My Review of Chermasu by Brian McKinley

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Note: the following review also appears on Goodreads and Amazon.

As I write this review, I want to be honest and mention that Brian McKinley is a member of my Writer's Group. In writing this review, I wanted to make sure I was as objective as possible, though if some bias comes out, I hope you can forgive me.

I read the earlier version of this novel, called The Chermasu in its short story form, back in 2012. It was a good start, but in my mind, that's all it was: a starting point. The bones were there for a larger story, an expansion of the shapeshifter/werewolf mythology, and a deeper look into the antagonism between vampires and werewolves.

And here we are, fourteen years later, and boy, has Brian outdone himself with the long-form novel, Chermasu. I will be the first to admit that I am not a fan of his Avery Doyle series, and much prefer his Faolan O'Connor novels. Brian's first foray into writing with Ancient Blood showed promise, but it was uneven, sometimes melodramatic, and wasn't a consistently good book. This, of course, is to be expected with many writers' first attempts.

However, over the years, he has gained much more confidence and has figured out his writer's voice, regardless of whether that voice was Avery's, Faolan's or in the case of Chermasu, primarily Alia Cheveyo, alongside multiple other viewpoint characters. And understanding who he is as a writer has had a profound effect on his writing.

Chermasu is a great example of this. He has learned to control himself. Gone are the hyperbolic flourishes from Ancient Blood. Characters no longer act or shout or swear for effect or shock value. Now, his characters, whether good or evil, are nuanced and usually grappling with some inner conflict. They're more three-dimensional. His heroes and antiheroes are conflicted and relatable, and yet deep down, they try to do the best they can for the greater good. Similarly, his antagonists can be funny, nuanced, irreverent, religious, and deeply, psychologically messed-up, in the best way possible.

With Chermasu, Brian's writing is a lot more controlled. He was very philosophical and respectful of the Native American Hopi culture. With this novel, he's introduced some of my favorite characters in his entire Order universe: Cleve, the British Krow twins and their Mum, and of course, his heroine, Alia.

And that's the other thing: Alia is the first female main character he's written that is actually part of The Other. She is Native American. She is not a vampyr (and thus, not part of The Order Hegemony). She's inexperienced and a stranger to the ways of the world. Brian's other main female character, Caroline Ludlow from Ancient Blood and Ancient Enemies, is the exact opposite: white, privileged, educated, a vampyr who has risen to the top of The Order. Brian wrote Caroline as someone who had power foisted upon her and had to learn how to use that power; he wrote Alia with inner strength, who had to learn how to transmute that strength into power.

What sets Caroline and Alia apart, however, is that Caroline was written heavy-handedly. She wasn't very relatable or likable. Where Caroline was cold and dispassionate, Alia is spiritual and warm. Caroline was too perfect from the get-go: too smart, too knowledgeable, too beautiful, too diplomatic, too idealistic, and perhaps just a bit too much. Alia is all that Caroline is not: she's smart but uneducated, wise but unproven, gifted but afraid to learn what being gifted means. Alia is guided by her heart, her family, her culture, so everything she does is linked to something within her core, whether it's a Hopi belief, something her mother taught her, or the mysteries and legends of the Native American culture. One cannot say the same about Caroline.

Now, I will be the first to admit that I do not care for most of Brian's female characters. I can count on one hand the female characters he's written that I do like: Miranda and Stephanie (from the Faolan novels), and now, Alia and Winnie, from Chermasu. (As for Caroline, the irony is that I wrote a short story about her in the anthology, Drawing Blood Volume 1: Tales of the Vampyr Hegemony. In my own way, I tried to make her more approachable, more accessible to female readers.)

I think the changes Brian's undergone over the years as a writer have enabled him to write Alia as a well-rounded, balanced character. She has her faults, but she is grounded and with a staunch belief system, a moral compass that doesn't shift easily even when tested, and a way of making others around her want to be better even as she's expanding her own worldview outside the humble, sheltered life she has known.

As I told Brian, Chermasu was more of an emotional read for me while we were reading it as part of Writer's Group. Yes, I still caught grammatical errors and narrative inconsistencies, historical inaccuracies and any gaps in plot or narrative. He's fixed all those. But those things aren't what makes Chermasu his strongest work to-date. It's the fact that Brian took what could have been just another urban fantasy story about vampires and shapeshifters and turned it into something more than a battle-it-out blood-and-gore extravaganza.

In Chermasu, Brian upped his game. His character development was great: none of his major characters—whether heroes or villains—were alike; they weren't two-dimensional. He tackled philosophical concepts—the meaning of faith and spiritualism, the role of family, the importance of a shared history, what mythology means and how it affects the psyche—and several quests for redemption, all while balancing the narrative with some serious action sequences.

With Chermasu, Brian has shown the most emotional growth, the highest clarity in his writing, and the best characterization of all works within his oeuvre.