Book Review and #BlogTour @The_WriteReads – White Trash Warlock (#1 The Adam Binder Novels) by David R. Slayton (4.5 stars)

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Title: White Trash Warlock (#1 The Adam Binder Novels)

Author: David R. Slayton

Published: 13^th of October 2020 – Blackstone Publishing

Format: Paperback – 320 pages

“You think we’re all trash because we don’t have nice cars and ugly houses. Life isn’t just about money.” – White Trash Warlock

Hello Hello! How are you all on this lovely Sunday?

Today it’s my tour stop on the White Trash Warlock blog tour organised by Dave from @The_WriteReads and I’m so glad I was able to participate on this tour because this book was great!

Thank you to Dave and the author for letting me take part in this tour, and thank you very much to the author for providing me with a free physical copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own, so keep reading on for my thoughts!

GOODREADS SYNOPSIS

Guthrie was a good place to be from, but it wasn’t a great place to live, not when you were like Adam, in all the ways Adam was like Adam.

Adam Binder hasn’t spoken to his brother in years, not since Bobby had him committed to a psych ward for hearing voices. When a murderous spirit possesses Bobby’s wife and disrupts the perfect life he’s built away from Oklahoma, he’s forced to ask for his little brother’s help. Adam is happy to escape the trailer park and get the chance to say I told you so, but he arrives in Denver to find the local magicians dead.

It isn’t long before Adam is the spirit’s next target. To survive the confrontation, he’ll have to risk bargaining with powers he’d rather avoid, including his first love, the elf who broke his heart.

The Binder brothers don’t realize that they’re unwitting pawns in a game played by immortals. Death herself wants the spirit’s head, and she’s willing to destroy their family to reap it.

MY REVIEW

White Trash Warlock by David R. Slayton is the first book in the LGBT Fantasy series called the Adam Binder Novels. This is a book that I jumped on when Dave announced it! I love anything fantasy, especially if it is a series and when I read that blurb, I knew this was going to be a book for me, and my instincts were right!

As soon as I started reading this book, I was sucked into this world and I got such strong Supernatural vibes from this book, it was so great! I know that had I not been so tired, I would have read this in one single sitting because the plot just kept on giving and giving and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough!

SETTING

This book is set in present-day America, first in Adam’s hometown (I believe) and then in Denver, where most of the action and plot takes place. Again, the setting and the way the places and the atmosphere were described really gave me Supernatural vibes, or anything supernatural/paranormal really, so if that is something you like in a book, this is one to check out.

I found that the descriptions were really nice and I was able to picture everything really easily. I found the description of the “beating heart” (you’ll know what I mean if you read it) to be really sinister, dark and cold, but this only added to the overall gloomy and uneasy feeling that the characters were getting from everything that is happening.

At the end of the book, Adam is travelling somewhere again, and I can’t wait to read about the place he will go!

CHARACTERS

Adam: Adam is the main character, he is a young man who has suffered a lot during his life because of parental abuse and then when he was a teenager, his magic started to be noticed and his brother had him institutionalised. Needless to say, he is very angry towards his brother and hasn’t forgiven him for locking him away when all he needed was help to learn his magic. I love reading about diverse and LGBT characters and this book definitely has this, which is a refreshing change to a lot of fantasy! I really liked Adam as a character, he is very driven and he has a very strong duty, he has a very strong moral compass and refuses to do wrong, he always wants to help people. I can’t wait to read more about him, see him evolve and see his relationships with the other characters blossom!

Argent and Silver: These two are quite important characters in the story, but I don’t want to say much about them because it would be a spoiler and I want you to experience meeting them yourselves. I instantly liked both of these characters, even though they give off the general cruel fae vibes (they are elves, but it’s the same kind of feeling). I grew to know them through this story and it was honestly really interesting to learn more about them and to see how they were interwoven with the story!

Sue, Bobby and Tilla: Sue is Adam’s aunt and we only see her a little bit at the start, but I also instantly liked her. She doesn’t mess around, she gets things done and she is straightforward, which when you meet his other family members, it’s great he had someone like Sue to help him. Bobby is Adam’s older brother and even after everything that happened in this book, I still do not like him for having not helped his brother and acted like he knew best and is the boss. I did not like his attitude and he came across so pushy and egotistical, but I feel like he might change in the next book. Finally, Tilla is Adam’s mother, and again, I did not like her, not because she was badly written, but I found Adam’s family to be utterly detestable for the way they behaved around him even though they asked him for help. I’m still not sure what I think of his mother, but I’m hoping to know where I stand in the sequel.

Vicente: Vicente is a character that comes into this book with a bang (almost quite literally) and I wasn’t sure about him to start with, but as this book finished, I loved him and I just wanted to read more about him. He is a cop and works at Bobby’s workplace. I loved reading about hi, his family and see him and Adam get to know one another. The ending kind of killed me a little because of what he has become (I won’t say more) but I am very much looking forward to reading more about him soon hopefully!

THEMES

Complicated family relationships: If you are sensitive to complicated family relationships, domestic abuse, parental abuse, cold relationships between parents/siblings, then I would steer clear of this book because it can get really heavy on these themes, and these are some very hard-hitting topics. I found that these depictions were quite vivid, but it helped to understand Adam, Bobby, Tilla and even Sue’s lives a little bit more, even though it broke my heart to read about everything Adam went through. Even in the present-day of the story, there are familial tensions, and I just wanted to shake everything, so please be aware of this if you are thinking of picking this book up.

LGBT characters: This is a theme that I adore reading about in books and I think it was done really well. Diversity is such an important topic! My heart also hurt for Adam with this topic because he has always felt like the outsider and the freak, so to speak, because of his magic, and he knew that being gay only made people see him in a more negative light. Throughout this book, I found that he had the support from various people that he needed and I liked that other characters fully supported him!

Dark, spooky and atmospheric vibe to the story: I have said it before, but this book had such a great vibe and it had me fully immersed from start to finish. This would be the PERFECT book to read at Halloween or if you fancy something a bit more on the dark side without going to the horror genre. There are some parts in this book where I felt my hair on my arms stand on end because wow, it was spooooooky! If you love Supernatural or any dark, atmospheric book/movie/TV show, you are going to love this book!

Adam’s missions: Adam has one mission as we meet him in White Trash Warlock, and as he comes across another one, he deals with that, but the first one seems intertwined into the second. I suppose you could call this a big-plot versus small-plot and I really liked that they were both linked and actually, were a lot more important than Adam first thought. I can’t say anymore, just that I really liked the way the plot was set up and that the action just kept on coming and coming, I don’t think there was a lull in this book, so it gets a big thumbs up from me!

Violence/fighting/death: Just as this book has a lot of tension and abuse, it also has a lot of violence, fighting and death, which as a fantasy lover, is something that I enjoy reading about when it’s done well (and that makes me sound so weird ahah). I found that the fight scenes were well-executed, if not a little bit rushed in my opinion and people came out fairly unscathed, but I just wanted to add a point about this in case you don’t like reading about these themes in books.

Trigger Warnings: death, abuse, domestic abuse, parental abuse, discussions around mental health, institutionalisation, hospital, violence, blood.

MY THOUGHTS AND RATING

Overall, this was such a UNIQUE – I haven’t said that yet, but wow, it was definitely unique – book with a fantastic atmosphere and I was hooked from start to finish. I can see this series being one that I love and that I continue reading, I just hope the second book comes out soon.

The writing style was simple, the sentences were short and this made the book go fast. I love descriptions in books and despite the shortness and simplicity of the writing style, I found that I had the descriptions and details that I needed. This is the kind of book you can binge-read and as I said, it is so unique, I don’t think I’ve ever read anything like this. So many of the plot twists were so unexpected, I have no idea how the author came up with them, but kudos to the author for originality and for surprising his reader again and again.

I gave this book 4.5 stars, and I really, really enjoyed it. It was fun, I was thoroughly engaged and very invested in the characters and the plot. You can find my full ASPECTS rating down below! If you like fantasy books that are more on the dark side with unique magic, diverse characters and a very original plot, then this is the book for you, just make sure to check out the trigger warnings above first!

Thank you once again to Dave and David for letting me take part in this tour, it was such a great book and I’m thrilled to have been given the chance to read it. I will be continuing this series as soon as the next book is available!

That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed this post, see you soon, stay safe,

Ellie xx

ABOUT THE AUTHOR – DAVID R. SLAYTON

“I grew up in Guthrie, Oklahoma, where finding fantasy novels was pretty challenging and finding fantasy novels with diverse characters was downright impossible. Now I live in Denver, Colorado and write the books I always wanted to read.”

.

David’s Links: Website – Facebook – Twitter – Instagram

ASPECTS RATING

Atmosphere – 7.5

Start – 7

Pacing – 7.5

Ending – 8

Characters – 7.5

Theme – 8

Style – 7

Total = 52.5

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If you would like to purchase this book, you can find it here:  Amazon UK  – Amazon FR – Amazon US – AbeBooks – The Book Depository – Audible FR – Barnes and Noble – Audible UK – Blackwell’s – BetterWorldBooks