Servants of the Storm by Delilah S. Dawson (review)

A year after Hurricane Josephine made landfall, seventeen-year-old Dovey sees her best friend Carly in their favorite café—an impossibility, since Carly was killed by Josephine’s floodwaters, which cut a swath of death and destruction through Savannah, Georgia. Dovey stops taking the tiny white pills that were supposed to help her get over her grief but instead left her in a fog, and her eyes are opened to the sordid underworld behind her beloved city’s veneer, which is roiling with demons and monsters hungry for human flesh and mortal servants. In order to save Carly’s soul from an eternity of demonic servitude, Dovey enlists the help of two boys, but her quest ends up putting their afterlives and hers in danger. Dawson offers up an urban fantasy that could rival some of Holly Black’s most imaginative and creepy fare, and the increasingly complex demonology is fascinating, if at times a bit unwieldy, in its drawing on various religions. The boys helping Dovey are distinct characters, lending depth to the requisite love triangle, but Dovey’s strongest relationship is the one with the memory of her best friend, and it’s refreshing to see a female protagonist risk everything not for a crush but for a lifelong pal. The Savannah setting is gorgeously evoked here, with a touch of gothic flair, and elements of Southern culture add authenticity to biracial Dovey’s home life. The final page is a heartstopper, and readers might find themselves suspicious of shadows in their own hometown as they eagerly await a sequel.