In Fiend, Alma Katsu turns her significant horror chops on the modern world in a novel that combines elements of Succession with the supernatural. The Berishas are an affluent Albanian family whose lucrative New York City import-export business is a commercial juggernaut thanks to the sour and taciturn Berisha patriarch, Zef. His son, Dardan, is in line to lead the company despite his desire to be his own man, while his daughter Maris aches for both power and her father's love. Nora is the adrift and ignored youngest child who sees more than she lets on.
Katsu creates a fraught tale of domestic dysfunction paired with a dark secret: for hundreds of years, the Berishas have been "blessed by fate, protected by the gods." Dardan dreads the "terrible burden," known mysteriously as "the protector," that comes with wearing the Berisha crown. When a whistleblower threatens to destroy the company, what Maris only knew as a myth suddenly takes monstrous form and begins to settle all family business. As Maris unravels the source of Zef's aloofness from his wife and children--related to the need to never lose his temper--she must decide what power is ultimately worth.
Katsu's novel employs strategic flashbacks with unexpected twists that explore what makes people into monsters and whether real monsters are necessary when human beings worship solely at the altar of avarice. Fiend is an absorbing, clever, and taut modern horror novel. --Peggy Kurkowski, book reviewer in Denver