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I Have Asked to Be Where No Storms Come
The facts of Domino Bluepoint's afterlife are simple: he's a half-breed witch from a people without a name, and no one wants to be stuck in Hell with witch blood.
When a demon bounty-hunter comes calling, Domino pairs up with his mother, who died too young and carries the witch lineage in her veins, to survive. Soon the two of them are Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid running from whatever torture awaits them and whoever wants to harvest their magic. Yet, Domino doesn't know that his brother, Wicasah, is behind this and is desperate to resurrect Domino out of long-lasting guilt and a sensation of belonging to no place and no one.
As Wicasah dives deeper into darker magic that ends in an ill-made deal, Domino must overcome addiction, depression, and hone his own brand of witch-magic to help save his brother—and the world—from an ancient god of lighting and thunder.
When a demon bounty-hunter comes calling, Domino pairs up with his mother, who died too young and carries the witch lineage in her veins, to survive. Soon the two of them are Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid running from whatever torture awaits them and whoever wants to harvest their magic. Yet, Domino doesn't know that his brother, Wicasah, is behind this and is desperate to resurrect Domino out of long-lasting guilt and a sensation of belonging to no place and no one.
As Wicasah dives deeper into darker magic that ends in an ill-made deal, Domino must overcome addiction, depression, and hone his own brand of witch-magic to help save his brother—and the world—from an ancient god of lighting and thunder.
344 pages, Paperback
Published July 26, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 29, 2022
I HAVE ASKED TO GO WHERE NO STORMS ARE is Afterlife Noir strongly dipped in 19th Century New Thought. Shift aside whatever conception of Hell you currently have, read this novel with an open mind. This is not Hell as you now consider it. This is Hell that responds to your thoughts, anxieties, fears, in ways unimaginable. Guaranteed to inspire nightmares and interrupted sleep.
The title springs from a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem.
July 31, 2022
If you like your horror with more surreal fantasy elements and a dollop of Western, I Have Asked to Be Where No Storms Come might be right up your street. It wasn’t to my taste, but I think there are going to be plenty of people who find they love this.
I think I was just expecting something a little different – more of a romp through Hell, but we actually spend little time there. A shame, because the first part of this tale, set in Hell, was my favourite bit. Once we switched first to Domino and Wicasah’s past, then Wicasah’s present, I found myself getting a bit lost. Again, this is not down to Nix’s writing or the plot, but absolutely personal preference.
We start with Domino in Hell, travelling and trying to avoid the dangers he attracts because of his witch blood. He gets a chance to reconnect with his mother, who died when he was young. We move back into the past to get Domino and Wicasah’s childhood with their father, a man who sees anything to do with witches as evil and contaminated. We move through the lives of the brothers, as they grow and make their choices and we see the path that leads to the main events of the novel.
The relationship between the brothers was interesting, with that kind of Dean and Sam Winchester vibe, if they were witches instead of hunters. Domino just wants to look out for his brother and protect him, doing everything he can to ensure his safety, including going to jail for a crime Wicasah committed. Wicasah tries to protect his brother in return, but doesn’t quite succeed, and…at times is a little too whiny for my taste (also the reason I never did quite like Sam). There are parts where he laments how Domino didn’t come to find him, and I found myself questioning how he would even do that with how vast the area is, but also it wasn’t like Wicasah tried to find him in return. Wicasah often comes across as someone who does expect others to pick him up when he fails, and overall isn’t wholly likeable, but some – most – of his reasoning does make sense, but it feels like he consistently makes the wrong choices.
Overall I think the writing here is good, but I found the characters a little frustrating and a lot of this a bit tricky to follow at points. It’s also really long, and I struggled through a lot of the second half. But, again, this is going to hit for so people much better than it did for me.
I received this ebook from NetGalley via BooksGoSocial.
I think I was just expecting something a little different – more of a romp through Hell, but we actually spend little time there. A shame, because the first part of this tale, set in Hell, was my favourite bit. Once we switched first to Domino and Wicasah’s past, then Wicasah’s present, I found myself getting a bit lost. Again, this is not down to Nix’s writing or the plot, but absolutely personal preference.
We start with Domino in Hell, travelling and trying to avoid the dangers he attracts because of his witch blood. He gets a chance to reconnect with his mother, who died when he was young. We move back into the past to get Domino and Wicasah’s childhood with their father, a man who sees anything to do with witches as evil and contaminated. We move through the lives of the brothers, as they grow and make their choices and we see the path that leads to the main events of the novel.
The relationship between the brothers was interesting, with that kind of Dean and Sam Winchester vibe, if they were witches instead of hunters. Domino just wants to look out for his brother and protect him, doing everything he can to ensure his safety, including going to jail for a crime Wicasah committed. Wicasah tries to protect his brother in return, but doesn’t quite succeed, and…at times is a little too whiny for my taste (also the reason I never did quite like Sam). There are parts where he laments how Domino didn’t come to find him, and I found myself questioning how he would even do that with how vast the area is, but also it wasn’t like Wicasah tried to find him in return. Wicasah often comes across as someone who does expect others to pick him up when he fails, and overall isn’t wholly likeable, but some – most – of his reasoning does make sense, but it feels like he consistently makes the wrong choices.
Overall I think the writing here is good, but I found the characters a little frustrating and a lot of this a bit tricky to follow at points. It’s also really long, and I struggled through a lot of the second half. But, again, this is going to hit for so people much better than it did for me.
I received this ebook from NetGalley via BooksGoSocial.
July 17, 2022
“I Have Asked To be Where No Storms Come” delivers a stunningly original and surreal vision. The recipe is a dollop of dark fantasy, a splash of grimdark, and a copy of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas that has been soaked in acid for a week. Mix well and drink while holding your nose.
Lurching between a bad father, chain-gang escapes, a family of witches and warring industries of fossil hunters and soul hagglers, this book cannot be predicted. Nix’s ecology of the supernatural is on point, and everything is there for a reason. Her vision of an altered America is a land bordered by the Dark and Bloody, a metaphysical chasm beyond scale. A broken frontier presses against this borderland, and the gleaming Brightside is only a distant promise to the brutalized characters who live there. Below all of this is Helia, and this afterworld is truly vile and brutal,with suitably ghastly characters and furnishings mingling with recognizable ephemera from the lands of the living, and the whole damn system is broken. Only the Bluepoint brothers can make it right, but the attempt will break them, over and over.
Equal parts grimdark and dark fantasy, fans of these genres are guaranteed a great ride as they are dragged along in the chaos of the Bluepoint brothers’ wake, these cursed heroes fighting to change their destiny in a world of hard choices and dire outcomes. The pacing is taut and this story is a genuine page-turner, highly recommended. 5/5 stars.
Lurching between a bad father, chain-gang escapes, a family of witches and warring industries of fossil hunters and soul hagglers, this book cannot be predicted. Nix’s ecology of the supernatural is on point, and everything is there for a reason. Her vision of an altered America is a land bordered by the Dark and Bloody, a metaphysical chasm beyond scale. A broken frontier presses against this borderland, and the gleaming Brightside is only a distant promise to the brutalized characters who live there. Below all of this is Helia, and this afterworld is truly vile and brutal,with suitably ghastly characters and furnishings mingling with recognizable ephemera from the lands of the living, and the whole damn system is broken. Only the Bluepoint brothers can make it right, but the attempt will break them, over and over.
Equal parts grimdark and dark fantasy, fans of these genres are guaranteed a great ride as they are dragged along in the chaos of the Bluepoint brothers’ wake, these cursed heroes fighting to change their destiny in a world of hard choices and dire outcomes. The pacing is taut and this story is a genuine page-turner, highly recommended. 5/5 stars.
July 22, 2022
I Have Asked to Be Where No Storms Come is like Stephen King and Cormac McCarthy teaming up to reboot Dante’s Inferno as a Western. Nix creates a unique and fully realized alternate reality of Hell and witchcraft that offers an incredibly immersive read. One of the most original novels I’ve read in a long time.
September 9, 2022
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
It's very rare that I notice the writing of a book. That's not to say I don't notice something that's well-written. I just think, if it has been done well, I shouldn't really be noticing it at all, especially once I've got past the first few pages and got used to the voice the author is using.
There are a few exceptions to this, where the writing is noticeable because of how lovely the turns of phrase are, or of how it carries you along (or doesn't), and I think I Have Asked to be Where No Storms Come falls firmly into this category.
It's beautifully written, incredibly evocative, and that makes it heartbreaking and chilling in equal measure. It's dirt-under-your-fingernails, dust-at-the-back-of-your-throat kind of writing, and this works for a story that meanders, where the edges are kind of fuzzy.
I don't think it's wrong to say that there are parts of the story that are confusing. I don't really understand entirely how the magic Domino and Wicasah and the others have works. I don't know 100% where they are, or when. But I think that's the point. It's like existing in the confusing spectacle of these brothers' minds, and it could be that there was no real magic at all, but I don't think that's true, either.
What's real are Domino and Wicasah and the lengths they'll go to for each other. What happens is inevitable but earned, the shucking of traditions neither of them really bought into. This book felt like a long, sometimes horrifying, sometimes gorgeous journey, and the imagery and character work really is fantastic.
This is a gorgeous dark fantasy/horror combination and although I read it recently, I don't think I'm going to stop thinking about it for a while yet. It feels almost Dark Tower adjacent, only perhaps less relentlessly grim. Give yourself time to mull it over, and enjoy the ride!
It's very rare that I notice the writing of a book. That's not to say I don't notice something that's well-written. I just think, if it has been done well, I shouldn't really be noticing it at all, especially once I've got past the first few pages and got used to the voice the author is using.
There are a few exceptions to this, where the writing is noticeable because of how lovely the turns of phrase are, or of how it carries you along (or doesn't), and I think I Have Asked to be Where No Storms Come falls firmly into this category.
It's beautifully written, incredibly evocative, and that makes it heartbreaking and chilling in equal measure. It's dirt-under-your-fingernails, dust-at-the-back-of-your-throat kind of writing, and this works for a story that meanders, where the edges are kind of fuzzy.
I don't think it's wrong to say that there are parts of the story that are confusing. I don't really understand entirely how the magic Domino and Wicasah and the others have works. I don't know 100% where they are, or when. But I think that's the point. It's like existing in the confusing spectacle of these brothers' minds, and it could be that there was no real magic at all, but I don't think that's true, either.
What's real are Domino and Wicasah and the lengths they'll go to for each other. What happens is inevitable but earned, the shucking of traditions neither of them really bought into. This book felt like a long, sometimes horrifying, sometimes gorgeous journey, and the imagery and character work really is fantastic.
This is a gorgeous dark fantasy/horror combination and although I read it recently, I don't think I'm going to stop thinking about it for a while yet. It feels almost Dark Tower adjacent, only perhaps less relentlessly grim. Give yourself time to mull it over, and enjoy the ride!
August 5, 2022
My review for I Have Asked to Be Where No Storms Come first appeared in The Horror Zine (https://www.thehorrorzine.com/) . It is reposted here with permission.
Sometimes words can get in the way of what an author and editor believe they are placing on the page. So much so that, by the time the novel is finished, you have a highly creative story that is confusing on first reading for anyone but the author and editor. With muddled elements in its framework of figurative joists, and a world-building nomenclature and landscape not putting out enough cogent information to keep the reader’s head above the tale being spun instead of getting mired, it becomes a challenging and bewildering endeavor.
Such is the case with I Have Asked to Be Where No Storms Come, an ambitious novel that melds dark fantasy, alternative history, and weird western fiction, three rich areas for imagination and drama, into a dense reading filled with flashbacks, here and there and now and then scene changes, and dialog heavy chapters alternating the experiences of two special but cursed brothers. All this is made denser by spiritually glossy words combined into metaphysically heavy sentences, replacing direct descriptions with concept-art word-pieces reaching for deep meanings but less clarity. Too much of a good thing is one way to describe this effort.
The head-scratching begins with trying to pin down the “when” of this narrative. A clue is given with how both Domino and Wicasah, two brothers of the Western Plains, from a family of witches, are, briefly, fossil hunters for hire. That would seem to place the time-period around 1877, a boon time for paleontologists in the old west after discoveries that led to dinosaur quarries producing tons of bones. But that does not sit right with other elements in the story that bounce automobiles in with the wagons, and Domino driving a cool muscle car in Hell. Another bone to pick, aside from time, is how Gwendolyn N. Nix pulls from various mythologies and cultures to weave her alternate world and its realms as if she has lots of interests and, sure, why not add it all into this one story. The result is an everything but the kitchen sink aesthetic that is confusing.
It all opens with Domino in Hell, though it is later called Helia, as he sits pondering a cell phone, mystified by it. No foreshadowing here, it is soon dropped. Helia is finally explained later in the novel, although a little too late in Nix’s fluid 5-part plotting structure. In Greek mythology, Helia is a sun goddess. In Nix’s mythology, it is a place. This makes the explanation for it, which is the driving force of the story, important. Instead of being a carefully placed revelation to generate welcomed acknowledgement that the prime reason for everything happening is now revealed, it produces an oh finally instead. Nix continues to provide essential explanations in this way toward the latter part of the novel, for key plot elements introduced at the beginning, as if she were working them out as she wrote. These explanations come through lengthy dialogs well after readers may be wondering about all the esoterica casually tossed their way.
The many elements that Nix draws on give the effect of being add-ons instead of organic elements growing with the story. Instead of a carefully structured unfolding, they appear again and again like a collage of ideas instead of a careful seeding to build the emotional pull with the people inhabiting her bizarre landscape. This landscape is broken in two by the Dark and Bloody, an eco-apocalypse thematic tied to Helia and all the bad reasons Domino and Wicasah, are fighting to survive.
Much exposition is devoted to family turmoil with and between Domino, Wicasah, their witch relatives, and significant others, taking up a large portion of the novel; there is the other turmoil of demons, dead souls, witches’ blood, and witches and god-like beings playing with thunder and worlds. Both eventually coalesce, but the drawn-out nature of the family turmoil dilutes the other. Both are never fully given a history: only those reasons directly related to the plot. Why does Domino and Wicasah’s father hate their mother and all witches? Where did all the witches come from in the first place and why is it a thing? Where did Domino and Wicasah’s tremendous powers come from and why are they so important to others seeking to entrap them?
With all these elements vying for the reader’s understanding, not enough basic wording is given to flesh them out fully or pace them within their importance. It is here where Nix’s stream of spiritual style dulls the pragmatic needs of the underlying actions. Her descriptions are concept-flights that need be re-read, often, to fully grasp what is going on and why.
Lots happens to the people and creatures in Helia and on earth, but their actions and reactions go by like watching a landscape from a moving train. Why Domino and other dead souls wind up in Helia is wonderfully imaginative. Witches and their hungry familiars (Domino’s familiars like to eat bones and do not mind chewing on his now and then); unhappy demons (because of all the annoying dead humans who like to sniff demon bone dust); psychopomps (from Greek mythology, guides for the dead) like the lady-slippers queen and Anxius; nuckelavees (from Orcadian mythology, a man-horse demon); a determined heyoka wielding lightning and a bad disposition (in Sioux culture, a sacred clown)--all swirl together as Domino battles to save his brother from a dangerous father who hates witches, and as Wicasah battles to save his brother from a dangerous battle between witches and gods and demons and dead souls in Helia.
There is a better novel buried in the archeological dig of this one. If you are one for reading word-tripping esoterica and new age spinning fiction, this novel may be well worth your while. There is also enough going on here that a carefully adapted screenplay could capture for Netflix or another streamer for those of us looking for more straightforward storytelling. It would not be surprising at all if that happened.
Sometimes words can get in the way of what an author and editor believe they are placing on the page. So much so that, by the time the novel is finished, you have a highly creative story that is confusing on first reading for anyone but the author and editor. With muddled elements in its framework of figurative joists, and a world-building nomenclature and landscape not putting out enough cogent information to keep the reader’s head above the tale being spun instead of getting mired, it becomes a challenging and bewildering endeavor.
Such is the case with I Have Asked to Be Where No Storms Come, an ambitious novel that melds dark fantasy, alternative history, and weird western fiction, three rich areas for imagination and drama, into a dense reading filled with flashbacks, here and there and now and then scene changes, and dialog heavy chapters alternating the experiences of two special but cursed brothers. All this is made denser by spiritually glossy words combined into metaphysically heavy sentences, replacing direct descriptions with concept-art word-pieces reaching for deep meanings but less clarity. Too much of a good thing is one way to describe this effort.
The head-scratching begins with trying to pin down the “when” of this narrative. A clue is given with how both Domino and Wicasah, two brothers of the Western Plains, from a family of witches, are, briefly, fossil hunters for hire. That would seem to place the time-period around 1877, a boon time for paleontologists in the old west after discoveries that led to dinosaur quarries producing tons of bones. But that does not sit right with other elements in the story that bounce automobiles in with the wagons, and Domino driving a cool muscle car in Hell. Another bone to pick, aside from time, is how Gwendolyn N. Nix pulls from various mythologies and cultures to weave her alternate world and its realms as if she has lots of interests and, sure, why not add it all into this one story. The result is an everything but the kitchen sink aesthetic that is confusing.
It all opens with Domino in Hell, though it is later called Helia, as he sits pondering a cell phone, mystified by it. No foreshadowing here, it is soon dropped. Helia is finally explained later in the novel, although a little too late in Nix’s fluid 5-part plotting structure. In Greek mythology, Helia is a sun goddess. In Nix’s mythology, it is a place. This makes the explanation for it, which is the driving force of the story, important. Instead of being a carefully placed revelation to generate welcomed acknowledgement that the prime reason for everything happening is now revealed, it produces an oh finally instead. Nix continues to provide essential explanations in this way toward the latter part of the novel, for key plot elements introduced at the beginning, as if she were working them out as she wrote. These explanations come through lengthy dialogs well after readers may be wondering about all the esoterica casually tossed their way.
The many elements that Nix draws on give the effect of being add-ons instead of organic elements growing with the story. Instead of a carefully structured unfolding, they appear again and again like a collage of ideas instead of a careful seeding to build the emotional pull with the people inhabiting her bizarre landscape. This landscape is broken in two by the Dark and Bloody, an eco-apocalypse thematic tied to Helia and all the bad reasons Domino and Wicasah, are fighting to survive.
Much exposition is devoted to family turmoil with and between Domino, Wicasah, their witch relatives, and significant others, taking up a large portion of the novel; there is the other turmoil of demons, dead souls, witches’ blood, and witches and god-like beings playing with thunder and worlds. Both eventually coalesce, but the drawn-out nature of the family turmoil dilutes the other. Both are never fully given a history: only those reasons directly related to the plot. Why does Domino and Wicasah’s father hate their mother and all witches? Where did all the witches come from in the first place and why is it a thing? Where did Domino and Wicasah’s tremendous powers come from and why are they so important to others seeking to entrap them?
With all these elements vying for the reader’s understanding, not enough basic wording is given to flesh them out fully or pace them within their importance. It is here where Nix’s stream of spiritual style dulls the pragmatic needs of the underlying actions. Her descriptions are concept-flights that need be re-read, often, to fully grasp what is going on and why.
Lots happens to the people and creatures in Helia and on earth, but their actions and reactions go by like watching a landscape from a moving train. Why Domino and other dead souls wind up in Helia is wonderfully imaginative. Witches and their hungry familiars (Domino’s familiars like to eat bones and do not mind chewing on his now and then); unhappy demons (because of all the annoying dead humans who like to sniff demon bone dust); psychopomps (from Greek mythology, guides for the dead) like the lady-slippers queen and Anxius; nuckelavees (from Orcadian mythology, a man-horse demon); a determined heyoka wielding lightning and a bad disposition (in Sioux culture, a sacred clown)--all swirl together as Domino battles to save his brother from a dangerous father who hates witches, and as Wicasah battles to save his brother from a dangerous battle between witches and gods and demons and dead souls in Helia.
There is a better novel buried in the archeological dig of this one. If you are one for reading word-tripping esoterica and new age spinning fiction, this novel may be well worth your while. There is also enough going on here that a carefully adapted screenplay could capture for Netflix or another streamer for those of us looking for more straightforward storytelling. It would not be surprising at all if that happened.
August 12, 2022
We meet Domino Bluepoint in a dust bowl version of hell with little water, lots of alcohol, and demon bones for drugs. Domino arrived there because he is a witch, as is his mother an both can sell their blood for its magical properties. But there’s a lot more to Gwendolyn Nix’s I Have Asked To Be Where No Storms Come (ebook from booksgosocial) which thn gives the back story of the two brothers who grew up in the dustbowl southwest of the 30's. I hope this finds some award nominations.
September 20, 2022
At its heart, I Have Asked to Be Where No Storms Come is a tale of two brothers desperately struggling to protect each other. Aside from the beautifully written characters and relationships, I loved the way Nix used magic as something that both helps and hurts the users, which is something I rarely see in novels.
Check content warnings before reading!
Check content warnings before reading!
January 30, 2023
A surreal tale that has elements of a western, about witchcraft, the afterlife and what someone will do for love. I'm not even sure if I'd call it horror or dark fantasy, but either way, it's a really good story.
July 29, 2022
I finished this book in the middle of the night because I just couldnt put it down. WOW is the best thing I can say about it.
Different from most horror books I've read before, It really gives you a different look at Hell. A tale of a boy and his Mama.
Different from most horror books I've read before, It really gives you a different look at Hell. A tale of a boy and his Mama.
August 9, 2022
dnf on page 174
trigger warning
Two brothers lose sight of each other and then find back together again.
We start off in hell with one of them, Domino, the older brother, and from then on we get back to childhood memories as they were alive and how they got to split up. I stopped some time after they found back together again and the necromancy that's described in the blurp didn't happen yet.
This feels as if the author either was out to confuse people or themselves had no clear sense of what this story was going to be. An unnecessary amount of trigger warning worthy topics was just mushed in there without giving each the attention or care it deserves, it felt like they're being there surely for the shock factor and flavour.
Neither the magic system gets fully developed nor do we get descriptions of any kind.
I am just slogging through this and decided I won't make myself read another 200 pages of this.
The arc was provided by the publisher.
trigger warning
Two brothers lose sight of each other and then find back together again.
We start off in hell with one of them, Domino, the older brother, and from then on we get back to childhood memories as they were alive and how they got to split up. I stopped some time after they found back together again and the necromancy that's described in the blurp didn't happen yet.
This feels as if the author either was out to confuse people or themselves had no clear sense of what this story was going to be. An unnecessary amount of trigger warning worthy topics was just mushed in there without giving each the attention or care it deserves, it felt like they're being there surely for the shock factor and flavour.
Neither the magic system gets fully developed nor do we get descriptions of any kind.
I am just slogging through this and decided I won't make myself read another 200 pages of this.
The arc was provided by the publisher.
August 4, 2023
original review: https://horrortree.com/epeolatry-book...
Can Hell can keep brothers Domino and Wicasah apart? Gwendolyn N. Nix’s I Have Asked to be Where No Storms Come portrays the lengths they go through to protect and save each other from harm. Harm ranging from a witch-hating, abusive father to blood-thirsty demons, and a vengeful thunder god.
The story opens with Domino in Hell, a wasteland of torment, and constantly on the run from demons and other human souls. While running from a demon bounty hunter, Domino comes across his mother. High on demon dust, they escape across the wastes using their own blood to barter along the way.
Meanwhile, in the living world, Wicasah, fueled by guilt, searches for a way to bring his brother back from the dead. Bargaining with costs he can’t possibly pay, he comes closer to reuniting with his brother.
Nix’s writing is evocative and filled to the brim with vivid imagery of a world much like our own.
In her version of America, a massive and impassible rift, called the ‘dark-and-bloody’, has ripped through the great plains, resulting in the usage of powerful magic, and it plays a key role in the two brother’s story. Humans delved too deep and began pumping their chemicals into the ground all in the name of greed, and the rift becomes a way for the Earth to fight back against humanity’s abuse of its natural resources.
Nix also explores the idea of belonging. The brothers acknowledge that their ancestors are not from these shores, and the magic and lore of these lands are not their own. They can never fully understand the power present in the native soil, but they do respect it, and I found Nix’s approach to climate fiction quite refreshing.
Nix’s version of Hell differs from previous depictions across the fantasy and horror genres. She gives us a new world where human souls are the intruders, and they disrupt the lives and cultures of the demons residing there before them while appropriating the demon’s magic and rituals for their own pleasures.
Rarely do I come across horror fiction with such imaginative elements. Much like Clive Barker’s more fantastic works, I Have Asked to be Where No Storms Come immerses readers in a fully realized world, and it feels much larger than what can ever be put to the page.
Can Hell can keep brothers Domino and Wicasah apart? Gwendolyn N. Nix’s I Have Asked to be Where No Storms Come portrays the lengths they go through to protect and save each other from harm. Harm ranging from a witch-hating, abusive father to blood-thirsty demons, and a vengeful thunder god.
The story opens with Domino in Hell, a wasteland of torment, and constantly on the run from demons and other human souls. While running from a demon bounty hunter, Domino comes across his mother. High on demon dust, they escape across the wastes using their own blood to barter along the way.
Meanwhile, in the living world, Wicasah, fueled by guilt, searches for a way to bring his brother back from the dead. Bargaining with costs he can’t possibly pay, he comes closer to reuniting with his brother.
Nix’s writing is evocative and filled to the brim with vivid imagery of a world much like our own.
In her version of America, a massive and impassible rift, called the ‘dark-and-bloody’, has ripped through the great plains, resulting in the usage of powerful magic, and it plays a key role in the two brother’s story. Humans delved too deep and began pumping their chemicals into the ground all in the name of greed, and the rift becomes a way for the Earth to fight back against humanity’s abuse of its natural resources.
Nix also explores the idea of belonging. The brothers acknowledge that their ancestors are not from these shores, and the magic and lore of these lands are not their own. They can never fully understand the power present in the native soil, but they do respect it, and I found Nix’s approach to climate fiction quite refreshing.
Nix’s version of Hell differs from previous depictions across the fantasy and horror genres. She gives us a new world where human souls are the intruders, and they disrupt the lives and cultures of the demons residing there before them while appropriating the demon’s magic and rituals for their own pleasures.
Rarely do I come across horror fiction with such imaginative elements. Much like Clive Barker’s more fantastic works, I Have Asked to be Where No Storms Come immerses readers in a fully realized world, and it feels much larger than what can ever be put to the page.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews