Waking Gods by Mike Robinson

Alright, like I said, I started on Waking Gods immediately after I finished Negative Space, and I'm done! This is the third in the series, and it is even stranger than the other two.

Waking Gods starts with a murder. There's a serial killer called The Surgeon on the loose, and apparently, only a guy called Adrian Foster can possibly stop him. The thing is, Adrian isn't normal. He's somehow attuned into some sort of network. And when The Surgeon strikes again, Adrian and the cop in charge of the case, Derek Adams, head to Twilight Falls to try and get some clues.

This is when the story just stops being a murder mystery and gets really weird. There are flashbacks back and forth, as the reader finds out more about Adrian's conception and more about Feldman, who was featured quite prominently in Negative Space. And things build to a crescendo as the Grandfather (you might remember him from the first book, Green Eyed Monster) and his enemy make their appearances.

After all the tension from the previous books, I was so glad that there was an ending! I finally found out what's going on in Twilight falls. But, I don't know if it's because my expectations were hyped, but when I found out, it was this huge, excited "OH SO THAT'S IT", but a more muted, "oh, so that's what's going on." I'm not saying it's bad, but it wasn't as dramatic as I expected. Even though, thinking about it, plenty of people died in grotesque ways in the end. I guess the actual nature of Grandfather and the Teacher was just less exciting for me (or I missed the point).

Oh, and now that I've mentioned the death, well, this book is definitely for mature audiences only. Not that I'm saying that the previous books are YA material, far from it, but there's a lot of disturbing stuff going on in here, especially towards the end where it seems everyone goes crazy. If you're sensitive about blood and gore, you might want to be careful.

Overall though, this was a creepy and compulsive series. Sure, you could technically read all three books as a standalone, but I think you should read at least two of these books in a row, and one of the books has to be the ending, to properly experience this world that the author has created.

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book form the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for a free and honest review.