Evolution by Sam Kadence & Lissa Kasey

All the elements included in this book should have made for an excellent read so I was very disappointed to discover that this was not the case.  Don't get me wrong, there were some positive points but on the whole this struggled for coherence.  

The first part of the novel was incredibly shaky.  Genesis, or Gene, as the main character is young, naive and spends far too much of his time complaining about how unfair life is and, when not doing this, he is constantly pining for people he wants but cannot have.  Add to this his desperation to stand out being relayed to the reader by various long descriptions of hair colour picked for that moment and how great Gene thinks his band should be, it makes for a disjointed and frankly quite dull read.  With unnecessary and overlong scenes covering Gene's work environment at the club thrown in the whole first half comes across as very self-absorbed and almost made me stop reading.

There are some moments from this section that are actually very well written and these are the moments when the plot, such as it is, is being shown from the viewpoint of the Kerstrande character.  These are dark, enigmatic and quite gripping though altogether far too brief. There also hints at a unique element to the Gene character but again these are not made enough of.

There are fleeting mentions of the supernatural earlier in the novel but the authors let the fantasy elements truly come to the fore in the latter stages and as a result the story becomes infinitely more readable.  We are given the tortured vampire, the friendly incubus, true evil in the character of Hane and even a phoenix.  These show some great imagination and genuine originality that could be excellent building blocks for the next book if handled well.  It has a proper sense of darkness in some places and it is refreshing in the end to see Genesis grow up and start protecting himself and those he loves.

This felt to me a little like two different books stuck together with much of it being a struggle to read though it has some potential as a first in a series.