Carved from Stone and Dream

A Los Nefilim Novel, Book 2

By: T. Frohock

Narrated by: Vikas Adam

"Frohock has intricately woven a unique reinterpretation of history. Eloquent prose accompanies a lyrical theme amid prewar tensions, enriching this imaginative historical fantasy." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

In this sequel to Where Oblivion Lives, the first entry in the Los Nefilim series set during the Spanish Civil War, a coded notebook containing the identities of Los Nefilim's spies falls into enemy hands, and Diago is faced with an impossible choice: betray Los Nefilim or save his family.

February 1939

Catalonia has fallen. Los Nefilim is in retreat.

With the Nationalist forces hard on their heels, the members of Los Nefilim - Spanish Nephilim that possess the power to harness music and light in the supernatural war between the angels and daimons - make a desperate run for the French border.

Diago Alvarez, a singular being of angelic and daimonic descent, follows Guillermo and a small group of nefilim through the Pyrenees, where the ice is as treacherous as postwar loyalties - both can kill with a single slip. When a notebook of Los Nefilim's undercover operatives falls into a traitor's hands, Diago and Guillermo risk their lives to track it down. As they uncover a pocket realm deep within the Pyrenees, Diago discovers his family is held hostage.

Faced with an impossible choice: betray Los Nefilim, or watch his family die, Diago must nurture the daimonic song he has so long denied in order to save those he loves.

©2020 T. Frohock (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Very brilliant and intense sequel!

This book is not like the first book and you find that out really quickly in the prologue. I'm not usually one for prologues, but I do like how the prologue was handled here! It's CREEPY. I feel like that's the theme for this series. It brings readers up to speed with what's happened to the characters from the end of book 1 (in 1932) to now (1939), after the events of the Spanish Civil War. Los Nefilim is in retreat and anyone can be a traitor. Already, this book starts out with an intensity and urgency we didn't feel as much in the first book.

Something I didn't know because I was listening to the audiobook is that in the text version of this book, there is a recap of all the pertinent events that have happened so far. So, if you need a quick refresher, there is a recap in the text version of the books.

Content notes torture, kidnapping, drug use, violence, death, and mentions of rape.

This book explores more of the dynamics behind our major characters, and what happened with them in their past lives. I think the biggest difference for a character from book 1 to this book is Jordi, actually. While I found his revenge scheme a little haphazard, I thought there was another character who overshadowed him in the previous book. Here, we see Jordi changed. He's behind a lot of bad things happening in this book, and I definitely see him more of the big bad now than I did before.

I didn't feel like this book was necessarily DARK dark, but I have a very bad gauge on what is dark as far as storylines go? But there are torture scenes that might be hard to read for some folks. There are very harrowing scenes here that involves our favorite characters being tortured and drugged, and things are pretty grim.

I like that we see more of Miquel in this book. He might not be in his element, but we learn a lot more about him and how he ticks. There's still plenty of Diago and Guillermo, and now we just see a lot more from a lot of the different characters. They've all been separated by the war and this book contains the different storylines and leads us to the point where they ultimately meet again. I would recommend reading these books in order. It doesn't do anyone any good to start, say, from this book. I think it would just feel like you're missing part of the story, especially since the storylines take awhile to converge and the characters meet up again.

I think it's interesting to see more involvement from Ysabel and Rafael now that they're teenagers having grown up in the midst of war. Ysabel is Guillermo's heir and Rafael is Diago and Miquel's son. Rafael wants to be able to DO grown up things instead of sitting on the sidelines, which leads him into a lot of trouble.

An interesting addition to the cast is Nico, Jordi's lover. We saw a bit of him in the first book, but his presence is much more pronounced here in a way that I wasn't expecting. Readers are left wondering if he's trustworthy or if he's a liar. I don't know what it is about books making me second guess characters named Nico, but here we are again (the first being the Hazard and Somerset series by Gregory Ashe). I think Nico is an interesting character, but definitely someone I wanted to dive deeper into - what's his backstory, his past lives (does he have any?), and how on earth he winded up finding Jordi in the first place (if the book said, I missed it).

As for the ending, I did find the showdown in this book a bit confusing because it was hard to picture in my head what was actually going on? There's a lot happening and I'm easily lost, I guess. There's daimons and souls involved. I didn't understand all of it, but I did enjoy this book.

The audiobook is still fantastic. Vikas Adam is very enjoyable to listen to as he performs all these characters. I would highly recommend checking out this series in audio. I have no complaints. I'm sure I wouldn't be able to pronounce half the names and places in this book, and so listening to the audio really helps.

There's not really much for me to say about Diago. Diago is great, and I think I would still count him as the MAIN character, even as we circle between all the different storylines and cast. He's still the key to the Key (haha get it?) for Los Nefilim and the composition that will open the path between their realms. It's interesting to see how his life ties those around him in his past incarnations. Because we learn a lot more about his and Jordi's relationship from a past life, don't we? Apparently Jordi chose Nico as a lover due to his likeness to Diago, and ISN'T THAT INTERESTING? I would say, let's explore that soap opera a little deeper because I want to know more!

Like I said before in my review for book 1, there should be more people reading this series! I love that there's an epic established queer relationship that has spanned years and years, through multiple incarnations. I love that this story is so intense, but still manages to have such lovely characters that keep us grounded in their lives while providing a satisfying outcome at the end of the book. This book still ends on a hopeful note, even though we know the inevitable is coming to Europe that book 3 covers. Even though this isn't Romance with that capital R, I feel like this ends on a satisfying HFN between Diago and Miquel and that's all I can really ask for.