Entwined (Darklight 3) by Sean Ian O'Meidhir and Connal Braginsky

[Ulysses]

Entwined (Darklight, book 3)
By Sean Ian O'Meidhir & Connal Braginsky
Ninestars Press, 2024
Five stars

Well, everything the authors (and the mysterious corporate spook known as HR) withheld in the previous two books comes pouring out in this one, flooding the reader with more information and emotional baggage than anyone might have imagined. However weird you expected it to be, it goes way beyond. Somehow, it still all makes sense. Mostly.

It’s almost impossible to write about this in any detail without spoilers, so I’ll leave it to the readers to discover the rather overwhelming direction in which the story veers. As simple as “Rescue” was, “Entwined” is the opposite. Cameron joins Nathen in the employ of Impetus, and together with Syn the boys head off on a road trip that takes them first to Texas, and then to Louisiana—and right into the middle of what appears to be a magical war between fae factions. The series’ lingering sci-fi tech fantasy turns into a full-on paranormal nightmare.

But it’s not all action, or not physical action, anyway. Nathen and Cam, and a new friend named August, find themselves sucked into a dreamlike experience that is as philosophical and existentialist as paranormal surprise can be. Both Nathen’s and Cameron’s psyches are plumbed and exposed, but then woven back into the larger story of their unique bond and the shared quest they seem to have been handed without their consent. Indeed, consent becomes a critical lynchpin in this story as Cameron and Nathen struggle to cope, their love and their differences becoming points contention as the unbelievable narrative unfolds around them.

It is better to let yourself go and just read—not trying to make sense of anything. There is a logic and a linearity here that works best when you allow the authors’ imaginations simply flow over you.

I felt that Syn rather got short shrift in this book (and she lets you know it); but both Cameron and Nathen continue to be touching amusing and highly appealing characters.

The ending is an all-out cliffhanger, foreshadowed in the prologue, that is a totally sneaky way to get us to buy the next book when it appears.