"Kingdom of the Wicked" by Kerri Maniscalco

Kerri Maniscalco is the author of the highly popular Stalking Jack the Ripper series. I personally never read those books so Kingdom of the Wicked is my first novel by this author. This is the first book in a YA dark fantasy trilogy. I think it will definitely appeal to the fans of The Cruel Prince trilogy by Holly Black. Only in this case, we deal with Italian folklore, witches and demons, rather than Celtic myths, humans and fairies. 

Our main character Emilia is a strega (or witch). Witches in this world are not human even though they inhabit the human world. There is some secret surrounding the birth of Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria, some prophecy that their grandmother hints at but does not reveal until much later in the story. Since early childhood, the girls are warned of the Malvagi, the Wicked demon princes of the underworld. Emilia does not really believe any of her grandmother's warnings, until one day her world falls apart. She finds her twin brutally murdered and a mysterious stranger hovering over the body.

You are really better off going into this not knowing much beyond this. This novel is a mix of fantasy, mystery thriller and dark romance. As such, it is compulsively readable. This is one of very few books that I could not put down well into the night even though I had to get up for work early the following morning. Maniscalco is great at monopolizing the reader's attention. Each chapter has just enough of a cliffhanger in the end for you to want to quickly move on to the next one, and then the next one, until it is 2AM and you have to finally turn off the lights. 

I really liked the plot and the pacing. But I did have a few problems with the characters. First of all Emilia herself with her bouts of anger and irrational behavior, seemed a little too unhinged. The book does depict grief and depression in a very realistic way, but I always have trouble connecting to the characters who can blindly fly into rage, or believe the words of an unreliable character while distrusting others who have built up a record of credibility. That seems to me as poor judgement at the very least or plain foolishness at the worst. 

Now, the demons. They were truly glorious, except... too human and vulnerable, especially Wraith. Since the book is written from Emilia's point of view, we spend a lot of time in her head and thus, get only her jumbled view of his motives and actions. I do wish we could learn more of what he was doing while not with Emilia - that part of the story was never revealed. I hope we will learn more in the sequels. 

Another aspect that bothered me was the family dynamic. In the beginning of the story, we have a very overprotective grandmother and a seemingly close-knit family circle. About a third into the book, everyone inexplicably allows Emilia roam the city on her own even as the witches begin to die. Her parents even though mentioned in the book, have no role in the story whatsoever other than being held as hostages by an evil demon who is trying to bargain with Emilia. Disappointing. 

The romance was  probably the best part of the story, although with the cliffhanger ending, it is really hard to say where it is going. And yes, this is another thing to be aware of: the book ends on a cliffhanger. Not my favorite type of ending, especially since we'll now have to wait for at least a year to see what happens next. But, at this point, I think we might have a Hades and Persephone type story set up for book 2. 

4 out of 5 stars. Very enjoyable with a few minor flaws.

An e-ARC was provided by NetGalley.com