Marrow Charm (The Gate Cycle #1)

Marrow Charm (The Gate Cycle #1)

Kristin Jacques

In pursuit of the occult, the Third Reich opened the Gate to a realm of magic and brought the world to ruin. The Gate was eventually closed, but They were already in our world and They were hungry.

Excerpt taken from author’s website.

Language 

F***-

H***- 4

S***-

A**-

B****- 5

D***- 7

Bas****- 1

Religious Cursing-

J****-

Chr***-

G**-

L***-

Derogatory terms etc-

Bloody

Wretch

Mongrel 

Alcohol, Drugs, Smoking

A guard is drunk. 

A man smokes a pipe. 

Intimacy, Sex, Immodesty

After a body transformation, a man is stark naked. A young woman drapes clothing over his unconscious body. 

A man kisses a young woman as she lays down and he is laying over her. 

A man says a young woman is only good for pleasure in the markets. He plans to sell two young women to the “flesh markets.”

“Street ladies” call to men passing by. At the brothel, true humans are brought there and live short, violent lives. 

Violence, Weapons, Crime, Blood

A young woman has large spider-like creatures attack, drawing blood. She gets out a pickaxe to fight but a wolf attacks it, tearing it apart. 

A woman slaps a young woman. 

A young man has visions in his sleep and it’s not uncommon for him to get bloody during the thrashing etc during these visions. 

A woman has poisoned an entire community. 

Natters are creatures that attack a young woman. They attack in herds, have talons, one clawed her face, another dislocated her shoulder. One attacked a young man, he is found with blood dripping out of his mouth into a puddle. 

A man slaps a young woman hard across the face. 

A young man’s mouth is sewn shut and bleeding.

Some prisoners are chained to a cart. There are deformed men that are released to attack people. One attacks a young woman. 

A young woman finds bones of people that have teeth marks on them. A creature made of decaying skin and bones tries to tie her. They fight, the creature stabbing her thigh, she fights back injuring it. Later a feline creature tries to attack so she jumps into water. A large finned animal swims near and eats the animal. 

As payment for help, a witch takes “a shard of sky” from a young woman (removing part of her eye) causing her immense pain. The iris of the eye was left white. 

A young woman stabs a large worm-like creature. 

A man holds a woman by the throat. 

Men want to sell a young woman and kill a man but the 2 attack instead. She slashes at an attacker, he kicks her. Another man is thrown after his neck is broken. She stabs a knife into a man’s gut, and watches him sag, fall, die. 

A man is bleeding from a large rock shard. 

To catch a prisoner, a spear is used that has barbs so the person cannot resist. A man has a scar from this. A young woman is grabbed with this, large pools of blood forming on her chest. 

Large spider-like creatures are chasing 2 people. They jump off a cliff into water, they nearly drown. 

A man slaps a young man. 

A young boy who is prisoner tries to flee but his metal collar kept getting tighter until it choked him and he died. 

A man has blood spurting from his ears and mouth. One man crushes another man’s skull. 

A woman injured a young man making him scream. 

A young man is tied to a bed. He has a mask put over his face that will stab his mouth if he speaks. 

Prisoners are sold and treated very poorly. 

A phantom attacks and leaves a woman with a shredded, bloody leg. 

A creature that looks like a woman tries to lure a young man so she can eat him. 

A room is full of decaying human bodies. 

A man punches another man, hearing the crunch of his nose breaking. 

A young girl saw her mother killed. When she was older, she found the men and killed them. 

A man holds a young woman by the neck, ready to snap it. 

A man is pushed down some stairs (breaking his thigh) while a woman is grabbed with a bag over her head. 

Potentially Intense Themes

A young woman finds old human bones. 

Winnowrook- a very large spider-crow predator. 

A large wolf is caught and bleeding in a large web. 

A mother is burned to death for being a witch.

A baby dies at birth. There is a feast afterward where the body is used as meat for stew. It is tradition and they cannot bury loved ones. 

A sickness called the Rot kills many people. It halved one town and decimated others. It has come again. 

A woman lost one baby at birth and two young children to sickness. 

A man is hit in the head by falling rock and his skull is crushed, killing him. 

In a tunnel, many creatures live there. There are also human and animal bones littering the floor. A young man slips in the remnants of fluid and such from a person’s body. 

An eel-like creature has some human form and talks of once being human. 

Grimworns are large worm-like creatures that shake the earth and burrow tunnels. They will eat people.

A woman is slowly turning into a monster with magic. 

Magic is used many times. A lot of the time there is blood or hair involved. 

A man turns into a wolf and man many times. It is painful and his bones crack and move while he screams in pain. 

Another young man is going through a transformation and it feels as if his bones are cracking, melting, changing and burning. 

A young woman is transforming. Black fluid comes from her mouth and eyes as she thrashes. 

A woman has large deep scars on one side of her body, exposing cheekbone on her face and giving her leg a limp. 

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**I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.