Bloodrush is my final book for the #SPFBO and coincidentally happens to have scored the highest rating from me.

Bloodrush is a book that takes us from the dark and foggy streets of an alternative Victorian London to the very edge of the frontier.  The story is a strange mash up of fantasy and western that I really enjoyed.

At the start of the story we discover that Tonmerion Hark, having recently become orphaned, is about to be sent overseas to be placed in the care of his remaining relative, Aunt Lilian. Merion is only 13 years old and not only has his father been murdered but he’s about to be sent to the western frontier. So Merion sets off on the long and torturous journey to, what feels like, the very edges of the world, or maybe hell.  Thankfully Merion isn’t alone, he’s accompanied by his friend of the past few years, a 12 inch member of the fae called Rhin.  Rhin has a whole bunch of secrets and unlike Merion is quite happy to find himself being removed to the farmost reaches of the world.

I don’t want to give too much away about the plot.  This is a voyage of discovery story for young Merion. He’s about to learn things about himself that he has until this point been blissfully unaware.  Merion has a strange legacy. Like his father before him him he possesses the ability to bloodrush – a certain type of magick that enables those with the ability to endow themselves with the characteristics of any number of animals, birds, fish, reptiles and insects by drinking their blood.  The premise is interesting, it takes a bit of a leap of faith but it contains a vast number of possibilities for all sorts of weird and wonderful scenarios.

The characters are an interesting bunch.  We have Merion, who, probably with reason, spends a good deal of the book huffing and puffing and basically feeling put upon. He could come across as a bit of a smacked arse sulky so and so but let’s not forget that his father has just been murdered, he’s had his privileges taken away, he’s been sent to a strange, to him, country and placed in the care of somebody he’s never met before and he then finds out he has a magick inheritance that he never dreamed of.  His one wish is to get back home and in focusing on this desire he can sometimes be a little short sighted plus – he’s 13.  In spite of that I liked Merion.  Rhin – he has his very own storyline running throughout the book.  He has a past that he’s trying to escape from but the fae following in his tracks are relentless and stubborn!  Aunt Lilian – she’s turned into the town’s undertaker.  She has her own secrets to keep and I dare say she never expected to find herself the guardian to a 13 year old boy.  Lurker is a great character.  A friend of Lilian’s he has his own blood rushing abilities that come in particularly useful when prospecting and lend him the friendship of a magpie.  Those are the main characters and we of course have the supporting cast of arch baddies and cunning fae.

I loved the western setting.  We have a frontier town where the railroads are forging ahead into new lands where they are frankly not always welcome – not only by the indigenous population but also the strange ghosts who seem to be able to use the very rail tracks themselves to turn into murderous monsters.

There is undoubtedly quite a lot going on here to enjoy.  I think what particularly sold this novel to me was the writing style.  Galley has a very engaging storytelling voice that I really enjoyed.  I thought he set the scene well, his characters were interesting but more than that he managed to bring a really good combination of intrigue, fantasy and horror together whilst also injecting humour and lighter moments into the story.

In terms of criticisms.  Well, this is a bit of a slow burner of a book – not an issue for me personally but may be for others and I admit that it probably could have been sharpened slightly.  I think my main issues could boil down to a slight irritation with finding out that Merion is about to become quite special in terms of bloodrushing (it’s just one of my pet irritations where the young protagonist finds out they’re super special) and the ending was a bit of a stretch.  Okay, I’m reading fantasy here so I’m already suspending belief to a very large extent but (and I’m trying to avoid spoilers here) I think I would have liked the ending to have been more of a team effort.

However, in spite of a few niggles, which were relatively minor, I really enjoyed this story.  The writing is captivating, the story is very entertaining, it’s intriguing and fun and I will certainly continue reading this series.