This book had all the ingredients for something truly fun: a cursed world, morally gray vibes, chaotic magic, and banter that gave me a couple of genuine chuckles - especially between Vexx and his raven companion. Their back-and-forth hinted at a deeper bond I really wanted more of but somewhere along the way, the story lost me.

The plot quickly spiralled into a whirlwind of "what is happening?" and by the end, I was more confused than invested. I was intrigued by the premise, and I wanted to love it. But the further I got, the harder it was to stay engaged.

3.5 ⭐️ a very quick Novella style read. It’s about 93 pages. I really did like the idea of a curse necromancer named Vexx. The dark elements that surrounded the story in a different characters we meet were very interesting. It just kind of got a little crazy towards the end. I do hope she she’ll write more to the story later on. I really loved the idea of it. Perfect October novella.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC copy. This has not affected my review at all, which are my own thoughts.

What did I just read? In the worst sense possible. "Vexxed" left me confused and dissatisfied at the end, even though I expected to like it when I picked it up, really. I try to not be too hard with first books, but I need the author to give me something to work with, and, unfortunately, "Vexxed" wasn't that good for me.

Vexx, our protagonist, is a necromancer and has just arrived to his newest job: cleaning the city's graveyard of a ghoul's plague that is eating the dead and terrorizing the leaving. The Baron has contracted him to investigate and get rid of the creatures as soon as possible. And Vexx will do just that, with the company of a talking raven, Nevermore, and far away from Evelyn, the Baron's daughter, though, at the graveyard, after fighting the ghouls, he will find more than what he bargain for, elevating this easy cleaning job to a complex threat to everybody involve, even to Vexx's life itself.

Well, at least, that's supposed to be the plot, but it soon derailed into something else that left me baffled and feeling like I have wasted my time on this book. If the book have been longer, I would have understand taking detours, developing some subplots and giving context to things, but for such a short book, the choices made and the way the plot went in the end, was neither coherent nor justified. Also, vaguely say that it all got resolved quite easily and way too conveniently for our protagonist, and those books tend to bore me. Where's the conflict in that?

Also, I mainly came for the necromancy and the promise of adventure, and, at the end, only got necromancy, and not even much of that. What we actually get out of this book is drama, dry dialogue that doesn't add much to the story most of the time and...kind of misogyny (in my opinion).

So, I say drama, because "Vexxed" starts introducing Vexx and the Baron and their contract and how Vexx makes a little effort of going to the graveyard and investigate, thus, getting attack and meeting the thinking mind behind the ghouls. But, that would be the only time we actually see some action taking place, because the rest of the book is spent with seeing interactions without substance taking place between the various characters, but not adding much to the plot or to us getting to know the characters. Unnecessary banter dressed as flirting, or empty threats, or the Baron repeating himself to get Vexx away from his daughter; which, we all know will happen the moment he tells Vexx to stay away from the very first time they interact.

The dialogue, as I said, is superficial, explaining things in case we didn't catch it, though is not like the narration offers much, so of course it has to happen through dialogue. The little we know about the characters is through dialogue, most times offer without little resistance, as if the characters where just waiting for other character to ask them so they can talk, scarcely I should say, about their tragic past. Another bits were flirting between Vexx and other characters, dry flirting that was there to make it seem like the characters have some instant connection and were attracted to each other, were I never felt it happening because there was too much insubstantial dialogue and little actions and intimacy to accompany it, which left the flirtations unbalanced and feeling forced.

And for the misogyny...is not attack to the author, who I don't know, nor is it about the book in general or how the narration treats the women in the book, but more about how they are portrait. Because this book falls into the sin of making the men having active roles and being the heroes while the women are relegated to be the prices for said hero or the antagonist of the story. In fact, there's only two women in the story: one of them is Evelyn, already mentioned in my review, who is the Baron's daughter and the other is Ilvara, a vampire and responsible of things happening at the city. Both of them are presented as attracted to Vexx right at meeting him, fighting for his attention and hating each other the moment the meet, again, because of Vexx. I hate that women keep getting written to be this: vicious with each other for some man, to which the narrative tells us they are attracted to though it is never felt on the page, and been underdeveloped (though, in "Vexxed" none of the characters are really well develop) in comparison to the men. Meaning, Vexx is a necromancer with charm, lazy but competent, and with a complex past hinted at. The Baron is a decorated soldier and lord of the city, protector of the people living there. Meanwhile, Evelyn is the Baron's daughter who shall not ever get near any men and should stay away from Vexx and not interfere in the ghoul's problem, yet she's rebellious and does as she pleases, but that's all we ever get to know about her; and Ilvara is a vampire with a tragic past that gets explained midway in a paragraph that spends the whole book trying to seduce Vexx.
I'm tired of women getting relegated to be the love interest of the main (most commonly a man) character and being underdeveloped. I just want them to stand side by side with the men, having as much personality as them and having more different roles than just the "love interest". That's all.

Overall, I wasn't even entertained enough to give this book more than a start. I understand that, apparently, is the first book of the author, and while I empathized and know that first book are hard and can end up nothing like we envisioned, I think some things could have been done better, specifically characters and plot, following everything I've said above. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this book, unless anything I mentioned make y'all interested in it, which I say, to each their own; the book is quite short and fast paced, after all and won't take much time to finish

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This had the bones of something interesting (no pun intended) but lacked the substance to pull it off. I liked a lot of the interactions between Vexx and Nevermore (though the Poe reference in a world where he clearly didn't exist was immersion-breaking), they clearly had some backstory/history I wanted to see more of. I feel the characters are probably fully fleshed out - but only to the author. The rest of us are left trying to understand who they are with very minimal details.

The rest of the plot quickly spiraled into a lot of "what is happening" and by the end I was more confused than anything else. So much of the book is "witty" dialogue that the little action we do get doesn't have a chance to show the reader anything.

Overall it was enjoyable enough to finish, but not something I'd give a strong recommendation for. 2.5/5

Thanks to Netgalley & also to Ilya for a throughly entertaining book.

This book feels like the lovechild of monty pythons the holy grail & the blade itself by Abercrombie. The characters are excellent and the story is a quite funny. The constant bantering between Vexx & his raven friend reads like the " who's alon first" skit from the 50s.

There's magic, swords, necromancy....annnnd...something much older....much older. Lol. The book has its sharp swords, and even sharper with and all characters mesh wonderfully for this darkly comedic fantasy

A great read

This is a what in the world did I just read book?!?! It’s very… Strange. It wasn’t what I was expecting at all! This book falls under the fiction, fantasy and romance genre. It is weird and creepy, mixed in with some dark humor. Even though I did finish the book, it left me wondering why I did.

“Vexxed” is about a cursed necromancer, who is named Vexx. He gets a graveyard job and it gets very dangerous quickly! This cursed guy is with an undead raven at his side. The raven gives Vexx a different perspective on his situation at hand. Romantic interests start happening, along with magical things. I give this a 2 out of 5 stars. This book was just not for me. It might be for others though! I see this book as being a very controversial one.

Thank you to NetGalley and author Ilya Voskresensky for this digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book is out now!

Was a fantastic book that i thoroughly recommend and will be buying as I need a trophy version lol. I enjoying the different dynamics at play and the way that different cultures were introduced and included. It’s a fantastic book and I highly recommend!