What. A. Story.
5 out of 5 stars
The Fall of the House is the first book in the From The Secrets of the Red Room series that features both Phipps & Suttkus at the helm. I’ve read quite a few books from Phipps alone and probably just as many from the two of them together, and every time they get together, they make magic.
I think one of the reasons I like Phipps & Suttkus so much has a few significant points. First, I love that they always include pop references and inside jokes and don’t take themselves too seriously (even in major battles, someone usually says something that makes me laugh). Second, I think that the multiverse-style writing, where everything is interconnected in some way to other stories that they are writing, is fantastic. It has that “ohhhh, so that’s how this bad guy or this anti-her was created” feel to it constantly. Third, the action is hard to beat. The Fall of the House has some of the MOST action happening in any book they’ve written to date. The bad guys, especially the big bad dude at the end, were relentless. And they consistently nail the action, but in this one, they absolutely crushed it.
Writing in a multiverse / interconnected universe like The Red Room allows some things to be tied up in a nice bow. But other things to be shown without the book feeling like it was a cliffhanger. Things in this series can be tied up in a pretty bow but still leave other things untouched. It’s a unique and exciting way of writing, and I loved the ending of The Fall of the House because of it.
I like that they “went back to the drawing board” a bit with this one and seemed to allow it to line up with another series in the universe/multiverse they’ve created, the United States of Monsters. Merging these two timelines makes a lot of sense, and the work they did to make it come out felt seamless in this book. It allows Phipps and Suttkus to utilize any of these characters in other books in the future without tying them directly to the Red Room series.
Overall, a series that I enjoyed that seemed like it may have lost its way did the polar opposite. They breathed life into it and made it one of my favorite Phipps and Suttkus books to date. As always, Kafer delivers and perfect performance – absolutely nailing the tones and attitudes of the various characters. He’s the perfect narrator for the character-driven storytelling that these authors do so well.
Book Description:
From the best-selling author of The Rules of Supervillainy:
Derek Hawthorne has slain Dracula and stopped the malevolent plan of his own employers, the sinister House. However, he has discovered that his ex-partner and lover Ashley Morgan has been kidnapped while a new conspiracy moves to expose the supernatural to the world. The House has overplayed its hand and all of its enemies are coming to bring it down. Derek will have to travel dimensions, fight monsters, and call in every favor he’s accumulated just to survive.
The Fall of the House is the exciting conclusion of the Red Room trilogy, tying the series to the greater United States of Monsters universe (Bright Falls Mysteries, Straight Outta Fangton, and Brightblade).
The Fall of the House by Michael Suttkus, CT PhippsNarrator: Jeffrey Kafer
Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
Series: Red Room #3
Published by Crossroad Press Genres: Fantasy
Also by this author: Lucifer's Star, I Was a Teenage Weredeer, An American Weredeer in Michigan, Lucifer's Nebula, Cthulhu Armageddon, Agent G: Infiltrator, The Tower of Zhaal
Also in this series: Esoterrorism, Eldritch Ops
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