Falling to Ash by Karen Mahoney

Title: Falling to Ash (Moth #1)
Author: Karen Mahoney
Genre:Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher: Corgi Books (27th September 2012)
Blurb:

MARIE O’NEAL USED TO HAVE A LIFE, A FAMILY . . . AND A PULSE.

But now, everything’s changed. Marie is dead, and in her place newly-made vampire Moth stalks the streets of Boston, struggling to make sense of a world in which she no longer belongs . . .

Rating: ****(4 stars)
Review:

I first came across the character of Moth in a short story titled ‘Falling to Ash’ in a short story collection/anthology called The Eternal Kiss (you can find my thoughts on the collection here) and I absolutely fell in love with the world and character Karen Mahoney created. So, of course, when I heard that Mahoney was going to write a novel based on that short story I had to get my hands on a copy.

The novel Falling to Ash is narrated by Moth – Marie O’Neal – a recently turned vampire.  In the story Moth is still struggling to come to terms with the fact that she is a vampire. I really liked this aspect of Mahoney’s main character. That she is not all “isn’t being a vampire soooooo cool”, but at the same time despite how uncomfortable she finds it she can still acknowledge the good parts about being a vampire. I really liked Moth’s narrative voice, seeing the events of Falling to Ash through her eyes really worked for me. It made me really empathise with her as a character, and I enjoyed hanging out in her head.

Mahoney splits the plot of Falling to Ash into two distinct parts that overlap throughout the narrative. I really enjoyed reading about Moth learning to fit into her new world in one main plot, and I also liked the mystery and suspense of the second main plot. Mahoney does a brilliant job with the conclusion of the book. She ties up enough loose ends so that the book feels complete, but she also leaves enough threads that I am looking forward to getting my hands on the second book in the series – which according to Goodreads isn’t out until 2014 unfortunately.

The secondary characters in the book were really interesting, most of them will be familiar to those who have read the short story and I really liked that. I liked getting to see Theo and Jace again, and watching Moth interact with both of them. I think her relationships with these two characters are really interesting. I also enjoyed getting to see Moth’s human family – I’m hoping that there will be more of them in later books.

If you are a fan of vampires and urban fantasy novels then you should definitely check out Falling to Ash. Mahoney creates an interesting world with a brilliant protagonist who seems very real.