical curses
- Consensual sexual content
This work contains:
- Discussion of and depiction of alcoholism
- An addiction relapse
- Smoking
- Marriage in trouble
- Discussions of physical and emotional childhood abuse
- Discussions of infidelity
- Life-threatening magical curses
- Consensual sexual content
August 8, 2024
The occult vibes, the atmosphere, the writing, the tension, the relationships 🤌🏻🤌🏻 S.T. Gibson NEVER MISSES
June 24, 2024
This was absolutely atrocious.
The author advertised it as a throuple romance book.
It is NOT. It’s a cheating trope that later becomes an open marriage. That is not a correct polyamorous representation!
!!!potential spoilers!!!
We have 3 povs:
David, a gay medium who is being possessed by a demon and needs help from his sorcerer ex.
Rhys, said ex who is bi and currently married to a woman he claims to love more than anything.
Moira, a straight woman who sees her husband still being stuck on his ex.
The whole relationship was so messy. Rhys cheats on Moira and then comes clean and is like “i want him but don’t want to lose you, i know i want too much but you knew i was selfish🥺”
And then she is just like “welp ok i guess there is nothing i can do about it, i’ll just let it be🫠” GIRL GROW A SPINE.
David was the least irritating character because he at least sometimes felt guilty for intruding. But hey he had a deal with the devil to take care of, he was busy.
Then Moira and David become friends. I mean they’re sharing a husband now so why not right?
In the end, Rhys tells David “I should’ve never left you” which is basically him saying getting married to Moira was a mistake and he loves David more but why still keep his wife then??? This made me mad. Tell her the truth.
She is always third wheeling in her own marriage. She always invites herself along and walks in to find the two men perfectly fine without her.
I hated this the most about her character.
Oh, also, the misusage of closed magical practices and stereotypical poc representation was also not the best here🙃
Ok my rant is over.
The author advertised it as a throuple romance book.
It is NOT. It’s a cheating trope that later becomes an open marriage. That is not a correct polyamorous representation!
!!!potential spoilers!!!
We have 3 povs:
David, a gay medium who is being possessed by a demon and needs help from his sorcerer ex.
Rhys, said ex who is bi and currently married to a woman he claims to love more than anything.
Moira, a straight woman who sees her husband still being stuck on his ex.
The whole relationship was so messy. Rhys cheats on Moira and then comes clean and is like “i want him but don’t want to lose you, i know i want too much but you knew i was selfish🥺”
And then she is just like “welp ok i guess there is nothing i can do about it, i’ll just let it be🫠” GIRL GROW A SPINE.
David was the least irritating character because he at least sometimes felt guilty for intruding. But hey he had a deal with the devil to take care of, he was busy.
Then Moira and David become friends. I mean they’re sharing a husband now so why not right?
In the end, Rhys tells David “I should’ve never left you” which is basically him saying getting married to Moira was a mistake and he loves David more but why still keep his wife then??? This made me mad. Tell her the truth.
She is always third wheeling in her own marriage. She always invites herself along and walks in to find the two men perfectly fine without her.
I hated this the most about her character.
Oh, also, the misusage of closed magical practices and stereotypical poc representation was also not the best here🙃
Ok my rant is over.
July 29, 2024
i can acknowledge that this book won’t be for everyone.. it was 100% for me though. i loved all the witchy, tarot, psychic, possession vibes and i was so invested in the three main characters David, Rhys and Moira. i’m usually not a fan of messy relationship dynamics (which is very present here), but i loved the yearning between David and Rhys, and found David’s connection to Moira so interesting. David is a complete disaster and i wanted to reach through the book so badly just so i could hug him. idk, this just hit the right spot for me and i can’t wait for more from this series!
Read
June 22, 2024This was spectacular.
August 19, 2024
This book didn’t leave me with much at all – and I mean it in a derogative way. The premises were good, and so was the aesthetic: I liked the setting and I believe I liked the characters as well, if taken singularly. I didn’t really like their relationships and I especially disliked the way they acted when they were together. Obviously, I liked David the most: he had some great lines, he was funny yet complex and layered and, in my opinion, a quite likeable character, for he had a story, a past and everything a character needs to exist. However, David with Rhys was a whole other matter. Maybe my problem was that there was more romance than I anticipated? Yeah, maybe. But I cannot say that the magic system, the curse and the Society were exactly crystal clear to me, or that the author really took her time explaining them. So, to summarise, there were some considerable missing pieces and a little too much no sense going on around here – the writing was good though!
April 30, 2024
2.75/5
Only blood can rewrite blood.
I'm so disappointed that I didn't like this book. I adored A Dowry of Blood with all my heart, thought An Education in Malice was okay if a little disappointing, but Evocation has unfortunately sealed the deal for me and I don't think I enjoy Gibson's novels. I'll certainly try any novellas Gibson writes, but her novels just seem to not be for me. I loved the beautiful, emotive prose in Dowry and I loved the way it drew the portrait of abuse through a vampiric lens. It will continue to be one of my favourite stories, but I haven't found the same love for Gibson's other works.
I'm really struggling to put into words why I disliked this book because it's not an all-consuming hatred, there wasn't anything that made me spit out my hot chocolate in fury, I just didn't really enjoy any of it.
The characters began to grow on me a tiny bit as I read on, but I just didn't care about them and at times even found them annoying. They're meant to be complicated, fractured and even unlikable, but I just never warmed to them like the book wanted me to. There's also a strange focus on wealth without the criticism I expected of it, especially as there are academic aspects to this book and conversations around the tired structure of an all-male secret society. I felt it lacking here in its exploration of the characters and their dynamics.
I recognise that the character relationships were what drove the story, but it was hard to empathise when I disliked or felt apathetic towards them. This focus also meant that the surrounding plot fell very flat for me, it was sometimes dull and tedious, and other times far too obvious. (My biggest pet peeve in books is when an author treats a piece of information that's obvious from the beginning as a plot twist/big revelation later on... alas.)
I'm sorry for being so negative, I hate writing negative reviews, especially for authors I admire. But this one just really wasn't for me. Please look at other reviews and see how our reading tastes compare before putting any weight to my opinion.
Thank you Angry Robot for an arc.
Only blood can rewrite blood.
I'm so disappointed that I didn't like this book. I adored A Dowry of Blood with all my heart, thought An Education in Malice was okay if a little disappointing, but Evocation has unfortunately sealed the deal for me and I don't think I enjoy Gibson's novels. I'll certainly try any novellas Gibson writes, but her novels just seem to not be for me. I loved the beautiful, emotive prose in Dowry and I loved the way it drew the portrait of abuse through a vampiric lens. It will continue to be one of my favourite stories, but I haven't found the same love for Gibson's other works.
I'm really struggling to put into words why I disliked this book because it's not an all-consuming hatred, there wasn't anything that made me spit out my hot chocolate in fury, I just didn't really enjoy any of it.
The characters began to grow on me a tiny bit as I read on, but I just didn't care about them and at times even found them annoying. They're meant to be complicated, fractured and even unlikable, but I just never warmed to them like the book wanted me to. There's also a strange focus on wealth without the criticism I expected of it, especially as there are academic aspects to this book and conversations around the tired structure of an all-male secret society. I felt it lacking here in its exploration of the characters and their dynamics.
I recognise that the character relationships were what drove the story, but it was hard to empathise when I disliked or felt apathetic towards them. This focus also meant that the surrounding plot fell very flat for me, it was sometimes dull and tedious, and other times far too obvious. (My biggest pet peeve in books is when an author treats a piece of information that's obvious from the beginning as a plot twist/big revelation later on... alas.)
I'm sorry for being so negative, I hate writing negative reviews, especially for authors I admire. But this one just really wasn't for me. Please look at other reviews and see how our reading tastes compare before putting any weight to my opinion.
Thank you Angry Robot for an arc.
May 23, 2024
Thank you to Angry Robot and NetGalley for an ARC.
3.75 rounded up. I still really enjoyed this, it just wasn’t as dark as I’d hope. There are dark topics but it’s written in a more fun(?) and snarky way. I did really like the main character David and liked getting to know Moira. I know nothing of tarot or astrology but it was very present in this book and makes me want to learn more about both. While not my favorite of all of their works, I still enjoyed the writing. I flew through this book quickly and had a good time. Looking forward to continuing the series.
3.75 rounded up. I still really enjoyed this, it just wasn’t as dark as I’d hope. There are dark topics but it’s written in a more fun(?) and snarky way. I did really like the main character David and liked getting to know Moira. I know nothing of tarot or astrology but it was very present in this book and makes me want to learn more about both. While not my favorite of all of their works, I still enjoyed the writing. I flew through this book quickly and had a good time. Looking forward to continuing the series.
April 12, 2024
3.5 stars rounded down.
Firstly, the art on this cover is stunning and goes on the list as one of my favourite covers.
I had been looking forward to this book for some time as the synopsis appealed to me so much but I was surprised when I started seeing reviews come through that were a bit mixed, especially given S.T Gibsons reputation as a great writer of occult and unconventional relationships.
I kind of get it now though. This story is incredibly ambitious with what it sets out to do and I feel like there is potentially an element of the book biting off a bit more than it can chew.
In addition to the storyline exploring the ancestral demonic curse attached to David’s family line this story is also having to build and explore three complex relationships and I think that the balance is not quite there. Which is completely understandable (and why I give this story kudos for its ambition) but building a second chance romance between David and Rhys, exploring the emotional core of the marriage between Rhys and Moira and then also building a friendship and emotionally intimate relationship between Moira and David is ALOT to try and accomplish. I think that the relationship the book invested the most time in, and consequently that I believed the most was Moira and David, ironically enough as theirs was the only relationship in which sexual intimacy wasn’t a feature but I enjoyed the value the relationship bought to them both.
David was easily my favourite of the main characters. I have a soft spot for snarky assholes with vulnerable underbellies. It’s a weakness and I can’t stop it lol.
I did think that this was an interesting glimpse into the dynamics of polyamorous relationships though and the complexities that exist in navigating them. I can see why not many authors attempt to tackle this dynamic though as it would be so challenging.
That being said, I loved the magic in this world and the occult elements and given that this is one book in a series by the looks of it, I’ll be excited to read further installments and see if building more on this first book helps to develop some of the potential of this world, these characters and these relationships.
Thank you to NetGalley and Angry Robot for granting my wish and allowing me the opportunity to read this ARC.
Firstly, the art on this cover is stunning and goes on the list as one of my favourite covers.
I had been looking forward to this book for some time as the synopsis appealed to me so much but I was surprised when I started seeing reviews come through that were a bit mixed, especially given S.T Gibsons reputation as a great writer of occult and unconventional relationships.
I kind of get it now though. This story is incredibly ambitious with what it sets out to do and I feel like there is potentially an element of the book biting off a bit more than it can chew.
In addition to the storyline exploring the ancestral demonic curse attached to David’s family line this story is also having to build and explore three complex relationships and I think that the balance is not quite there. Which is completely understandable (and why I give this story kudos for its ambition) but building a second chance romance between David and Rhys, exploring the emotional core of the marriage between Rhys and Moira and then also building a friendship and emotionally intimate relationship between Moira and David is ALOT to try and accomplish. I think that the relationship the book invested the most time in, and consequently that I believed the most was Moira and David, ironically enough as theirs was the only relationship in which sexual intimacy wasn’t a feature but I enjoyed the value the relationship bought to them both.
David was easily my favourite of the main characters. I have a soft spot for snarky assholes with vulnerable underbellies. It’s a weakness and I can’t stop it lol.
I did think that this was an interesting glimpse into the dynamics of polyamorous relationships though and the complexities that exist in navigating them. I can see why not many authors attempt to tackle this dynamic though as it would be so challenging.
That being said, I loved the magic in this world and the occult elements and given that this is one book in a series by the looks of it, I’ll be excited to read further installments and see if building more on this first book helps to develop some of the potential of this world, these characters and these relationships.
Thank you to NetGalley and Angry Robot for granting my wish and allowing me the opportunity to read this ARC.
December 1, 2024
I’m rating this book 2 stars because while the writing was fine and some of the descriptions (while a little overwrought) were vivid and engaging, the plot was as good as non-existent with multiple threads dropped, the ending was rushed and lacklustre, and the supporting characters were deeply uninteresting. While I HATED the dynamic of the three central characters, I don’t think disliking what were admittedly fairly well rounded characters qualifies as a skill issue on the author’s part. Her only job is to tell me a decent story. Whether or not the characters are good people who make the right choices is irrelevant to the quality of the book.
That said, I have to say that Rhys is like an alternate universe version of that other Rhys, you know the one I mean? The one we all hate? The one who is also a little liar, not to mention an ignorant bitch?
I am not American and am not hugely knowledgable about what goes on over there, so I will have to direct you to the words of other reviewers who can say whether or not Moira was a stereotype. That’s their call. I do recognise that her dialogue was FORCED sometimes—like even I knew that it was overdone and I’ve never set foot on US soil. But I think Moira, while being a bit of an overdesigned character, written with the sort of nervy, breathless self-consciousness of a writer who is desperate to be seen a certain way—to the detriment of the character; poor Moira isn’t allowed to have a genuine flaw? She needs to be perfect and beloved by everyone? Can’t she just be human like everyone else? why is the bar for her behaviour so high?—is not the worst thing about this trio, and by the end I genuinely cared about her; no, the worst dynamic is that of Rhys and David, which I wrote about in my status updates.
David is a recovering alcoholic and while he is immensely financially privileged, he is also a survivor of intense physical and emotional child abuse. David is a deeply damaged person that Rhys is in no way emotionally mature enough to be around. As David, Rhys, and Moira become closer, a friendship forms between David (who is a gay man) and Moira (a straight woman) which is by far the most tender, believable, and warm emotional bond showcased in the book. It is utterly overshadowed by the truly horrible way Rhys treats David.
David is Rhys’s ex-boyfriend and a member of the secret magical demon summoning society they both belong to (that sounds interesting but I can assure you that it’s not). They are both vying for the position of High Priest, since the former High Priest is retiring amicably from his position and wants to choose a successor (this book is allergic to complex conflict). David comes back into Rhys’s life after they had a falling out—which both Rhys and Moira overreacted to—and asks for Rhys’s help to banish a demon that is causing him to experience spiritual sickness. While they try to get to the bottom of the problem the three grow closer, resulting in Rhys and Moira opening their marriage to allow Rhys to date David.
David is a difficult person to get along with…sort of. Everyone repeatedly mentions how smart mouthed he is and how prickly and mean but he’s pretty much as mean as Nesta was in ACOWAR, which is to say he’s a bit of a prickly pear but nowhere near the absolute war criminal they all make him out to be. The book treats his alcoholism as an indictment on his character, a sign that he’s rotten and useless, and this leads me into the attitudes of the central characters that rules the narrative: they are all incredibly transactional in their relationships. Everything is a “favour” that must be repaid. David’s every movement must be atoned for or paid for in some way. He must not ever inconvenience Rhys. Rhys admits to being controlling, to enjoying feeling powerful and particularly to having power over David; he is constantly negging him, dismissing him, blowing David’s every misstep out of proportion, and repeating over and over again, lest the reader forget, that David is NOT as important to him as Moira. This is confusing given that he professes to “love” David—another apt comparison to Nesta, since it is obvious that Cassian, like Rhys to David, does not love or even like Nesta; he enjoys having sex with her and wants to be in a relationship. The same is true for Rhys. He has nothing positive to say about David at any point, ever; while David’s heart is bursting with romantic love for him, Rhys is usually thinking about what a nuisance David is, and how it “wasn’t exactly true” that he loved David’s money more than he loved David. “Wasn’t exactly true”. It’s not “exactly” true that the moon is white. But it is, for all intents and purposes, white.
Rhys’s worst offence happens when he catches David relapsing at a party. At this point the idea of an open marriage has been floated and Moira has acknowledged Rhys’s obvious attraction to David. David kisses Rhys, and Rhys reciprocates until he tastes alcohol in David's mouth. He then flies into an explosive rage and shoves David into a wall so hard that he hits his head. He then thinks about how badly he wants to hit him, and threatens to hit him. David refuses to go home, so Rhys then threatens to humiliate him in front of all of their friends. You might ask—why did David relapse after three years of sobriety? Was there a trigger? The trigger was that Rhys was announced as High Priest in front of everyone. That’s not Rhys’s fault, no, but what is his fault is that he was told days prior to the public announcement that he had won the position. He had the opportunity to tell David in private and made the conscious, on-page choice not to take it. He waited until they were in front of all of their friends, surrounded by alcohol. The transactional and individualist mentality of this book comes into play when David then later apologises for his behaviour, but Rhys does not. Rhys is vindicated because David spoiled his special evening, because naturally getting ahead in business or taking charge of the little boys’ club takes precedent over the wellbeing of one’s loved ones. You can throw away your boyfriend; you can’t displease the shareholders!
(Interesting that David relapsing and falling back into masochistic, self-harming behaviours coincides with Rhys coming back into his life. What a coincidence. It's almost as if Rhys ruins everything he touches.)
The book ends with David heartsick, grovelling, now available for controlling sex—the kind of sex, Rhys says, Moira won’t tolerate. Moira is too assertive; she’s too independent for Rhys to easily control, and she has a social network that will step in for her if he crosses a line. But David is a fuck-up. He has no one else to turn to but Rhys and Moira, and Rhys is careful to behave himself around her. She is the Madonna and David is the whore. Rhys can’t abuse Moira, but he can abuse David, because what the hell is he going to do? Leave? And go where?
(I could write a whole extra essay about this classic threesome dynamic in which the gay relationship is devalued, trivialised, and hypersexualised, compared to the sacred enshrined straight union; it's not solely a literary trope, but in fact is a phenomenon that plays out often in real life, causing real gay people real pain, but that would require more characters than I have.)
The cherry on top of all of this is the scene at the very end when Rhys turns to David and says, “Brother. That’s what you are to me” (and boy oh boy, isn't that what every gay person wants to hear from the person they hope to date!). This is an incredibly confusing and weirdly insulting thing to say to someone you’re in a romantic and sexual relationship with, but this is what he does. This is what abusers do. They must remain unpredictable. They have to keep their victims unsure of what to do or say, fearful of how any misstep might trigger an escalation, so that the only safe option is to do nothing, no matter how demeaning the treatment. If the author’s intention was to write it this way, fucking bravo—I mean it. It’s a masterful depiction of the slow crescendo of abuse. David is susceptible to it; victims of child abuse are at high risk of falling into abusive relationships in adulthood. So it’s no wonder he thinks he deserves to be knocked around. To have someone who constantly negs and belittles him then turn around and package it all as “love”.
In the climax, Rhys takes David’s demon into himself, saving him. David then attempts to exorcise it and it’s unclear if it’s gone. This makes me think that the aforementioned abuse was unintentional—because Rhys doing this feels like a hand of storytelling God, like the author reaching over my shoulder to turn the page for me. If this book were written to its natural conclusion, and if it were true to its characters, Rhys would never have done this, at least not for the reasons provided. I don’t know if he would’ve let David die—it’s a possibility—but David is valuable to him as a punching bag and a magical tool. What I’m really saying is that the notion of Rhys giving his life for David’s simply because he “loves” him is absurd and forced, and is obviously the author's way of saying, "See? Their love is so strong!". I don't buy that. What I do buy is Rhys doing this with an ulterior motive. He is certainly conniving enough to want the demon’s power since it’s emphasised that he’s not magical inherently and is jealous of the magical connection that David and Moira share. David to him is not an additional partner but a sexual stimulant and an ego boost. He is easy to feel superior to and even easier to swing for when Rhys needs to hit something. Long live our illustrious High Priest.
That said, I have to say that Rhys is like an alternate universe version of that other Rhys, you know the one I mean? The one we all hate? The one who is also a little liar, not to mention an ignorant bitch?
I am not American and am not hugely knowledgable about what goes on over there, so I will have to direct you to the words of other reviewers who can say whether or not Moira was a stereotype. That’s their call. I do recognise that her dialogue was FORCED sometimes—like even I knew that it was overdone and I’ve never set foot on US soil. But I think Moira, while being a bit of an overdesigned character, written with the sort of nervy, breathless self-consciousness of a writer who is desperate to be seen a certain way—to the detriment of the character; poor Moira isn’t allowed to have a genuine flaw? She needs to be perfect and beloved by everyone? Can’t she just be human like everyone else? why is the bar for her behaviour so high?—is not the worst thing about this trio, and by the end I genuinely cared about her; no, the worst dynamic is that of Rhys and David, which I wrote about in my status updates.
David is a recovering alcoholic and while he is immensely financially privileged, he is also a survivor of intense physical and emotional child abuse. David is a deeply damaged person that Rhys is in no way emotionally mature enough to be around. As David, Rhys, and Moira become closer, a friendship forms between David (who is a gay man) and Moira (a straight woman) which is by far the most tender, believable, and warm emotional bond showcased in the book. It is utterly overshadowed by the truly horrible way Rhys treats David.
David is Rhys’s ex-boyfriend and a member of the secret magical demon summoning society they both belong to (that sounds interesting but I can assure you that it’s not). They are both vying for the position of High Priest, since the former High Priest is retiring amicably from his position and wants to choose a successor (this book is allergic to complex conflict). David comes back into Rhys’s life after they had a falling out—which both Rhys and Moira overreacted to—and asks for Rhys’s help to banish a demon that is causing him to experience spiritual sickness. While they try to get to the bottom of the problem the three grow closer, resulting in Rhys and Moira opening their marriage to allow Rhys to date David.
David is a difficult person to get along with…sort of. Everyone repeatedly mentions how smart mouthed he is and how prickly and mean but he’s pretty much as mean as Nesta was in ACOWAR, which is to say he’s a bit of a prickly pear but nowhere near the absolute war criminal they all make him out to be. The book treats his alcoholism as an indictment on his character, a sign that he’s rotten and useless, and this leads me into the attitudes of the central characters that rules the narrative: they are all incredibly transactional in their relationships. Everything is a “favour” that must be repaid. David’s every movement must be atoned for or paid for in some way. He must not ever inconvenience Rhys. Rhys admits to being controlling, to enjoying feeling powerful and particularly to having power over David; he is constantly negging him, dismissing him, blowing David’s every misstep out of proportion, and repeating over and over again, lest the reader forget, that David is NOT as important to him as Moira. This is confusing given that he professes to “love” David—another apt comparison to Nesta, since it is obvious that Cassian, like Rhys to David, does not love or even like Nesta; he enjoys having sex with her and wants to be in a relationship. The same is true for Rhys. He has nothing positive to say about David at any point, ever; while David’s heart is bursting with romantic love for him, Rhys is usually thinking about what a nuisance David is, and how it “wasn’t exactly true” that he loved David’s money more than he loved David. “Wasn’t exactly true”. It’s not “exactly” true that the moon is white. But it is, for all intents and purposes, white.
Rhys’s worst offence happens when he catches David relapsing at a party. At this point the idea of an open marriage has been floated and Moira has acknowledged Rhys’s obvious attraction to David. David kisses Rhys, and Rhys reciprocates until he tastes alcohol in David's mouth. He then flies into an explosive rage and shoves David into a wall so hard that he hits his head. He then thinks about how badly he wants to hit him, and threatens to hit him. David refuses to go home, so Rhys then threatens to humiliate him in front of all of their friends. You might ask—why did David relapse after three years of sobriety? Was there a trigger? The trigger was that Rhys was announced as High Priest in front of everyone. That’s not Rhys’s fault, no, but what is his fault is that he was told days prior to the public announcement that he had won the position. He had the opportunity to tell David in private and made the conscious, on-page choice not to take it. He waited until they were in front of all of their friends, surrounded by alcohol. The transactional and individualist mentality of this book comes into play when David then later apologises for his behaviour, but Rhys does not. Rhys is vindicated because David spoiled his special evening, because naturally getting ahead in business or taking charge of the little boys’ club takes precedent over the wellbeing of one’s loved ones. You can throw away your boyfriend; you can’t displease the shareholders!
(Interesting that David relapsing and falling back into masochistic, self-harming behaviours coincides with Rhys coming back into his life. What a coincidence. It's almost as if Rhys ruins everything he touches.)
The book ends with David heartsick, grovelling, now available for controlling sex—the kind of sex, Rhys says, Moira won’t tolerate. Moira is too assertive; she’s too independent for Rhys to easily control, and she has a social network that will step in for her if he crosses a line. But David is a fuck-up. He has no one else to turn to but Rhys and Moira, and Rhys is careful to behave himself around her. She is the Madonna and David is the whore. Rhys can’t abuse Moira, but he can abuse David, because what the hell is he going to do? Leave? And go where?
(I could write a whole extra essay about this classic threesome dynamic in which the gay relationship is devalued, trivialised, and hypersexualised, compared to the sacred enshrined straight union; it's not solely a literary trope, but in fact is a phenomenon that plays out often in real life, causing real gay people real pain, but that would require more characters than I have.)
The cherry on top of all of this is the scene at the very end when Rhys turns to David and says, “Brother. That’s what you are to me” (and boy oh boy, isn't that what every gay person wants to hear from the person they hope to date!). This is an incredibly confusing and weirdly insulting thing to say to someone you’re in a romantic and sexual relationship with, but this is what he does. This is what abusers do. They must remain unpredictable. They have to keep their victims unsure of what to do or say, fearful of how any misstep might trigger an escalation, so that the only safe option is to do nothing, no matter how demeaning the treatment. If the author’s intention was to write it this way, fucking bravo—I mean it. It’s a masterful depiction of the slow crescendo of abuse. David is susceptible to it; victims of child abuse are at high risk of falling into abusive relationships in adulthood. So it’s no wonder he thinks he deserves to be knocked around. To have someone who constantly negs and belittles him then turn around and package it all as “love”.
In the climax, Rhys takes David’s demon into himself, saving him. David then attempts to exorcise it and it’s unclear if it’s gone. This makes me think that the aforementioned abuse was unintentional—because Rhys doing this feels like a hand of storytelling God, like the author reaching over my shoulder to turn the page for me. If this book were written to its natural conclusion, and if it were true to its characters, Rhys would never have done this, at least not for the reasons provided. I don’t know if he would’ve let David die—it’s a possibility—but David is valuable to him as a punching bag and a magical tool. What I’m really saying is that the notion of Rhys giving his life for David’s simply because he “loves” him is absurd and forced, and is obviously the author's way of saying, "See? Their love is so strong!". I don't buy that. What I do buy is Rhys doing this with an ulterior motive. He is certainly conniving enough to want the demon’s power since it’s emphasised that he’s not magical inherently and is jealous of the magical connection that David and Moira share. David to him is not an additional partner but a sexual stimulant and an ego boost. He is easy to feel superior to and even easier to swing for when Rhys needs to hit something. Long live our illustrious High Priest.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 28, 2024
My sincerest thanks to Angry Robot Books and NetGalley for a copy of "Evocation" in exchange for an honest review.
I'm obsessed. I'm floored. I love it. And I will be very, very sad if this book doesn't get a nice, long sequel. There is so much material in here for an emotional urban fantasy trilogy.
"Evocation" is set in the Boston occultist underground and the quiet grittiness of the world was one of my favourite parts of the novel. The story revolves around a cast of psychics, occultists, sorcerers, witches, mediums, and more. One such medium, a rich asshole named David, gets possessed by a demon that may have just made a deal with one of his great-great-great Russian grandfathers in the 16th century, and now said demon is trying to kill David. So David has to enlist the help of his ex-boyfriend, Rhys, and Rhys's current wife, Moira, to undemonify himself. And of course, this leads to juicy *shenanigans* which I don't want to spoil but I was biting my nails. Yeah, had a great time with this. Heavy emphasis on urban magic and religious superstition here, coupled with a delicious and angsty dynamic between the three main characters who are quite lovable as individuals and are also well fleshed-out (see: the asshole, the nerd, and the sunshine). Observing David's character arc develop throughout the story was especially satisfying for me.
I think the text needs another round of copy edits. And I'd maybe like to see a bit more worldbuilding, just to raise the stakes of the whole shebang. But overall, I adored this book. Probably one of my favourite ARCs from 2023. "Evocation" is very much in the vein of Olivie Blake's SFF books, so check it out when it hits the shelves if you're into that (like I am).
And I don't want to be that person, but this absolutely clears "An Education in Malice", lol.
I'm obsessed. I'm floored. I love it. And I will be very, very sad if this book doesn't get a nice, long sequel. There is so much material in here for an emotional urban fantasy trilogy.
"Evocation" is set in the Boston occultist underground and the quiet grittiness of the world was one of my favourite parts of the novel. The story revolves around a cast of psychics, occultists, sorcerers, witches, mediums, and more. One such medium, a rich asshole named David, gets possessed by a demon that may have just made a deal with one of his great-great-great Russian grandfathers in the 16th century, and now said demon is trying to kill David. So David has to enlist the help of his ex-boyfriend, Rhys, and Rhys's current wife, Moira, to undemonify himself. And of course, this leads to juicy *shenanigans* which I don't want to spoil but I was biting my nails. Yeah, had a great time with this. Heavy emphasis on urban magic and religious superstition here, coupled with a delicious and angsty dynamic between the three main characters who are quite lovable as individuals and are also well fleshed-out (see: the asshole, the nerd, and the sunshine). Observing David's character arc develop throughout the story was especially satisfying for me.
I think the text needs another round of copy edits. And I'd maybe like to see a bit more worldbuilding, just to raise the stakes of the whole shebang. But overall, I adored this book. Probably one of my favourite ARCs from 2023. "Evocation" is very much in the vein of Olivie Blake's SFF books, so check it out when it hits the shelves if you're into that (like I am).
And I don't want to be that person, but this absolutely clears "An Education in Malice", lol.
November 7, 2023
*3.5 --> rounded to 4
There is a lot to be excited about in ST Gibson's May 2024 release Evocation: secret societies,
Faustian deals, attractive people in messy relationships...! Many of these lived up to the premise, but this is also a book I'll be hesitant to recommend to everyone.
The story revolves primarily around David, a serious, high-strung nepotism baby (think Declan from The Raven Cycle), as he finds his psychic energy suddenly rebelling against him. He's forced to reach out to the last people he wants to see: ambitious, academic ex-boyfriend Rhys and charming wife Moira. The three work together to find the source of David's illness while also testing the limits of their tenuous relationship.
This book reminded me of both The Raven Boys and A Marvellous Light. If you're reading this book because you're interested in the magic/plot/demons, you will be disappointed. This is an extremely character-driven book; we have modern Boston as a setting, where the light magic system is only as important as moving the dynamic between the main characters forward. There's also what I'm recognizing as an ST Gibson standard, where the boundaries of romantic and platonic relationships are shifted, power dynamics experimented with. These are ST Gibson's blorbos!! She wants you to love them as much as she does, and that passion shines through the whole book. The prose itself is impressive and again, reminiscent of The Raven Boys. Though it starts off a little clunky, everything smooths out by the 1/3 point. Gibson excels at writing chemistry, and this has one of the best first lines I've read in a long time!
That all being said, there were a few things I didn't love in this book, though I do think these are YMMV:
-First, though Moira was probably my favorite character, I chafed a bit when reading from perspective as someone from the American South. Moira is a black woman from Georgia, and her personality veered sometimes towards stereotype more than fully-realized character. A bit too much "Meemaw's good Southern raisin'". I know STG has lived in the South for at least part of her life (but like...Asheville...so...), but these moments felt inauthentic and out of place.
-One of the pitches of this book is the polyamorous relationship that develops between Rhys, Moira, and David, so I don’t think this is a spoiler to note. Here’s the thing: I buy them as friends, and I buy them as a fully-formed poly relationship, but the transitional period in the middle soured me so that I couldn’t appreciate the final dynamic as much as I think I was supposed to. Rhys and Moira are in a long-standing relationship, and both express a lot of fear and pain over the idea of infidelity. It does feel a bit odd that the book is essentially cheering for them cheat and risk each other’s trust, with the understanding on behalf of the reader that it’ll all be okay and this is really the best thing for all of them. At the same time, it doesn’t really manage to bridge that gap; Rhys and David’s relationship feels just sort of accepted as the book goes on, and the jealousy and hurt that Moira explicitly expresses fades away. I get that The Point here is about complicated relationships and how we define heterosexual dynamics. But I feel like if you want the reader to believe that this is really the best option for your main characters, you have to make it feel less like one character’s very real fears of cheating are not that big of a deal.
Overall, I enjoyed the story and am interested to see how the series develops! This is a good book that is nearly a great book. There’s a few things I hope get ironed out a bit more before it releases, but I can easily see the fanart, special editions, and blorbofication that will happen when the right audience finds it.
Thank you Angry Robot for the ARC! Views are my own <3
There is a lot to be excited about in ST Gibson's May 2024 release Evocation: secret societies,
Faustian deals, attractive people in messy relationships...! Many of these lived up to the premise, but this is also a book I'll be hesitant to recommend to everyone.
The story revolves primarily around David, a serious, high-strung nepotism baby (think Declan from The Raven Cycle), as he finds his psychic energy suddenly rebelling against him. He's forced to reach out to the last people he wants to see: ambitious, academic ex-boyfriend Rhys and charming wife Moira. The three work together to find the source of David's illness while also testing the limits of their tenuous relationship.
This book reminded me of both The Raven Boys and A Marvellous Light. If you're reading this book because you're interested in the magic/plot/demons, you will be disappointed. This is an extremely character-driven book; we have modern Boston as a setting, where the light magic system is only as important as moving the dynamic between the main characters forward. There's also what I'm recognizing as an ST Gibson standard, where the boundaries of romantic and platonic relationships are shifted, power dynamics experimented with. These are ST Gibson's blorbos!! She wants you to love them as much as she does, and that passion shines through the whole book. The prose itself is impressive and again, reminiscent of The Raven Boys. Though it starts off a little clunky, everything smooths out by the 1/3 point. Gibson excels at writing chemistry, and this has one of the best first lines I've read in a long time!
That all being said, there were a few things I didn't love in this book, though I do think these are YMMV:
-First, though Moira was probably my favorite character, I chafed a bit when reading from perspective as someone from the American South. Moira is a black woman from Georgia, and her personality veered sometimes towards stereotype more than fully-realized character. A bit too much "Meemaw's good Southern raisin'". I know STG has lived in the South for at least part of her life (but like...Asheville...so...), but these moments felt inauthentic and out of place.
-One of the pitches of this book is the polyamorous relationship that develops between Rhys, Moira, and David, so I don’t think this is a spoiler to note. Here’s the thing: I buy them as friends, and I buy them as a fully-formed poly relationship, but the transitional period in the middle soured me so that I couldn’t appreciate the final dynamic as much as I think I was supposed to. Rhys and Moira are in a long-standing relationship, and both express a lot of fear and pain over the idea of infidelity. It does feel a bit odd that the book is essentially cheering for them cheat and risk each other’s trust, with the understanding on behalf of the reader that it’ll all be okay and this is really the best thing for all of them. At the same time, it doesn’t really manage to bridge that gap; Rhys and David’s relationship feels just sort of accepted as the book goes on, and the jealousy and hurt that Moira explicitly expresses fades away. I get that The Point here is about complicated relationships and how we define heterosexual dynamics. But I feel like if you want the reader to believe that this is really the best option for your main characters, you have to make it feel less like one character’s very real fears of cheating are not that big of a deal.
Overall, I enjoyed the story and am interested to see how the series develops! This is a good book that is nearly a great book. There’s a few things I hope get ironed out a bit more before it releases, but I can easily see the fanart, special editions, and blorbofication that will happen when the right audience finds it.
Thank you Angry Robot for the ARC! Views are my own <3
May 19, 2024
Promising atmospheric prose and deliciously Occulty, dark academia vibes; my hopes for S.T. Gibson’s newest novel (focusing on themes of identity, sexuality and complex relationships) couldn’t have been higher.
Unfortunately, the writing style and slower pacing just didn’t work for me this time around (which is a shame as I absolutely loved the gothic decadence of A Dowry of Blood.)
There was soo much promise with the characters, who I felt were quite well written and had really intriguing backstories. However, but I just didn’t fully connect with all of them. Moira and David were probably my fave characters to explore but primarily through their interactions together. I enjoyed getting to watch their complex relationship slowly develop, which I felt was way more nuanced and interesting than their individual interactions with Rhys.
And though we do get supernatural elements but I just feel they weren’t present enough to keep me invested.
Overall, a contemporary set dark academia with a lot of interesting elements, I just wish I’d enjoyed it more.
Also, thanks to Netgalley & Angry Robot Books for the e-arc.
Unfortunately, the writing style and slower pacing just didn’t work for me this time around (which is a shame as I absolutely loved the gothic decadence of A Dowry of Blood.)
There was soo much promise with the characters, who I felt were quite well written and had really intriguing backstories. However, but I just didn’t fully connect with all of them. Moira and David were probably my fave characters to explore but primarily through their interactions together. I enjoyed getting to watch their complex relationship slowly develop, which I felt was way more nuanced and interesting than their individual interactions with Rhys.
And though we do get supernatural elements but I just feel they weren’t present enough to keep me invested.
Overall, a contemporary set dark academia with a lot of interesting elements, I just wish I’d enjoyed it more.
Also, thanks to Netgalley & Angry Robot Books for the e-arc.
May 29, 2024
HAPPY RELEASE DAY TO THIS ICON!
I was honored to receive a physical advanced reader copy from the publisher, Angry Robot! Thank you to both S.T. Gibson and Angry Robot for blessing me with the opportunity to read this early!
Evocation is just that bitch. David, a medium, has a family curse that could end up with him dead. With no one to run to, David finds himself in the company of his sorcerer ex-boyfriend, Rhys, and his astrologist badass wife, Moira. As the three figure out what's going on within the walls of David's house, they may realize they all want each other, but with these magic-havers, feelings are more complicated than conjuring up a spell.
I enjoyed this immensely. This fantasy book slapped so hard and the romance sub-plot was excellent. I'd recommend this for fans of The Gideon Testaments trilogy or for the vibes of The Locked Tomb series!
I really have no notes. This was addictive and wonderfully written. Not only did these characters have chemistry romantically and physically, but they also had chemistry together as a trio! They were wonderful to read about and to be in the POV of. I could NOT recommend this more!
This series seems like it will get better and better as it goes and I am excited to see how this throuple's emotional bond will blossom over the course of the other three novels. Book two is already GORGEOUS looking, so I'm sure the inside will mimic that.
Original:
i just got approved for a physical arc of this 🥹🥹🥹 baby’s first publisher mail 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹
sob
I was honored to receive a physical advanced reader copy from the publisher, Angry Robot! Thank you to both S.T. Gibson and Angry Robot for blessing me with the opportunity to read this early!
Evocation is just that bitch. David, a medium, has a family curse that could end up with him dead. With no one to run to, David finds himself in the company of his sorcerer ex-boyfriend, Rhys, and his astrologist badass wife, Moira. As the three figure out what's going on within the walls of David's house, they may realize they all want each other, but with these magic-havers, feelings are more complicated than conjuring up a spell.
I enjoyed this immensely. This fantasy book slapped so hard and the romance sub-plot was excellent. I'd recommend this for fans of The Gideon Testaments trilogy or for the vibes of The Locked Tomb series!
I really have no notes. This was addictive and wonderfully written. Not only did these characters have chemistry romantically and physically, but they also had chemistry together as a trio! They were wonderful to read about and to be in the POV of. I could NOT recommend this more!
This series seems like it will get better and better as it goes and I am excited to see how this throuple's emotional bond will blossom over the course of the other three novels. Book two is already GORGEOUS looking, so I'm sure the inside will mimic that.
Original:
i just got approved for a physical arc of this 🥹🥹🥹 baby’s first publisher mail 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹
sob
July 6, 2024
Disclaimer : I knew this wouldn’t be my cup of tea but it was my owlcrate book of May so I force read it. It was indeed not my cup of tea.
February 25, 2024
S.T. Gibson has done it again folks.
August 5, 2024
1.5 stars.
david's ancestor sold his soul to the devil for magical powers. i would sell my soul to the devil for a fantasy author who knows how to write about polyamory.
seriously, we are two for two in terms of wildly hyped fantasy throuple books that ended up being incredibly mid, at best, and downright infuriating at worst (silver under nightfall being the other in this scenario). i really, genuinely, thought this was going to be a four star read when i first picked it up. and to its credit, the prose is nice and what little story there is clips along. i had no trouble eating this up in just a few hours. but, um, all that being said: it's a bad book, for the most part. the plot is so thin as to be translucent - all that happens in this is that the main character gets sick from a demon, and they have to cure him. that's it. 400 pages, 35 chapters, and that's pretty much everything that happens besides the romance. every event that occurs is shallow, without any real weight or bearing on the story or the reader. it's the most simplistic way of getting from point A to point B you could write, and that's just not that interesting. not unless you have strong characters and a great romance to get you there but, and (again i say) um...the romance is probably the worst part of this book. genuinely i think that publishing is just not ready for polyamory right now. authors and their editors seem incredibly scared of actually challenging any norms, making anything about polyamory messy or dangerous or even sexy in an interesting, unique way. instead, what you get in evocation is essentially rhys and moira "allowing" david into their lives, constantly cautious, constantly suspicious, always emphasizing how he will never be able to tarnish or touch their blissful marriage. rhys and david's romantic history is very unclear to the reader, except for the wild fights they used to have motivated largely by david's alcoholism, so there really doesn't ever feel like much reason for them to still have feelings for one another. and david and moira are only ever friends, kind of reaching a queerplatonic status by the end of the book, which is nice enough, but doesn't allow for anything all that interesting to develop, ultimately. and the throughline to the entire development of their relationship as a throuple is that it is david, the recovering gay alcoholic who suffered terrible abuse at the hands of his father, who posits a threat to the sanctity of their marriage and is the one who must contort himself and change in every way to be allowed into rhys and moira's lives. he is offered no allowances by rhys at all and no forgiveness by moira for far too long. essentially, these two people don't like david because of his addiction (he's been sober for three years by the start of this book, by the way) and his mild sassiness. that's genuinely it. they act like he's the worst, most toxic person in the whole world, and like he's always in the wrong, even when it is blatantly clear to the reader what kind of person he is, how he suffers and why he behaves the way he does. do you know how infuriating it is to read a story where the most sympathetic character suffering the most injustice is treated like an unwelcome toxin who is to blame for every source of unhappiness in two perfectly well-adjusted people's lives, and that he is the one who has to earn their forgiveness and trust? this could be an interesting arc, but it is horribly executed here because the author has no interest in challenging this weird dynamic. it has no depth, no courage to actually make david an unlikable figure at the start, or have rhys and moira grapple with their own unwarranted unkindness towards him. at one point i actually cried with frustration at how horribly this story treats david. and i didn't even care about him that much! it just has such a backwards take on addicts and how they inconvenience the lives of everyone around them. it treats polyamory like some fragile, dangerous thing where every conversation about it has to take on therapy speak about boundaries and consent and reassurance. there's no sense of freedom, of liberation, of joy in pursuing a way of living and loving outside of monogamy. just setting a bunch of rules that the guy your husband wants to fuck has to follow if he wants to be allowed into the warmth and safety of your home.
and to be clear, the main problem here is rhys. that character needs some fucking work. let me illustrate my frustration with a scene from the late middle of the story. there's a moment in this book when david has relapsed after basically getting all his hopes and dreams crushed, seeing rhys get chosen for something david has aspired to the whole book. makes sense, yeah? it's not good, but you naturally sympathize. this guy is sick, scared, and now his whole future has gone up in flames. what you get from rhys in response is unadulterated, vitriolic anger, in the face of david's loneliness and helplessness. he has no sympathy for david's mental disorder because it inconveniences him; he literally tells david he "won't let david make this night about himself" and storms him off back to his house without any kind of care or understanding. moira is a bit more gentle, bless her, but remember, rhys is the one who is supposed to be in LOVE with david. he's the one david is in love with, too. and yet he has no bandwidth, no understanding, no ability to set his own feelings aside and consider WHY david might have turned to alcohol again. he's just pissed david's sickness is ruining his night. and then rhys and moira go home and have sex, which is an absolutely ridiculous scene to follow david's total lapse into misery. this is the throuple? really? way to make david seem completely irrelevant and honestly, kind of straight up unwanted (again, just because he struggles with addiction). this is probably the most offensive sequence of scenes in the story, but it's bad, y'all, it's frustratingly bad.
ultimately i just don't think there's all that much to salvage here. the longer i've sat here writing this the angrier i've gotten. like, silver under nightfall was bad, but at least it was fun! at least it wasn't so scared of being kind of provocative! this was just boring and thin and completely uninspired, with barely any likable characters and no justification for any of the drama. i am formally begging any future authors interested in polyamory to please consider equality in writing these relationships, or address the inequality in them far more fairly than gibson did here. and also, don't be so fucking scared of it! it's okay to let your characters feel things. it's okay to have them lie and play one another and go behind each other's backs and not set crystal clear boundaries at all times. no one is going to die if you let the polyamory be complex and interesting!! you might even write a halfway decent book along the way. either way, don't read this disappointment.
david's ancestor sold his soul to the devil for magical powers. i would sell my soul to the devil for a fantasy author who knows how to write about polyamory.
seriously, we are two for two in terms of wildly hyped fantasy throuple books that ended up being incredibly mid, at best, and downright infuriating at worst (silver under nightfall being the other in this scenario). i really, genuinely, thought this was going to be a four star read when i first picked it up. and to its credit, the prose is nice and what little story there is clips along. i had no trouble eating this up in just a few hours. but, um, all that being said: it's a bad book, for the most part. the plot is so thin as to be translucent - all that happens in this is that the main character gets sick from a demon, and they have to cure him. that's it. 400 pages, 35 chapters, and that's pretty much everything that happens besides the romance. every event that occurs is shallow, without any real weight or bearing on the story or the reader. it's the most simplistic way of getting from point A to point B you could write, and that's just not that interesting. not unless you have strong characters and a great romance to get you there but, and (again i say) um...the romance is probably the worst part of this book. genuinely i think that publishing is just not ready for polyamory right now. authors and their editors seem incredibly scared of actually challenging any norms, making anything about polyamory messy or dangerous or even sexy in an interesting, unique way. instead, what you get in evocation is essentially rhys and moira "allowing" david into their lives, constantly cautious, constantly suspicious, always emphasizing how he will never be able to tarnish or touch their blissful marriage. rhys and david's romantic history is very unclear to the reader, except for the wild fights they used to have motivated largely by david's alcoholism, so there really doesn't ever feel like much reason for them to still have feelings for one another. and david and moira are only ever friends, kind of reaching a queerplatonic status by the end of the book, which is nice enough, but doesn't allow for anything all that interesting to develop, ultimately. and the throughline to the entire development of their relationship as a throuple is that it is david, the recovering gay alcoholic who suffered terrible abuse at the hands of his father, who posits a threat to the sanctity of their marriage and is the one who must contort himself and change in every way to be allowed into rhys and moira's lives. he is offered no allowances by rhys at all and no forgiveness by moira for far too long. essentially, these two people don't like david because of his addiction (he's been sober for three years by the start of this book, by the way) and his mild sassiness. that's genuinely it. they act like he's the worst, most toxic person in the whole world, and like he's always in the wrong, even when it is blatantly clear to the reader what kind of person he is, how he suffers and why he behaves the way he does. do you know how infuriating it is to read a story where the most sympathetic character suffering the most injustice is treated like an unwelcome toxin who is to blame for every source of unhappiness in two perfectly well-adjusted people's lives, and that he is the one who has to earn their forgiveness and trust? this could be an interesting arc, but it is horribly executed here because the author has no interest in challenging this weird dynamic. it has no depth, no courage to actually make david an unlikable figure at the start, or have rhys and moira grapple with their own unwarranted unkindness towards him. at one point i actually cried with frustration at how horribly this story treats david. and i didn't even care about him that much! it just has such a backwards take on addicts and how they inconvenience the lives of everyone around them. it treats polyamory like some fragile, dangerous thing where every conversation about it has to take on therapy speak about boundaries and consent and reassurance. there's no sense of freedom, of liberation, of joy in pursuing a way of living and loving outside of monogamy. just setting a bunch of rules that the guy your husband wants to fuck has to follow if he wants to be allowed into the warmth and safety of your home.
and to be clear, the main problem here is rhys. that character needs some fucking work. let me illustrate my frustration with a scene from the late middle of the story. there's a moment in this book when david has relapsed after basically getting all his hopes and dreams crushed, seeing rhys get chosen for something david has aspired to the whole book. makes sense, yeah? it's not good, but you naturally sympathize. this guy is sick, scared, and now his whole future has gone up in flames. what you get from rhys in response is unadulterated, vitriolic anger, in the face of david's loneliness and helplessness. he has no sympathy for david's mental disorder because it inconveniences him; he literally tells david he "won't let david make this night about himself" and storms him off back to his house without any kind of care or understanding. moira is a bit more gentle, bless her, but remember, rhys is the one who is supposed to be in LOVE with david. he's the one david is in love with, too. and yet he has no bandwidth, no understanding, no ability to set his own feelings aside and consider WHY david might have turned to alcohol again. he's just pissed david's sickness is ruining his night. and then rhys and moira go home and have sex, which is an absolutely ridiculous scene to follow david's total lapse into misery. this is the throuple? really? way to make david seem completely irrelevant and honestly, kind of straight up unwanted (again, just because he struggles with addiction). this is probably the most offensive sequence of scenes in the story, but it's bad, y'all, it's frustratingly bad.
ultimately i just don't think there's all that much to salvage here. the longer i've sat here writing this the angrier i've gotten. like, silver under nightfall was bad, but at least it was fun! at least it wasn't so scared of being kind of provocative! this was just boring and thin and completely uninspired, with barely any likable characters and no justification for any of the drama. i am formally begging any future authors interested in polyamory to please consider equality in writing these relationships, or address the inequality in them far more fairly than gibson did here. and also, don't be so fucking scared of it! it's okay to let your characters feel things. it's okay to have them lie and play one another and go behind each other's backs and not set crystal clear boundaries at all times. no one is going to die if you let the polyamory be complex and interesting!! you might even write a halfway decent book along the way. either way, don't read this disappointment.
July 6, 2024
4 stars. Combing a compellingly written poly romance with a story rife with magic and mysticism, Evocation is, as the cards fore-told, a great first entry into what is sure to be a solid series from S.T. Gibson.
February 19, 2024
David is juggling full time work as a lawyer and a thriving private occult practice, as well as attending weekly secret Society Occult meetings.
Rhys is an associate position at a small university library and is the youngest member of the Society, Catholic, and deeply curious about acquiring knowledge.
Moira is Rhys’s wife and is one of the best tarot card readers in the city.
Moira and Rhys had been making painstaking progress towards healing after an incident with David and Rhys. Things were getting better. But then David comes to them for help with fears of a demonic possession. David was the last thing their marriage needed.
Forgiveness wasn't about the person who wronged you, it was about freeing yourself from resentment and moving on with your life.
So far, Gibson has astounded me with her haunting historical gothic writing. Now she has infused that in a modern setting with dysfunctional adults who have a variety of trauma to heal from.
Trigger warnings for physical abuse, recovering alcoholism.
Gibson effortlessly weaves politics of gender, sexuality, and traditional older values compared to newer liberal views and adaptations.
Moira is an astounding woman and I immediately loved her resilience, healing, and love. She takes self-care seriously, and amidst two men who are so ambitious and driven, this contrast serves to show how important it is to care for yourself in such a 24/7 capitalist society we find ourselves in.
Not to mention, the communication in this is exquisite. As well as the trust and acceptance. Gibson writes relationships in such a pure, honest, and open light.
”I love Moira all the way to hell and back. I love her more than money, more than my own pride and ambition. That woman is my home, and I am more than willing to prioritize her— vehemently, if need be. If she tells me she needs something to feel safe, she gets it. End of story."
I did think the ending ruined the book. This was such a character-focused, slow-moving book that the sudden climax and quick end result left me feeling cheated and felt disjointed from the rest of the narrative.
However, Gibson has cemented herself as an auto-buy author - writing the complexities of relationships, emotions, and internal struggle with such insight, armed with atmosphere and life lessons.
Thank you to Angry Robot for providing an arc in exchange for a review.
Bookstagram
Rhys is an associate position at a small university library and is the youngest member of the Society, Catholic, and deeply curious about acquiring knowledge.
Moira is Rhys’s wife and is one of the best tarot card readers in the city.
Moira and Rhys had been making painstaking progress towards healing after an incident with David and Rhys. Things were getting better. But then David comes to them for help with fears of a demonic possession. David was the last thing their marriage needed.
Forgiveness wasn't about the person who wronged you, it was about freeing yourself from resentment and moving on with your life.
So far, Gibson has astounded me with her haunting historical gothic writing. Now she has infused that in a modern setting with dysfunctional adults who have a variety of trauma to heal from.
Trigger warnings for physical abuse, recovering alcoholism.
Gibson effortlessly weaves politics of gender, sexuality, and traditional older values compared to newer liberal views and adaptations.
Moira is an astounding woman and I immediately loved her resilience, healing, and love. She takes self-care seriously, and amidst two men who are so ambitious and driven, this contrast serves to show how important it is to care for yourself in such a 24/7 capitalist society we find ourselves in.
Not to mention, the communication in this is exquisite. As well as the trust and acceptance. Gibson writes relationships in such a pure, honest, and open light.
”I love Moira all the way to hell and back. I love her more than money, more than my own pride and ambition. That woman is my home, and I am more than willing to prioritize her— vehemently, if need be. If she tells me she needs something to feel safe, she gets it. End of story."
I did think the ending ruined the book. This was such a character-focused, slow-moving book that the sudden climax and quick end result left me feeling cheated and felt disjointed from the rest of the narrative.
However, Gibson has cemented herself as an auto-buy author - writing the complexities of relationships, emotions, and internal struggle with such insight, armed with atmosphere and life lessons.
Thank you to Angry Robot for providing an arc in exchange for a review.
Bookstagram
September 5, 2024
3.75/5 i feel like i learned a lot lol
May 30, 2024
ੈ✩‧₊˚ No one is more disappointed than me that this wasn't a new favourite.
I adored a dowry of blood so went into this one with high hopes but unfortunately it just wasn't what I had anticipated.
This unfortunately for for me was far too reliant on the romance and so the plot really took a backseat. There wasn't enough substance, world building, occult and atmosphere for me.
The characters David, Moira and Rhys were an odd ensemble and I don't think they quite slotted together seamlessly.
ੈ✩‧₊˚ I also felt the magic system was a little clunky at times, I was reading and then questioned what I had just read because it seemed to contradict with what I had previously been told in the book.
ੈ✩‧₊˚ I had hoped for this to have a strong atmosphere, littered with the occult, ghosts, demons, decay and melancholy but instead I just got a book with a lacklustre romance than suffocated any plot or depth to the story. I'm honestly surprised this is going to be such an extensive series because the "world building" was so minimal. It leaves little to be desired.
I adored a dowry of blood so went into this one with high hopes but unfortunately it just wasn't what I had anticipated.
This unfortunately for for me was far too reliant on the romance and so the plot really took a backseat. There wasn't enough substance, world building, occult and atmosphere for me.
The characters David, Moira and Rhys were an odd ensemble and I don't think they quite slotted together seamlessly.
𖤓 David was by far my favourite, he had the most depth, spark and charisma. He also had the most interesting back story and honestly I just wanted more exploration of his family's curse and relationships with the demon.
𖤓 Moira was likeable enough but felt almost like a caricature with her constant "y'all" and southern twang.
𖤓 And Rhys, was lifeless and underwhelming. I felt like Moira and David had more chemistry than he and David did. So to have this story so heavily focused on these characters romance where that to me was the weakest aspect of the story really detracted from my enjoyment.
ੈ✩‧₊˚ I also felt the magic system was a little clunky at times, I was reading and then questioned what I had just read because it seemed to contradict with what I had previously been told in the book.
ੈ✩‧₊˚ I had hoped for this to have a strong atmosphere, littered with the occult, ghosts, demons, decay and melancholy but instead I just got a book with a lacklustre romance than suffocated any plot or depth to the story. I'm honestly surprised this is going to be such an extensive series because the "world building" was so minimal. It leaves little to be desired.
April 30, 2024
Interesting characters, light on plot, and a central conflict that never manages to feel threatening.
At least this went better than An Education in Malice 🫤
At least this went better than An Education in Malice 🫤
December 17, 2024
uh lol yeah this did it for me
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