What I'm Reading: The Dead Take the A Train

This is not an unbiased review in that I'm a huge fan of Cassandra Khaw. This novel fit neatly into their body of work.

The Dead Take the A Train was jointly written by Khaw and Richard Kadrey. If you don't enjoy gore and viscera, this book is not for you. It's about a young woman struggling to make ends meet through demon hunting while reconnecting with an old friend/flame who's running from something.

This is a dark book, and there are a lot of scenes that include either demons laying their eggs inside of human hosts or otherwise breeding in our world. There is tons of violence and gore and characters meeting their ends in horrific ways. The Dead Take the A Train explores the ideas of found family, queer love, domestic abuse and abuse of power, community building, and the problems with capitalism.

There is romance. Magical allies. The crushing fatigue of trying to navigate a system where the deck is stacked against the main character at every turn.

Through it all, I found myself spurred onward to see what happened next. This wasn't always an easy book, but it didn't disappoint.