DECAGON

This new-adult urban fantasy debut sees an immortal with a secret help her long-lived clan stay one step ahead of those hunting it.

On an island in the swamps near Cocodrie, Louisiana, lives a clan called Nonagon. Among these eight individuals—also known as the Others, who are “really hard to kill”—is Dalia. She’s over two centuries old and has the power to enter a dreamscape called Pool. For the last six years, she’s been trying to rescue a man named Titus, whose spirit wanders the Dreaming in a childlike state while his body withers away somewhere. To complicate matters, an “ancient and powerful caste” called the Aion is hunting Nonagon. The group’s leader, Rourke, was betrayed by his “prized mercenary,” the Angel of Death, back in the 18th century. Unbeknown to her friends—including Fara, Lyvia, Emiel, and Marin—Dalia is the Angel of Death. Though she now works to save souls, not destroy them, Dalia doesn’t always succeed. In 1934, Rourke’s agent, the Chaser, caught up with the Others. Dalia blames herself for the death of the Others’ friend Lupe. Dalia’s romantic entanglement with the Aion Adalwolf haunts her as well. If Nonagon can find Titus and become Decagon, they may be able to halt Rourke’s vengeance. The star feature of Capes’ novel is an elaborate mythology that allows for great flexibility as the chapters flow. The present-tense narrative sometimes alternates with vignettes set in the past, which add texture, comedic and otherwise, to the cast’s backstory. For example, in 1986, the Others took a road trip to Atlanta because Lyvia wanted breast implants. The prose often offers frothy descriptions, especially in the Dreaming (“The sixth dream arrived through the basin as a symphony of haughty exaltations. They fizzled upward from the bubbling water as though it were a witch’s cauldron that undulated and crackled, producing hushed, urgent words”). The adroit worldbuilding includes the idea that only moonblood weapons—blades and bullets coated in menstrual blood—can kill the Chaser. There’s also a slow-burning eroticism in this series opener, which fans will surely crave to see more of in the planned sequel. Still, readers will need to be patient while the immortals play cat-and-mouse.

A sumptuous atmosphere and skillful worldbuilding carry this fantasy.