[Book review] A Brush of Darkness by Allison Pang

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I always appreciate a good humorous fantasy.  The recent rash of paranormal fantasy sometimes descends into the hopelessly gloomy, with tragedy and woe dominating the landscape.  It’s interesting to see a book like A Brush of Darkness, which does have humor, but which also contains a fairly serious undercurrent.

Abby Sinclair is a TouchStone, a human mortal who links with a supernatural being in order to give them an anchor in our world.  She’s bound to Moira, a high ranking OtherFolk, but unfortunately Moira has vanished.  While waiting for her return, Abby is approached by Brystion, an incubus who wants to find his missing sister.

The disappearances continue, with OtherFolk and TouchStones vanishing without a trace.  Abby and Brystion work to find them, but Abby is so inexperienced at the business of being a TouchStone that she’s hampered in her efforts.  With the help of werewolves, angels, and a dirty-minded miniature unicorn, it may just be possible to solve the mystery before it’s too late.

This novel is chock-full of plot.  There’s a lot going on—probably enough for at least two books, if not a trilogy.  There’s the mystery of the missing women, the backstory of how Abby came to be where she is, some stuff about Abby helping to guide a potential TouchStone, and a whole gamut of relationship ups and downs with Brystion.  It meant that I occasionally had to backtrack a bit to make sure that I understood what was going on.

Readers get thrown into this world with very little warning, and soon there are concepts and terminology galore.  Have patience, because the author doesn’t leave you hanging for too long, but it might be a little daunting at first.  That’s another reason that I feel that the novel has too much plot: there’s a lot of setting to establish in a short amount of time, and it’s intricate enough that I would have liked a more leisurely introduction.

Even so, this is an entertaining tale.  The secondary characters really provide some depth to the world Pang has created, and their interactions with Abby and with each other help to build the setting.  Phineas the miniature unicorn is one of the more unique, with his cursing and penchant for nesting in Abby’s underwear drawer.  I was also pleasantly surprised to see mention of a mythical creature that I’ve never seen in a novel before—a Nucklavee—and an accurate description of how it looks. 

Abby herself is a complex character with a well-built background.  Although the worldbuilding was a bit frantic, Abby’s backstory was woven into the tale with skill and finesse.  Judging by the excerpt of the next novel (included in the back of this book), we’ll see more of Abby and her growth in the not too distant future.

Something that I really appreciated is that this book didn’t have the typical happy ending that readers may have come to expect from paranormal fantasy/romance.  Without giving away details, there are issues that will have to be resolved in future novels.  It’s always a pleasant surprise for me to see some of the bumps in relationships become a part of a story, because it’s more realistic.  Yes, we often read novels for escapism, but suspension of disbelief needs to be possible as well, and a judicious dose of reality can be a welcome thing.

Despite a few hiccups, A Brush of Darkness is a solid first novel with a lot of potential to grow into a well-received series.  Allison Pang is an author to watch as she grows into her writing skills and produces even better tales to delight and entertain us.