Never Again by Lily Luchesi

This review was written by: B

Received: Ebook from Author

Publication Date of Book: Dec. 2, 2017

Pages: 272

Stars: 5/5

Synopsis:

A standalone spin-off of the Paranormal Detective Series, we discover the true horrors during Hitler's reign. 

In World War Two, not all monsters were human.

Male siren Sean Wireman was ostracized from his small village in Israel in the sixteenth century, forced to wander the world until he settled in America in the 1920s.  Since he doesn't age like a normal person, he was fit to fight in World War Two, to defend the heritage he spent his whole life running from.

Seventy years later, after he has lived a whole other life since Hitler was defeated, from attending law school to becoming a bona fide rock star, the monsters the Nazis released upon the Jews in concentration camps have returned, and he is the only one who can destroy them.

But can he save his people once again, or will this fight take a deadly toll?

My Thoughts:

No great hero ever worked alone.

~Devon, Never Again

In grade school, I became obsessed with reading about World War II, especially the Holocaust.  I would take book upon book out of the library every week and pour over the narratives written by those who made it out of concentration camps.  Survivor stories had a way of breaking my heart but also inspiring me.  The endurance they showed, the Hell they trekked through, and the fact that they had the strength to share their accounts opened my eyes to a whole new world and influenced me in the way that I looked at the world.  However, I hadn't thought about those narratives for years now, until this book.  Luchesi reminded me of the heartache so many people suffered and approached the subject with honesty and true horror, refusing to sugarcoat or lessen the blow of the wrenching tragedies that innocents upon innocents faced in concentration camps due to racism and bigoted anger.  I would not have asked for anything less than the truth.  Luchesi approached the war and its consequences with honesty and also sincerity.  The compassion she had for the subject was more than palpable, surely leaving future readers with a sense of earnestness and empathy for those they never even knew.  The additional paranormal horror elements only added to the shock factor of the true historical time period of WWII.  I loved the demonic elements she added, creating an even more sinister history that I couldn't stop devouring.  

I can only begin to imagine the amount of research Luchesi put into this book, and her hard work shone through.  The truthful elements woven into the fantastical produced an unstoppable read that will surely please current fans and those looking for a historical ride filled with both legitimacy and the dark paranormal.  The rich historical elements were expertly dropped in context instead of sounding like a lesson, serving to add a realistic twist to Sean's life and anchoring the reader to his story. 

I loved getting to know more about Sean the siren introduced in previous Paranormal Detective books.  I've rarely read or encountered stories about alluring sirens who were male; strangely, they've only been female!  I love the thought of an irresistible siren who can sway minds with his voice alone.  One element that surprised me, but I loved nonetheless, was that I didn't expect to travel with Sean through so many different time periods and to so many locations!  I assumed that I would only be getting a perspective from WWII and present day, but little did I know Luchesi had so much more in store!  She created a heartfelt story across time through one man alone beginning in the 1000s and running through to the 2000s.  Sean's flaws and troubles made him an irresistible character despite the fact that he said time and time again that he could be slightly unlikable.  I think it was his invisible scars that got to me and made him human even though he wasn't.  Of course, one would imagine that a person wouldn't be able to live through so much without being left with trauma, and the war and entrapment in a concentration camp left its mark on Sean.  I believe Luchesi handled his PTSD honestly, demonstrating the toll it can take on a person mentally, physically, and emotionally, serving to make Sean even more of a realistic character.  I've never encountered a person with PTSD and cannot speak about the representation personally, but I felt a reliable pull to his pain and any reader's heart will surely ache for him.

In all honesty, I love spin-offs!  I know that so many readers have issues with them and think that an author should end a series and put a world to rest, enough is enough.  I, on the other hand, find spin-offs to be a guilty pleasure of mine.  Who doesn't love seeing an author explore their world further, peeling back layers you could never imagine were even there in the first place?  Luchesi explored so much more, and I can only imagine what else she could produce with this world.  On a similar note, while this book certainly stands on its own, a loyal reader of this series will squeal when they see familiar faces intertwined in Sean's narrative.  Without spoiling, a person will surely meet familiar faces, witches, vampires, and humans alike because not only did we get to see a bit of Sean's backstory but also a little bit of backstory tidbits of other characters thanks to him.  I was so darn ecstatic when I encountered familiar faces to gush over.  Luchesi certainly played her cards well when connecting Sean's dots with other creatures!  Sneaky, sneaky!

Lastly, it wouldn't be a Lily Luchesi book without an appreciation for music!  Not only is there a playlist provided in Never Again, but Sean also demonstrates a huge fondness for music himself.  I personally connected with this side of him as I have the tendency to naturally designate a song to be the anthem for my life at the moment or associate songs with book/anime/television characters (like whenever I hear Monster by Imagine Dragons I immediately think of Kyo from Fruits Basket, and whenever I hear In the Name of Love, I think about Yuri and Victor from Yuri on Ice).  I strongly relate to Sean's passion for music and is just another reason that I fell in love him.