A story of intrigue, mystery, and suspense about a wealthy and powerful family. In the end, there is an unexpected twist that you won’t see coming. It’s a short read that keeps you in suspense, eager to see what happens next. It’s not a terrifying story, but it’s full of mysteries.

The Berisha family is the picture of success. Wealth and power exude from their pores, but at what cost?

Fans of Succession will love this family drama with a touch of supernatural horror. The layers of the story are expertly revealed in the hands of Alma Katsu, an author whom I have loved reading over the years. I didn't love any of the characters, nor did I despise them, but I was helplessly pulled into their dark web of greed and deceit.

This was a slow burn of a book, lagging a bit at times, but the conclusion was chilling and well done. An overall satisfying read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Alma Katsu, and Penguin Group Putnam for the opportunity to read this before publication date.

I really, really, really like the author. I did not really, really, really like this book.

As I try to pin down what didn't work for me with this one it comes down to a few little things.

There wasn't a single character I liked, nor was there one I loved to hate. I just didn't really enjoy any of them.

As for the story, it was not as complex as I'd hoped. Exactly what you think is happening is happening. There were few surprises.

I did enjoy the cultural aspects, but I just kept expecting something more.

A miss for me, but I'll look forward to the author's next book.

This is the tale of the Berisha family and their protector, a supernatural entity that has helped them to be wildly successful. No one is the family is nice, although their motivations are what make them interesting.
Maris wants to be the head of the family but her father wants her to help the family with an advantageous marriage.
I get excited when I see a new Alma Katsu and this did not disappoint. This felt very short because it was so tense all the way through. This might be my favorite book by her.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

A devilishly wild ride of generational wealth, power that absolutely corrupts, and blessings that are so much more than they seem. Let the rich eat the rich!

Thank you so much for this absolute delight of a book!

4.5⭐️

First, thank you to Penguin Group Publishing, Alma Katsu, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview this title before its publication date of September 16, 2025.

The best way to describe this book is if the cast of Succession had a demon to do the family's dirty work. There are absolutely no likable characters in the book, but they are all incredibly interesting, with amazing character development, so the reader wants to follow their stories. Throughout the book, I wasn't quite sure if I was supposed to cheer for the character's demise or feel sympathy. It was almost like morbid curiosity.

NetGalley says that this book is 432 pages but it felt much shorter than that. The story passed quickly and I can honestly say that I do not feel like there was a lull in action. I did feel that it wrapped up incredibly fast with no real chance to digest the ending.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes family drama with a touch of supernatural.

*As a side note, this author also writes one of my favorite books, The Hunger, so I was very excited to preview her newest book. The Hunger is about the Donner Party but with a supernatural, sinister twist.

With Fiend, Alma Katsu proves that she is as much the queen of modern horror as historical. This book is so well-done, and I absolutely loved it. It’s a relatively quick read, but the story is so compelling I will be thinking about the book for a very long time.

The Berisha Family have always been the most powerful ones in the room. They succeed at everything they do, and they always win. Of course, sometimes you have to get your hands dirty to truly succeed in business and keep your power; but the head of the Berisha clan has more blood on his hands than your typical CEO. As his three adult children fight for his attention, his power, and his love, they begin to realize that it’s not just luck and will that have kept their family on top for so long; there is something working for their family behind the scenes. As the family begins to fracture, the question evolves from what this mysterious power is, to who will end up commanding it… and if they will be able to control it.

Alma Katsu is a genius at writing supernatural monsters, but the wonderful thing about Fiend is the way it shows how humans can be the real monsters (even when there’s an actual monster around). The corrupting influence of power on even good motivations is a central theme of this book that feels uncomfortably relevant in this era where the ultra-rich seem to have no personal or legal boundaries. There were a few parts in this book where I cringed as I read, because the parallels between actual messed-up things corporations have done recently were frighteningly close to the fiction. But horror is most effective when it displays the fears of the era, so a horror book about a ruthless CEO and his messed-up family is incredibly relevant, and will resonate with readers.

My favorite part of this book was the Berisha siblings, and their relationships. Without saying too much and possibly spoiling anything, the Berishas are a very, very messed up family. Each sibling’s character is complex and well-written with vastly different yet intense personal motivations, and it was frightful fun to watch them scheme around each other. The storylines and vibes of the books are wildly different, but the detailed sibling relationships reminded me of The Bog Wife, one of my favorite reads from last year. Again, they are very different stories, but if you enjoy books that focus on fractured sibling relationships, you will enjoy Fiend.

I would recommend Fiend to fans of Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher, as well as to any readers who enjoy stories about badly behaved characters, powerful families, and supernatural thrillers. If you enjoyed Alma Katsu’s previous historical horror, I think you will also love this book; while different tonally, I found it recognizable as her work, and I hope she continues exploring this genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the arc! All thoughts & opinions in this review are my own.

One of my favorites had a new Historical Horror coming out, so I had to check into it.
Alma is the author that actually made me realize I enjoy the category, which before her, I just glanced past.

The Hunger is one of my top books of all time, this one, isn't far behind that.

I snagged this off Netgalley for a honest review, so here we go.

We have a small family that runs a really big import/export business and everything always seems to go their way.

Bad things always seem to happy to the things or people standing in their way, but nothing that could be pointed towards a human hand helping it along.

You cant plan an earthquake, right?

Things start to go sideways when we have the current members of the family, maybe not so happy with their place in said family.
The oldest gets to know all the secrets while the other two, just property to be used, married off, etc.

Maybe that's what started the spiral for this family or maybe something else is at work, things start to go badly, and their luck is running out.

When your family whose only known riches see that slipping away, some of them will do anything to keep it, anything.

I enjoyed this, murder, mystery, and the chilling horror of what lengths will you or even your family go to, to keep what they think they "need"

This family went from being a family to a scary cult real quick and was a tense quick read for me, I needed to know WHY and what was going on, what happens when your "family leader" that has always been the "one" to make the family proud, the one groomed for success, decides to go off script..

Historical horror master Alma Katsu turns to the contemporary world in Fiend, a chilling, high-stakes thriller about an all-powerful family with an ancient evil secret.

Imagine if the Sacklers had a demon at their beck and call.

The Berisha family, a powerful Albanian-American dynasty, runs one of the largest import-export businesses in the world. Luck has always been on their side. Rivals suffer strokes. Inconvenient buildings mysteriously catch fire. Whistleblowers disappear.
Patriarch Zef Berisha is ruthless, ruling his empire from a distance, only returning home for the weekly family dinner. His eldest son, Dardan, is the presumed heir, yet he wavers under the weight of his father’s expectations and the family’s darkest secrets. His sister, Maris, is more cutthroat than her brother, but in Zef’s world, a woman will never inherit the throne. And then there’s Nora, the youngest, a party girl and idealist whose parents dismiss her—but who may know far more than they realize.

There are whispers about the Berishas. A protector. An enforcer. A force beyond human comprehension that ensures their continued dominance. Maris doesn’t believe it. Dardan won’t talk about it. Nora might understand it better than anyone.
But when ambitions clash and betrayals unfold, the so-called “family blessing” starts to look more like a curse—and the Berishas must ask themselves: how much power is too much?

A gripping blend of corporate power struggles, supernatural horror, and cutthroat ambition, Fans of Succession will love this addictive tale of wealth, corruption, dark secrets and the price of unchecked power.

#AlmaKatsu #Fiend #PenguinGroup #Dutton

2.5 stars

The Albanian-American Berisha family runs one of the largest and most important import export businesses in the world. Things always seem to work out for them, whistleblowers die, records disappear, sometimes in mysterious ways.

Patriarch Zef is exacting and not always kind. Mother Olga supports Zef in all that he does, even though he doesn’t live with the family and only returns for Sunday dinner once a week. Dardan, the eldest child and only son is the heir apparent, but he seems ambivalent about taking over Berisha and becoming keeper of the family secrets. Maris, his younger sister, feels she is better suited for the role but her father won’t consider her because she is female. Youngest daughter Nora is a do-gooder and a party girl; she would like to see Berisha do more good in the world but doesn’t work for the company.

Things start to go awry when Dardan decides to make a move for himself and the family secrets? Maybe they aren’t so secret.

I loved Katsu’s THE HUNGER so I was really looking forward to this. Unfortunately, it was nowhere near as good. There was build up to….not much. Everything was exactly as it seemed (kind of. I guess there was one twist but it wasn’t very shocking if you paid attention.) Katsu has skills but they weren’t shown to their best advantage here.

The world is "so... diabolical."

And Fiend, boy oh boy, Fiend is one diabolical story. Deliciously so.

In reading Fiend, I started thinking, mind wandering, and I began to drift toward thinking about Tupac, specifically THUGLIFE:

"The Hate U Give Little Infants F***s Everybody"

Then my thoughts drifted on over to karma, instant or otherwise, and we hurt ourselves and others, over and over and over and over, a devious disintegration of humanity.

But why? Why do we do this to each other?

"You have the power to change everything. All you have to do is — stop."

Believe in the boogeyman, absolutely, no doubt (for it's real), but set it free. Set it free.

Alma Katsu's new novel "Fiend" is, to me, a delightful mix of HBO's "Succession" and Radio Silence's "Ready or Not." It's the story of the Berisha family, a massively wealthy and powerful Albanian business empire run by brutal patriarch Zef and two of his children. The presumed successor to Zef, Dardan, might not have what it takes to take his father's place. The middle child, Maris, clearly does, but her father doesn't want a female in his seat. The youngest daughter, Nora, isn't reliable enough to even have working for the company, at least in the eyes of her parents.

There are rumors of a protector for Zef, maybe more of an enforcer, with whispers of supernatural power. Maris doesn't believe in such a thing, Dardan won't talk about it, and Nora might know more than her family gives her credit for. Katsu's book follows Maris and her desire to take the top spot in the company and family. It's a typical fight against misogynistic corporate structures in some ways, but you'll quickly find that Maris has just as much of a killer instinct as her father. The way she describes her mother, Olga, as a coward, for example, let's you know that Maris has more backbone than Dardan, who is increasingly struggling with his father's legacy and his future with a company that seems to have no qualms about crushing its competitors and adversaries in more physical ways than you might imagine.

It's a thrillingly fast-paced book from Katsu, who in the past has generally stuck to what you'd probably describe as historical horror. This book is very of-the-moment, and while I felt like I got a few steps of ahead of some of its eventual reveals, I never had anything other than a great time discovering the truth about the Berishas and the mysterious "protector" at the center of some of the chaos that unfolds. I'm sure anyone familiar with "Succession" can see where the comparisons to that show come in, but if you were left scratching your head at my "Ready or Not" mention, that's where the book will hook you the hardest if your brain works like mine does. It's not overtly similar, but anyone who found that movie's reveals concerning its own wealthy, powerful business family's dark secret enjoyable, I think you'll like Katsu's story of the Berisha family and their protector just as much.

As with all of Katsu's novels, Fiend is effortlessly digestible and efficiently tells its tale. I'd have been happy to spend another hundred pages with the siblings bickering about the company's treatment of workers in third-world countries or their very concerning handling of whistleblowers, but I can't argue with the lean and mean nature of the novel too much. It's a quick, fun read that's likely only slightly more bloodthirsty than your average corporation in the real world.



4/5


Thanks to NetGalley, Alma Katsu, and G.P. Putnam's Sons for this ARC.

Another winner from Alma Katsu. Eerie and fast-paced, Fiend is a welcome addition to the horror pantheon!

While I enjoyed this, as I do all of Alma's work, I wanted a little more from this. It felt safe for the subject matter, and so much happened off page, or almost off page. I loved the protector, I loved the possibilities it presented, and I really wanted to see it play a more front and center role in the book. It felt like the boyfriend could have been left out entirely, and the bondage scene not only seemed out of place entirely for the character arc of the sister, but it didn't really add anything to the story.

I adored the family trauma angle, the highlighting using others to control and conquer, and the ending for Maris was fitting given her constant selfishness and greed. I definitely wasn't expecting a "I'm going to go do good" from Nora, because even though she pays lip service to this concept two or three times, her actions don't really speak to it being a true concern.

This was a 3.5 star for me, rounded to a four star here. It was good, and I enjoyed it, but it wasn't my favorite of her catalog of work.

I really enjoyed this but it just didn't have the bite between characters I was looking for and by the end I wasn't really blown away like I wanted to be.

Is power a blessing or a curse? If it’s a curse then, can a curse that’s lasted generations be broken? What does it take to break it? This novel had me at the edge of my seat the entire time.

Katsu delivers again! Loved this one so much. I love a good sibling rivalry abd coupled with the supernatural elements it was even better. It was pitch black in tone and I loved it. An easy five star!