This book is a slight novella that is a complement to P.C Cast and Kristin Cast’s YA super-natural House of Night series.
I read the House of Night books a few years back and even reviewed the first three on the blog. The books are light and enjoyable, not particularly well-written, but still good, addictive fun.
I could say the same for this book.
So What’s the Book About?
A synopsis is not going to make any sense to non-House of Night readers, but I”ll try. The book is basically about a Goddess called Nyx who was lonely. Mother Earth created her a consort. Unfortunately something goes wrong, and instead of one, Nyx ends up getting two consorts – Kalona and Erebus.
Nyx is strongly attracted to Kalona and is good friends with Erebus. However, Kalona just can’t deal with Nyx’s friendship with Erebus, and this unreasonable jealousy ultimately leads to his fall.
My Review
Kalona’s Fall does work as a standalone book as it does not touch upon most of the characters or the plots of the House of Night books. However, it is not interesting enough to stand on its own, and I won’t recommend you pick it up unless you are already vested in the main series.
In my opinion, this book is strictly for House of Night fans who are looking for a little back story to Nyx and Kalona.
The story of Nyx and Kalona is told in the form of a classic mythology with tons of teenage love elements.
Scratching your head wondering what I mean?
Well, Nyx and Kalona are almost like Gods. They are super-natural, super-powerful beings. However, they act like so:
He was laughing with her as he spread his wings and lifted her from the ground, twirling her.
Nyx gasped and clutched his neck. Kalona tightened his arms around her.
Trust me, Goddess. I would never let you fall.
So basically, a huge part of the story is about Gods behaving like love-struck teenagers, which kind of made me eye-roll and skim-read those parts.
But another part of the story nicely deals with the creation of the world, the creation of vampyres, and how Nyx came to become the Goddess of the vampyres, and fleshes out the mythology around the vampyres and Kalona a bit more. And I quite liked this bit of the book.
Another favorite part of the book was the lovely illustrations that were just so pretty. These illustrations are black and white and present before every chapter, and depict an important scene from each chapter. These illustrations really gave the book a myth-like feel, and give more heft to a generally pretty light-weight story.
That said, this is a book strictly for House of Night lovers who would like a little back story/prequel to the series. It’s definitely not for someone who is not into YA or paranormal stories.
