An awesome beginning to a planned duology. Kadrey and Khaw knock it out of the park. I was very impressed with the quality of the writing, the engaging characters, the sumptuous plot, and the smooth collaboration between the authors.

The Dead Take the A Train gives me Dresden Files vibes. The characters are fun and well-formed. The story is interesting, and the authors don't shy away from using gore.
There are some holes in the story, but considering this is a planned duology, I assume (hope) the next book will take care of those.
The ending is a little anti-climactic, but again, I feel the second book will explain why.
Despite these issues, I give it 5 stars, because I had way too much fun with this story.

So if you loved Sandman Slim, this will take you to the next level. I wasn't familiar with Cassandra Khaw, but if this is her work with Richard, its PHENOMINAL! HUGE fan, will absolutely be following this series!

This was so much fun. I absolutely love Cassandra Khaw, which led me to request in the first place, but wow what a great story!

Super unique world building, and I love the characters.

Reading this book felt like a fever dream. Everything felt otherworldly and on the verge of being too much. There were multiple things going on simultaneously that you find yourself interested in and wanting to know more but appreciating that the authors left them undefined. For example: the weird and demented law firm that works with some sort of entity to rule the world (what even IS the mother who eats), the magical bookstore that houses a speakeasy for odd creatures and humans of the grungy magic underground of NYC (I would not want to drink there), the magic huntress (of sorts) that drinks away her money problems and keeps losing interns because of unnerving and traumatic magical encounters (I would quit too).

The fact that there is a second book coming out has me on my toes because I both want to read it and feel as though maybe The Dead Take the A Train might have been enough for me. Lets be real, I am probably going to read book two.

The Dead Take the A Train has the business heirarchy and magical monsters of The Rook (Daniel O'Malley), the elitist culture and mystique of Ninth House (Leigh Bardugo), and the crude characters and horrorifying creature concepts of Nestlings (Nat Cassidy). If you have read any of those you might enjoy this collaborative horror-fantasy effort.

Really enjoyed this book. It was the perfect blend of story meets unimaginable horror.

Right from the start it threw you into the world and let you know that it wasn't messing around with gore and a sassy attitude.

This was a dark and disturbing horror, and such a refreshing read for me! The pace is fast, I loved Julie and the grittiness of her character. This was my first novel by Kadrey and Khaw, and I was super blown away by them.

Really wavered between 3.75 and 4 because I just did not like Julie. She knew her flaws and short comings, but still would just excuse her fuck ups as "that's who I am what're ya gonna do" 🤷‍♀️
That being said though, the gore was great and I liked the plot. The writing was easy and descriptive enough you could picture these Lovecraftian monsters.
Still a bit confused as to how magic works in this world but hopefully it gets less confusing as the series goes on!

Man, I love NYC as a character. I love it. It always gets me. Khaw is a favorite of mine, and I was excited to check out this collab. Two bisexual women and a cast of non-human characters being actively chased down by their exes. There's aliens. There's monsters. There's GORE. There's so much gore. Did I say it was gory?

There are missteps here. The story lines don't always mesh well, the character story lines are a bit clunky, and the dialog is a little cheesy here and there. The fantastical elements and the lore were interesting, but I though the story line around it was presented in a confusing way at times. There were also a few characters that were named once or twice and then brought up chapters later, and I was like, "Who the hell is this again?" But I liked it. It kinda played out like a video game in my head, if that makes any sense at all.

Right from the start, this book plunges you into a world full of zombies and monsters that bring to mind H.P. Lovecraft's Eldritch Terrors, If you like ultra-modern, uncensored prose and don't mind blood, guts, and gore or descriptions of substance use, check it out!

I didn't know anything about this book going into it but I have read several of Kadrey's books and loved them. The Dead Take the A Train was weird fun and the perfect companion for my bus commute into NYC. I don't know what else Cassandra Khaw has written but I will be looking into it. Love you, Richard!

I really wanted to like this book. The cover didn't appeal but the write-up did. I should have stuck with my initial impression. I actually quite enjoyed the first chapter and was excited to see where the story would take me. And then the plot seemed (at least to me) to take a distant second place to the violence. I don't mind a bit of gore or pain if it progresses the story, but it felt like the violence was the point of the writing and that the plot was there simply as a link to the various violent descriptions. I did recommend this book to one customer who specifically asked for something gore-y, but in general I would not hand sell this title.

This was such a fun horror/dark fantasy. With a hardworking demon slaying heroine at it's center making an absolute mess of things throughout the story, I really couldn't put it down and raced through each page. These authors teamed up seamlessly; the character work and storytelling were excellent. It was fast-paced and kept me laughing which was surprise but this was definitely full of satire as well.

I do think the novel was a touch long, but I am still excited for this to be a duology and I can't wait to see how this author duo wraps things up.

One of the things I loved about the book was how the authors made sure to let readers know that magic has a price, and while it’s different for everyone, no one is free from losing something to the powers that be. It’s a constant theme throughout the book: the social ladder of magic. Too often Julie is at the bottom, doing the work for those at the top. This dirty work and her own belief in her self-worth keeps her reaching for coke, alcohol, and anything she can to numb the horrors she’s seen and brought about.

Really great, gory horror book. Loved the NYC setting and the twists and turns and humor. Highly recommend this book to horror fans.

I wanted more from this one than I got, but I don't regret reading it. The world building is without fault, and the visceral descriptions brought me so much joy to read. However, the plot itself felt stale at times. I also couldn't get behind the romance. It felt too forced and not organic at all. There wasn't enough showing of the romance, and too much telling. (At least in my opinion.) If you like fantastical horror set in a modern, urban world, this might be a worthwhile read. Especially if you like your horror grotesque.

a scary/sci fi adventure that i expected to compel me, but instead left me bored and longing for characters i cared more about. DNF about halfway through.

This book confused the hell out of me and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'll have to read the inevitable sequel to see if that gives me answers. I will say a lot of the book felt unnecessary but maybe it will have meaning in the series later. I also feel like the book could have been shorter and while the descriptions where beautiful it sometimes felt as if I was reading a dictionary. The ending also felt kind of rushed and I know its going to have a sequel but it didn't really feel like it ended. Like there wasn't a good wrap up or even a cliff hanger that signaled the end of this book it just kind of ended.



Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

I received a free copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group; all opinions expressed are exclusively my own.

This is a great book and I hated it.

Okay, let me elaborate: The Dead Take the A Train is an urban fantasy with magic, eldritch beings, action, love, and horror. It's like the Dresden Files but if Dresden was a lot more punk rock mixed with Lovecraft, and better than that sounds. The lore builds in slowly and is enthralling, and the story keeps up a quick pace without leaving the reader behind. It's gritty, weird, and wonderful.

But it is oh so very gory. Which is not a turnoff to everyone, but if you're a sensitive reader, you should know you're in for nonstop body horror of all kinds of flavors. It's also a very dark and gritty world, and Julie's life matches it. I had to keep reading because the story is fantastic and compelling, and I'll definitely read the sequel. It's just that the first book is so disturbingly brutal that I'll need to make sure I'm in a good place first.

THE DEAD TAKE THE A TRAIN by Cassandra KHAW and Richard KADREY
Publication: October 3, 2023
Publisher: Tor Nightfire
Page Count:400


Jump on board for a horrific ride into Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror as we are introduced to Julie Crews … a thirty-something Bitch on wheels … as she renders magic spells “for cash” in between consuming mass quantities of drugs, Vodka and Korean take-out. This marvelous urban-fantasy horror novel is the brainchild of the dynamic duo of Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey. Julie feels her magic career in the NYC scene is going nowhere and to “bump” things up, she congers up a “guardian” angel that is intent on progressively annihalting the world, rather than promoting her success. Blood, gore and entrails will drip from the pages. Julie’s ex boyfriend, Tyler Banks drags her into the mess of dealing with the eldritch horror, “ The Mother Who Eats” , as part of his ongoing battle to climb the corporate ladder of the nefarious law firm, Thorne & Dirks. His job at the firm was head of Excisions, meaning he made problems disappear. Cut them entirely out of existence. ( This law firm is the equivalent of Wolfram and Hart as seen on the television show, “Angel”) Complicating matters, Sara, her best friend (from her earlier life) and the essence of “ goodness” shows up on her doorstep, fleeing from her abusive boyfriend, Dan. Her present day friends, the ancient, sort of fairy god-mother, St Joan and the wheelchair-bound Dead Air (computer wizard and hacker) immediately visualize the “sparks between the two”
Khaw and Kadrey manage to dish up a carnage of gore and entrails in between their dark horrific humor. The convoluted plot progressively escalates in complexity and intrigue as the exciting action filled denouement draws to a close, with yet some unresolved loose ends dangling for the sequel. In between the snarky humor are frequent jabs of satire at corporate culture. I anticipate the need for further adventures in the burgeoning magic career of Julie Crews. Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review.