Book Review: Altered Helix, Altered Helix Novella 1, Stephanie Hansen
Fantasy: Altered Helix, Altered Helix Novella 1, Stephanie Hansen
Blog Tour October 24, 2022
As we approach Halloween, what could be more appropriate than a book set in a haunted house? Austria is a young lady who has just graduated from high school. Rather than going straight to college she has moved in with a friend and they are working together in a haunted house.
Kansas City has seen better days. Many buildings are abandoned. A developer is buying up distressed properties and transforming them, driving up prices and making housing unaffordable. Homelessness has become the new normal for many. Bill, the organizer of the haunted house, also tries to help street kids. He has hired several of them, along with a few college fraternity brothers, and this unlikely team is trying to create a fun event space for families to enjoy in October.
Austria’s father died some years before, but it still feels like she can see him sometimes. When her own family was homeless during her childhood, they lived in the building where the haunted house is being created. Austria feels a presence in that home, a presence that makes her wonder whether her father is in some way still accessible.
When Austria faints at work, her mother takes her to the doctor. Blood is drawn as part of the exam, but as they leave she hears her doctor say something on the phone that sounds like he has found something very different in her blood. Something that sets her apart.
I don’t want to say much more in fear of giving away spoilers, but this book is chock full of inexplicable sightings, romance, fights, kidnappings, and mysterious connections between characters that are seemingly far apart. The pace moves quickly and the danger continues to grow. In the first chapter, Austria is dying. We see how she got to that point and what happens from that through the short book, but the story does not end with the final page. This is the beginning of a series that promises thrills and chills and scifi and magic and dystopia and so many things that I really enjoy. Stephanie Hansen has brought a new vision of a city I have visited often, and we will get to see that vision continue to expand in the subsequent novellas.
Our thanks to Rachel Gilbey of Rachel’s Random Resources for our copy of Altered Helix, provided so we could take part in this blog tour. The opinions here are solely those of Scintilla. For other perspectives on this novella, check out the other bloggers on this tour.
Book Review: Altered Helix, Altered Helix Novella 1, Stephanie Hansen