Review: Angst, Curses, and Badassery
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 31, 2013
"The Fighter" by Nathan Squiers is part two of the prequel begun in Megan J. Parker's "The Lover". Its narrator, Zane, is an extremely belligerent vampire in possession of an agonizing double-edged curse. We come upon him at a bar, heavily inebriated and racist toward just about everyone he sees. This cemented him as an anti-hero in my mind and, while I can make a small exception for his life's current situation, didn't make me particularly like his personality.In contrast with some of Squiers's other works, "The Fighter" is written in a brutal fashion; its violence isn't limited to the dialogue or the nature of events, but instead runs amok through every word of Zane's narration. Honestly, its intensity became exhausting after awhile, especially with the amount of description Zane attributes to each event that occurs. Maybe I should have taken a moment's respite from the profanity and angst, because my eyes began to glaze and I had to re-read some passages to make sure I hadn't missed anything.Like Zane's curse, this method of immersible writing is double-edged: the raw power of this piece is undeniable and offers an intimate look into Zane's personality which, when viewed in comparison with Serena's demeanor in "The Lover", incited my curiosity concerning their chemistry over the story's continuation. Together, their stories gain meaning greater than the sum of their parts.This is a fast, violent prequel that acts as an effective primer for the series to follow.