The October Faction Review

"Thank you for reminding me what this family is about. We don't turn people away like we have been turned away."

Review:

(Thank you Netgalley for a copy)
Steve Niles' The October Faction focuses on a family who comes off as an Addams Family lacking the closeness due to such issues as the children, Geoff and Vivian, wanting to join the family business which is monster hunting. Their father, Professor Frederick Allan, who retired from the business long ago and now teaches classes on monsters, is not supportive of this. Understandable given the dangers in the field which is explored in his flashbacks as well as when the dangers are forced on them by old faces from said past. Other family problems is the distance between Frederick and his wife Deloris, who misses the old days of monster hunting and gets tangled up in a plan to bring that back for her husband. A good deal of the book is flashbacks that do give the reader an eye in what happened in Allan's monster hunting past yet raises a couple more, some of which wrapped up by the end of this volume.

One downside is that despite flashbacks, the book sometimes goes a more "tell, don't show" route with some plot points, however it's still very possible they will also be pretty fleshed out later in the series. Regardless, the book ends on a happy tone for the Allan family but also with bit of a suspenseful cliff hanger for next volume.

The art is interesting and indeed does fit the dark, spooky tone of the book however it has its drawbacks such as in some cases a group of people can be some fully drawn faces and others are just floating ovals in grey mist. Even some of the fully drawn faces can come off a bit blank and expressionless. Regardless, the art makes up for the distractions by giving us some wonderfully drawn action scenes and detailed art of the family mansion and other backgrounds. The coloring is also interesting in its muted shades and warm colors that vary through out the book.


Recommendations:
The October Faction is something older YA readers would like: dark, supernatural adventures are becoming more and more popular and October Faction promises that along with close family relationships. However, there is moments of violence, some gore, as well as language and sexual talk to keep in mind.