What do you do when Evil falls in love with you? How can you build your own life when a dark, otherworldly creature pursues you constantly, seeking to make you its own? This is the eerie premise of Lorelei Shannon’s debut novel, one of the first releases by new publisher Juno Books. Though the writing is choppy in places, this story is dark and haunting and I know I’ll remember it for quite some time.

Amy is a young college student enjoying the usual round of parties, drinking, and socializing when her relatively peaceful life is interrupted by sensual visions of pirates and dark, Gothic castles complete with ominous pursuers. She feels ill almost every day and her nights are filled with horrific dreams from an almost forgotten past. She fears that she is going crazy, but as her friends try to help her, it becomes obvious that her dark dreams have roots that are all too real.

As the story unfolds, readers learn that Amy once spent time in Florida and it was there that she rescued a mysterious little boy from a muck-filled pool in an abandoned hotel. However, her visions of the little boy who could change shape and colors and these scary, half-remembered events hold the key to her current torment. Somewhere in the fragments of memories of a forbidden playmate and the vicious habits of elderly neighbors in Florida lie the answer to Amy’s questions about what is stalking her and how to free herself from its grasp.

As Amy and her friends attempt to destroy the creature pursuing her, the author vividly creates an evil that is both dark and yet oddly compelling. The plotting in the novel is choppy at times and the dialogue sometimes falters, but even that disjointed quality does not prevent this book from drawing the reader in. Some readers may not be able to handle the creepy and sometimes downright revolting actions of the villain, but the unusual portrait of evil in this book does make for a readable story.

Even with a few touches of campy melodrama, this is definitely a novel for those who like their stories to be of the darker variety. While Shannon does include some romance in the plot, it is definitely not fleshed out as vividly as the main fantasy plot. The author’s writing style could also use some polishing, but her ideas are original and, with more experience, she may definitely be one to watch. Her publisher advertises itself as a fantasy publisher with a focus on strong female characters. If this book is anything to go by, I will be very curious to see more from them and from this author.