Melody of Darkness

Spartan Academy, Book 1

By: Eliza Tilton, Redd Mercury

Narrated by: C. J. McAllister

Good boys go to Ivy League schools. Bad boys go to Spartan.

When Jackson gets expelled from high school, his rich uncle sends him to Stonyhurst in England, where he'll learn to control his rage and use it for world peace or something less exciting.

What Jackson doesn't know is that at night, selected members of the school go underground, where the real education begins. The true purpose of Stonyhurst is as dark and twisted as the original Grimms' Fairy Tales. Between Jackson's lucid nightmares and the demonic horrors hidden below the surface, not everything is what it seems. Teens are going missing and someone wants Jackson dead.

When everything Jackson believes is stripped away, it will take more than his fists to survive his freshmen year and save his new friends.

Stonyhurst isn't just a school.

It's a life-or-death sentence.

Dark, gritty, and spellbinding, Melody of Darkness is perfect for listeners looking for unique world-building, tantalizing fantasy, and lots of action.

©2020 Redd Mercury (P)2024 Redd Mercury

wowza, this book is an epic fantasy!

I literally have no idea how to start this review! I've never read a book quite like this one and I've read plenty of fantasy.
Eliza is a new author to me and so is CJ McAllister, the narrator. I have so much respect for narrators who are able to voice this many different characters, and there were so many in this book. I can't imagine the prep work involved in making sure to be consistent with each one!
5 stars for CJ's performance!!

I think that I would need to eyeball this book as a companion to the audio to really be able to reference and bookmark certain parts of this book because it's so detailed.

As far as the book goes, this was well written , had great story building and fantastic details. As an older reader I had a hard time connecting with certain parts but overall it's a great YA, fantasy, a bit gory, and had me wanting the next book.

Fascinating Dark Fantasy

I was thoroughly entertained by this gutsy, dark fantasy. Due to anger issues, Jackson was sent to Stonyhurst, a place that was known to help troubled youth. The longer that Jackson stayed at Stonyhurst, the more he realized that there was more going on than just behavior modification. The story was convoluted, and action filled. The characters were compelling and complex. The end of this tale established that there is another book forthcoming, and I'm looking forward to it. C. J. McAllister's narration was great and added to the story's entertainment. I was given a free copy of the audiobook and I have voluntarily left this review.

love it

I loved this book I was into it
at one point I had to reset the chapter I got confused lol but
Thank you for letting me listen to it

Not really for me, I think

I think this one just wasn’t quite for me. A combination of fantasy, horror, and sci-fi, which in and of itself isn’t a turn off - I potentially enjoy any and all of those genres. But with this one, told in third person, I never fully connected to any of the characters, and had a difficult time keeping everything straight and the plot cohesive in my mind. Also, there are a LOT of very graphic, violent events that take place. I don’t even usually have an issue with violence, but these chapters seemed unnecessarily long and almost excessively graphic, violence just for the sake of violence. That’s not to say that someone else might enjoy this book, and if you can figure out the who’s who and what’s going on better than I could, then it probably will work better for you. But for me, I had to push through to finish this one.

overall

intriguing start to a series I'm curious to see what happens next. It's a series worth checking out.