Fiend

By: Alma Katsu

Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik

Historical horror maven Alma Katsu turns her talents to the modern world for the first time, in this terrifying tale about an all-powerful family with an ancient evil under its thumb.

"If you liked Succession but think it would have been a lot more fun with a 1,000 year old demon, then Alma Katsu's Fiend has got you covered." —Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

Imagine if the Sackler family had a demon at their beck and call.

The Berisha family runs one of the largest import-export companies in the world, and they’ve always been lucky. Their rivals suffer strokes. Inconvenient buildings catch on fire. Earthquakes swallow up manufacturing plants, destroying harmful evidence. Things always seem to work out for the Berishas. They’re blessed.

At least that is what Zef, the patriarch, has always told his three children. And each of them knows their place in the family—Dardan, as the only male heir, must prepare to take over as keeper of the Berisha secrets, Maris’s most powerful contribution, much to her dismay, will be to marry strategically, and Nora’s job, as the youngest, is to just stay out of the way. But when things stop going as planned, and the family blessing starts looking more like a curse, the Berishas begin to splinter, each hatching their own secret scheme. They didn’t get to be one of the richest families in the world without spilling a little blood, but this time, it might be their own.

Alma Katsu is Phenomenal!

Once I started listening, I could not stop! The story is so engaging and so satisfying! A scathing critique of the mega-corporations and the evil done in the name greed, while at the same time offering hope that with the changing of the guard, the new generation can pave a new way.
The narration is superb, bringing the characters to life, in their vices, virtues, victories and defeats. I loved every second of it!
My only regret is that the book wasn’t longer. 6 hours is far too short for such an incredible story!

Mehhhhh, ok

Very ok. The story wasn’t gripping/maybe I just don’t care about dumb rich folk. I couldn’t get past that the main character & antagonist had a voice and cadence like a 5 year old girl. I also don’t understand the message… evil is as evil does so release the evil and murder your family? Hurt people hurt people? Billionaires gonna billionaire? Unknown. Overall boring.

Lost me as far as why I should care about the Balishka’s and their emotional demon.

Great fun

I enjoyed this book more then I thought I would but it was a fun romp past the story book endings. Lotsa plot twists and pretty good character development

great till the end

As always I loved Alma's writing, but the ending was (unusual for Katsu) a total cop out.It would have been astounding, but then the big fail at the end left me flat.