The Demon Tide

Newly exposed as the Black Witch of Prophecy, Elloren Gardner Grey is on the run. She has finally made it to the Eastern Realm, but the Eastern authorities are convinced the Black Witch has arrived to kill them all as the Prophecy foretells. If there’s any chance of defeating High Mage Marcus Vogel, Elloren must find her friends and make new allies. As Elloren hides from the Eastern authorities, she learns more than ever about different cultures and what’s truly at stake if the Eastern Realm were to fall to Gardneria. With her magic bound, her fastmate captured, and a bounty on her head, Elloren battles intolerance as fierce as she battles Vogel, and uncovers secrets all countries have long since buried.  

The Demon Tide oscillates between the perspectives of Elloren’s friends, building them up as individual characters with distinct loves, fears, and ambitions. Elloren’s brother, Trystan Gardner, and her friend, Tierney Calix, are two prominent perspectives explored. Trystan’s and Tierney’s points of view allow readers to see the war from two fronts. Trystan is reviled because of his Gardnerian heritage, and Tierney is ostracized for befriending him. When Elloren arrives, they do everything in their power to protect her, which is difficult because they have their own romantic lives to distract them. Overall, the author explores twenty perspectives; this overload of perspectives makes things confusing at times and slows the story’s pacing, making the novel seem less eventful.  

Cornered and afraid, Elloren proves herself to be an empowering and intelligent protagonist. She tries to navigate the customs and traditions of the Eastern Realm. Plus, she has strange visions of death and destruction that are seemingly delivering vague warnings she cannot decipher. She grapples with a complicated love that haunts her dreams and distracts her from the waking world. With love at the forefront of everyone’s minds, Elloren and her friends learn how to multitask and see beyond the veil of intolerance and ignorance that seems to exist in every culture.  

Like many long fantasy series, the intricate worldbuilding can be overwhelming at times, with numerous events, characters, and details to track. There is also a lot of exposition required for each character’s background. This bogs down the story and makes it drag. However, the story is powerful and moving, and each character has depth. Many of the characters have been developed over the entire series, delivering potent and thorough perspectives. The author has successfully created a complex fantasy world, complete with diverse cultures, despicable villains, and intricate magic systems to match.  

The series has been building up to the explosive battles and new, official romantic relationships found in The Demon Tide. Readers who love digging into intricate political dilemmas and a kaleidoscope of characters fighting for a good cause will love Forest’s direction in The Demon Tide. Elloren and her friends teach their audience that intolerance is beatable and the best way to fight it is to love yourself and others. Elloren and her friends teach that bravery in the face of fear is necessary and achievable, especially if you rely on your loved ones to support you and ask for help.  

Sexual Content  

• Freyja, an Amaz soldier, reminisces about a past encounter with her old boyfriend, Clive. “Freyja’s heart twisted as she held Clive’s impassioned stare and remembered. . . sneaking off into the woods. . . falling into each other’s arms. . . and taking each other with an intensity that stole Freyja’s breath and ignited that familiar, piercing yearning to be with Clive always.” 
• While Trystan, Elloren’s brother, is training in the East, he starts crushing on his guard, Vothe. At one point, he watches Vothe and Basyl (Vothe’s current friend with benefits). Basyl “reaches up, threads his fingers through Vothe’s silver-tipped hair, and pulls him into a sultry, farewell kiss.” Later, Vothe runs his “tongue just below Basyl’s ear as Basyl slithers against [him] enticingly” to provoke Trystan and make him jealous. 
• While Elloren’s friends, Thierren and Sparrow, are escaping East through the desert, they grow more attracted to one another. One morning, while asleep, Sparrow “presses her lips to the warm nape of [Thierren’s] neck, a thrill singing through her as Thierren shivers against her.” Thierren returns the affection but then realizes that she’s dreaming. He wakes her up, and they’re both embarrassed.  
• Safe in the East, Elloren has a vision of Vogel’s prisoner, Lukas. His “lips press down on [hers], sending a tight shiver through [her], the kiss suffused with breathless hunger. . . strong hands grip [her] arms, a hard male body fitted to [hers]. An aroused male body.” Elloren realizes that they’re psychically linked and quickly breaks away from Lukas. 
• While exploring an Eastern market, Elloren witnesses two women “fall into each other, laughing, as if in the midst of some private joke, and the spike-haired woman pulls the flowery woman into an embrace, kissing her deeply.” Elloren moves on without seeing more. 
• Authorities find Elloren and chase her through the market streets. Elloren runs into her mate, Yvan, and they “kiss like [they’ll] merge straight into each other, [her] fingers knotting in his hair.” They break the passionate kiss to discuss Resistance business. 
• Similar to Valentine’s Day but more magically induced, the East celebrates a holiday of love that heightens emotions for one evening, complete with a purple moon. Nearly every one of Elloren’s friends kisses or has sex with their partner, crush, or significant other. As the moon settles into effect, Elloren has a “vivid remembrance of Lukas’s lips on [hers], the two of [them] entwined in the forest . . . the memory shifts to a flush-deepening recollection of Yvan’s heated embrace in the North Tower, that night in [her] bed.” 
• During the purple moon, Elloren’s friend, Tierney, kisses Elloren’s cousin, Or’myr. Tierney “makes an irresistible little sound of surprised pleasure, her full breasts soft against [Or’myr’s] chest, her hand coming up to caress his neck with unmistakable want.” However, the encounter ends quickly, and both decide they do not want to date each other. Later that night, Tierney kisses her friend, Viger, and “her lips meet his in a swirl of darkness.” 
• To cool down from an argument in the mess hall, Trystan walks to the water, followed by Vothe. While having an emotional conversation, “Trystan grabs hold of him, his lips coming to Vothe’s.” They kiss a bit until Vogel’s forces suddenly arrive at their city. 
• Elloren’s old professors, Jules Kristian and Lucretia Quillan, are also in the East on holiday. They decide to have their first date. Tired of waiting, Lucretia shows him her Sanjire root (a birth control method) and says, “I’m asking you to kiss me whenever you want from here on in.” They kiss but are interrupted by Vogel’s forces breaching the city. 
• Elloren’s old friends, Aislinn and Jarod, are in the forest of the East’s capital city during the purple moon. Aislinn asks Jarod to “take [her] to mate.” They go into the woods, and it is implied that they have sex. 
• Thierren and Sparrow, finally in the East, celebrate this holiday by kissing. “Sparrow falls into [Thierren’s] loving, passionate kiss.” They are interrupted by Vogel’s forces arriving at the city. 
• Mora, the woman who volunteered to house Elloren in the East, and Elloren’s old professor Fyon, are trying to celebrate the holiday at Mora’s house. Fyon’s hands “slide around her waist and up through her braided hair, his honeyed kiss deepening as Mora traces her fingers down the long column of his neck.” They are kissing when Vogel’s forces arrive and interrupt them.  
• Vogel gains a form of mind control over Elloren, and Yvan attempts to break it by kissing her. His “mouth claims [hers] once more, forcing a stream of power into [her] that drives Vogel’s hold on [her] back a fraction further.” He is successful and frees her.  
• Elloren escapes from Vogel into the forest and becomes a Dryad. Yvan and Elloren choose to renew their mating bond by kissing again. Yvan “leans down, eyes molten, and brings his lips to [hers].” They kiss, and then the book ends. 

Violence  

• In the prologue, Marcus Vogel finds the Shadow Wand and takes it from a Death Fae in the forest. He murders the Fae in the process. He “draws his iron blade and hurls it across the table. The knife slams into [the Fae’s] chest, a look of shock passing over the young man’s face as he falls to the ground.” 
• Vogel has flashbacks of being abused as a child. “Blows rain on the priest’s face, his small shoulders as he cowers and curls into a pathetic ball, pleading in a child’s voice, Momma, stop. . . no! I repent! I vow to repent!” 
• At the end of the previous book, Elloren teleports to the East and immediately encounters a creature attacking a family and promptly defeats it. In this book, the teenage girl of the family attacks Elloren. “Her knife finds its mark above [Elloren] with a dull thwack.” However, they make peace, and no harm is done. 
• As Trystan trains in the East, he’s unpopular because of the color of his skin. Everyone thinks he’s trying to sabotage them from within. An assassin attacks him during training. “She draws back her arm and hurls a silver rune star at Trystan.” He is unscathed, and the assassin is arrested.  
• Aislinn has successfully escaped from her abusive husband, but Sparrow watches as Aislinn undresses, noting “lash marks all over her form and bruising on her breasts. And bite marks.” 
• As Trystan tries to save refugees from the river’s current, one of the refugees is suspicious of him because he’s Gardnerian. Once everyone is safe on the boat, the teenage refugee “surges forward and pushes Trystan clear off the boat.” Trystan has recovered safely.  
• When Aislinn reunites with her crush, Jarod, she tells him about the abuse. Jarod offers to kill her ex-husband, but Aislinn replies, “No, I’ll be the one to kill him.” 
• Over the course of fourteen pages, the country of the Amaz is attacked and razed to the ground. The Gardnerians surprise the Amaz and storm into the capital city, killing and wounding thousands with enslaved dragons. As an example of the violence, during the battle, “a Mage’s neck snaps back as [a] dragon’s head bursts into a ball of emerald flame, the dark creature’s flight pattern chaotic as the Mage’s wand falls from his hand.” The Mage and the dragon are attacked and killed by the head of the Amaz queen’s guard, Valasca.  
• Lukas Grey is Vogel’s prisoner, and Vogel sporadically tortures him. “Pain strafes through Lukas’s [magic] lines as he’s hit by a blast of Shadow, a guttural cry escaping his throat as his body spasms.” Lukas’s magic is depleted, and his body is left sore and aching. 
• During the purple moon, one of Elloren’s friends, Nym’ellia, is attacked by citizens of the East. She cries while saying, “One of them threw a rock at me and it hurt.”  
• One hundred pages of the novel consist of Vogel’s forces attacking the capital city of the East, and each of Elloren’s friends fighting them off. It starts with the Death Fae, Viger, announcing that he “can sense impending death,” and there’s a loud noise as a mountain in the distance explodes. This starts Vogel’s onslaught, which hurts and kills many citizens of the East. Elloren and Vogel battle, but she escapes in the last thirty pages of the book.  
• At one point during Elloren’s battle with Vogel, he brings Lukas Grey in front of her and transfers Elloren and Lukas’s marriage-binding magic to himself. Vogel is magically bound to Elloren in marriage and hurts Lukas in the process. Elloren’s “heart tightens with agony” and soldiers “grab hold of Lukas’s bindings, dragging him away.” 
• As Elloren communes with the trees in the forest, they show her images of the Shadow Wand’s historical destruction. She watches as “an army of grey-eyed Keltish soldiers amassing around the king as they advance on the city. Death everywhere.” 

Drugs and Alcohol  

• On a national holiday, a friend of the Resistance, Thierren, suggests to Elloren’s friend, Sparrow, that they “start [celebrating] with some forbidden wine.” As the night drags on, the two have a conversation while drunk; Sparrow is “seeming[ly] entranced by the glowing beauty of the rose-flavored spirits.” 
• While confronting Vogel, Elloren and her old roommate, Ariel, are threatened by him. Ariel has a history of forced addiction; she had been kept in prison and force-fed an opiate-like substance called nilantyr. In this confrontation, Vogel threatens to “shove nilantyr down [Ariel’s] throat until [she] begs for more.” This doesn’t actually happen, and Ariel is now addiction free. 

Language    

• Language such as stupid, idiot, and hell appear frequently. 
• The word whore is used three times. 
• Bitch is used twice, and ass is used once. 

Supernatural  

• This series contains all manner of supernatural creatures, including magic spiders, horrifying monsters, Fae, demons, Kelpies, Lupines, witches, dragons, Dryads, Amazonian warrior women, Icarals, lizard people, wyverns, Selkies, and people with skin of all colors of the rainbow. 
• Most of the magic appears in magical battles in two ways. The first is Marcus Vogel’s magical creation of shadow monsters that attack Elloren and her friends. “In unison, the Marfoir grin. Their legs click outward as one, extending then drawing inward once more toward the shield, almost touching it. Curling shadow begins to rise from the tip of each pale spider limb to flow over the [Amaz capital city’s protective] dome, hugging its surface and spreading out, the Marfoir’s forms darkening as the fog of Shadow advances. . . the insectile eyes of the Marfoir directly before [Freyja], a terrifying smile on his bone white lips.”  
• The second way magic is used in battle is through wand magic and spells. When trying to unbind Elloren’s magic from the forest, “Trystan and Lucretia bring the tips of their wands close to Or’myr’s stone and murmur spells.” They are attacked by the forest and use wands and spells to protect themselves.  

Spiritual Content  

• The book opens in a prologue from Priest Apprentice Alaric Fynnes’s point of view. In the name of their religion, he “accompanies his mentor, Priest Vogel” to the Lost Islands, where Vogel finds the Shadow Wand and kills a Death Fae.  
• As Vogel’s forces surround the Amaz capital city, Vogel says to a random soldier, “It is the Ancient One’s will [that the Icaral of prophecy stays alive]. So, let the Prophecy come to completion. The Holy Magedom will soon have possession of Erthia’s most dangerous weapon, and she will smite the Icaral demon without mercy.” 
• Elloren’s friend, Wynter, is under the influence of the Zalyn’or necklace—the religious brainwashing instrument used by the Elves to enslave people. “The Zalyn’or necklace tightens and Wynter’s head arches back, a strangled cry torn from her throat. She shudders as she’s swept up in a new, overpowering Zalyn’or yearning, the old yearning to be purely [Elven] stripped away. Yes, she still wishes with everything in her for her demonic wings to be torn from her back. But there’s a staggeringly fierce, new longing in her now—to have black hair, glimmering green skin, and black clothing. . . not the path of the [Elven] fate at all, but the [Gardnerian] religion.” 
• The Gardnerian religion discriminates against non-heterosexual sexual orientations, and Vothe comments, “such a bizarre thing for a religion to hate. But [he’s] heard that there are whole passages in the Gardnerian religious book that condemn anyone who loves another of the same gender.”  
• While in the Eastern Realm, Trystan discovers that the Eastern religion is more peaceful. “The Way of Vo. The prayer text practically everyone raised in [the East] knows by heart, and Vothe can tell that there is something new in it for Trystan.” Trystan begs Vothe to teach him his religion. This religion is not based on a god but on nature and meditation, more similar to Buddhism.  
• As Elloren and Vogel fight, and Vogel strips Lukas and Elloren of their marriage and transfers it to himself, Elloren tells him that he can’t marry since he’s a priest. Vogel says he “relinquished [his] priestly role before [he] took hold of this fasting, as is allowed by the Blessed Book. Elloren, the Ancient One has made it clear to me. We are each other’s destiny.” 

by Kate Schuyler