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Red Devil by Kyell Gold
As you may know, I fell in love with Kyell Gold's "Green Fairy", seeing as it as a spiritual marvel and an amazing dive into the psyche of a gay teenager. Because of this, I honestly didn't know what to make of the next book in the Dangerous Spirits series, "Red Devil". And what do I think of it? I'll tell you after the introduction.
About a month after the events of "Green Fairy", we follow Sol's best friend Alexei Tsarev, a foxy foreign exchange student from Siberia. Depressed that his sister Caterina is stuck with their abusive parents back home, and add to the fact that Alexei feels like life is hard on him, he tries to contact Niki like Sol did. But instead, Alexei contacts the ghost of a Siberian soldier named Konstantin, Niki's father. After giving Alexei the courage to stand up to a bully, Konstantin gives him an offer: give up being gay, and he'll save Caterina from imminent death.
Okay, from that introduction, this sounds like something out of bad fanfiction, and that got me nervous at first. But reading this book really took me by surprise at how it not only is as good as "Green Fairy, but it surpasses it in levels I never knew.
We have Alexei, who like Sol, is extremely likeable and interesting. He has fantastic character development, and you genuinely feel sorry for what he's going through, and the same can be said for Caterina as well.
The other characters that we met in "Green Fairy" have changed as well. We see Sol's personality has changed after his experience, and Meg has become less of a skeptic in the paranormal.
And then we have our ghost in the book, Konstantin. He has a fantastic backstory, a distint and relateable personality, and can really be intimidating at times.
As always, this book has brilliant writing and pacing. "Red Devil" also does an amazing job describing Alexei's memories of Siberia, and the lifestyle back there. It also does deal with the extreme homophobia there, the history if Russia, and it really shows. In fact, I'd be extremely shocked if Kyell Gold didn't visit Russia himself before making this book.
Overall, I have nothing to complain about; it's just a perfect book with a perfect ending. It took me by surprise and left me with water in my eyes at the end. If you have a chance to read this book, do it! I loved "Green Fairy" and adored it's sequel here, and you will too!
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