Darkling by Brooklyn Ray

A Rosalind Review 

 

Darkling by @BrooklynRayWrites 

 

Chemistry: 💥💥💥💥 

Heat: 🔥🔥🔥
Magic: ✨✨✨✨

 

In the sleepy, rainy, PNW town of Port Lewis, there’s magic afoot. A few big, old, proud witching families keep order over the rest. Ryder belongs to a circle—trusted friends who use their compatible powers to access a greater magic. But that’s not all. Ryder’s a fire witch. But that’s not all. He’s also, secretly, the son of the Port Lewis dark witches, necromancers—The Wolfes. But that’s not all. His necromancer powers have awakened. But that’s not all.

 

When Ryder and his (not-as-secret-as-he-thinks) secret crush, Liam, do a tarot reading together, in private, some weird stuff happens. An ancient spirit joins in, the cards: The Magician, The Tower, The Lovers, The Devil spell doom and a dark partnership. The reading throws everything they’ve been denying into the light. Ryder can no longer ignore the scary parts of himself. If he tries, it might eat him alive. Worse, it might hurt Liam. Ryder has to get a handle on his necromancer magic—which means a dark and deadly ritual—before something terrible happens. But, can he do it in time? And what consequences will follow if it doesn’t work… or if it does? There’s never been an elemental witch with necromancer magic. There’s never been a necromancer with a circle. 

 

What follows is a lovingly crafted portrayal of old magic in a modern world swirled together with a love story that Brooklyn Ray could have wrought complicated and melodramatic but, instead, makes simple and sweet and beautiful. Because, that’s one last thing about Ryder: he’s a trans man. Ray does a beautiful thing with Port Lewis. When it comes to queer identity, the witchy community and characters are peaceful, accepting and open. The drama comes from Ryder’s magic. A magic that scares some folks—especially the “old fashioned” families. So Darkling works as a literal tale of magic, as a sweet love story, as a story about a young man who happens to be trans, as a parable about identity, and as an allegory for the ways society treats people it doesn’t understand. It’s pretty smart. And it’s pretty beautiful. 

 

Kiss & Tell: Ray writes some 🔥 scenes, people! Using elemental/dark magic to heighten the experience of sex is a nice touch and there are plenty of hot kisses, touching, oral, and penetrative sex combined with what COULD be considered a bit of BDSM (blood letting)

 

Fair Warning: Queer character death (but resurrected) and animal death (but resurrected)