This book is so gorgeous. It is literally haunting, and I have not stopped thinking about it since I finished it. It took me literally 1 day to devour this masterpiece.

A Light From the Nether is a contemporary urban fantasy that blends aggressively millennial references with Victorian-era forbidden romance and a dash of immaculate body horror, all wrapped up in a mystery. The story opens with Liam, barely an adult and already wrung out by his career, suffering a cataclysmic breakdown after a job goes wrong.

First off, I have to say how grateful I am for the inclusion of a glossary at the start of the novel, making sure it's spoiler-free and a safe reference point. I think I would have been completely lost without it, even if the narration did a good job explaining the finer points while the reader discovered them, it was just a lot to hold onto! As for the story itself: from the very beginning, the atmosphere just leaps off the page. The humor is witty and so dry, perfectly matching the somber mood. The body horror elements are deliciously creepy and work incredibly well.

For about 60% (or more?) of the book, I was absolutely in love with the novel and what it was going for. The buildup is strong, and the red herrings keep the mystery compelling. However, some of the final twists ended up being either predictable or disappointments. There were a few cop-outs that weren’t foreshadowed enough, and some details unravelled under scrutiny. Without getting into spoilers, I feel like the author fell into a trap of wanting to tie up too many threads together and ended up with something a bit messy, a bit shaky, and which left a few plot holes behind since there was *so much* already.

Even with my lukewarm feelings about the final reveals (and ending as a whole), I still had a fantastic time reading this book. The characters were touching, and I loved the bond they shared (I also appreciated the character art at the end!). The worldbuilding is rich and genuinely unique, something I haven’t seen before, and the writing is competent and engaging. In the end, I’d rate this novel at a 4.25-4.5 stars, but I’m rounding it up to 5. I’d recommend it to (hear me out) Destiel aficionados (don’t judge me) and fans of Victorian whodunnits. The marketing compares the book to C.S. Pacat, but for me, it was much closer to a K.J. Charles!

Sullivan’s "A Light From the Nether" is a rare feast: part police procedural, part psychological thriller, with the whole of it folded into urban fantasy, body horror, mystery, dark comedy, and historical fiction. And yet, beneath it all pulses a queer love story—one that defies time, form, and the bounds of emotional complexity.

The novel resists easy allegiance. It conjures a world where ambiguity and immateriality are not side effects but the very structure of existence. Here, the torments of the mind become flesh, and existential questions of right, wrong, and mortality seep into every gesture.

Throughout, tight, evocative language weaves sensory mindscapes that consume and subvert, splintering perception as they unwind. In a world where you hear with your eyes and taste with your touch, anything proves possible.

This is partly due to the grammar of reality Sullivan constructs. Where language not only reflects but remakes the world, Liam, our protagonist, is left shifting between brutalised psyches in a relentless effort to help them heal. Faced with loss and horror greater than anything he’s known before, he begins to feel his own mind slipping into an essence not entirely his. Still, nothing compares to what comes next: a becoming that undoes all else.

At its heart, Sullivan presents a story of life, trauma, adoration, and survival, told with uncanny precision, rhythm, and emotional depth. Empathy walks alongside disdain. Devotion stares at its mirror reflection: desolation.

This is no fairy tale. Emotion here fractures as easily as it soothes, unmaking the self while clinging to it. To enter this world unguarded is to let the narrative strike at full force. For every turn of the plot, there’s a new layer of darkness—aching, immersive, and laced with revelation.
Those seeking romance should turn instead to the slow excavation of the bodies that hold it; those hungry for horror should open themselves up to a tenderness that slashes and wounds.

"A Light From the Nether" asks you to shed your assumptions and, perhaps, a few hours of sleep. Dreamlike in places, nightmarish in others, it consumes and reconfigures from the inside out. There is nothing left to do but submit to the devourment.

A Light From the Nether by Molly Dowd Sullivan is such a good story. I rated it 5 stars because I couldn't put it down for a second. The characters are immaculate.