NVK: A Novel

Written by Temple Drake

Narrated by Stina Nielsen and Greg Chun

HER SECRET MUST BE KEPT FOR ALL ETERNITY.

Set in the otherworldly megalopolis that is today’s Shanghai, Temple Drake’s suspenseful first novel blends the gothic, the erotic, and the supernatural as it charts an intense and dangerous affair.

One night in 2012, executive Zhang Guo Xing takes a group of European clients to a fashionable nightclub in Shanghai. While there, he meets a strikingly beautiful young Western woman called Naemi Vieno Kuusela. The physical attraction between them proves irresistible, and they embark on an intoxicating affair. But Naemi is not what she appears to be…

To Zhang’s surprise, she veers between passion and wariness, conducting the relationship entirely on her own terms. He feels driven to find out more about her, and is swiftly drawn into a web of intrigue, mystery, and horror. Is she a ghost? A demon? Do the living dead walk the streets of twenty-first century Shanghai?

Written in spare, high-octane prose, NVK is the first in a series of dark, hypnotic novels that explore the roots of desire and the cruel costs of immortality.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Feb 4, 2020
• ISBN: 9781799761235

Temple Drake

Temple Drake is a writer based in London.

Reviews for NVK

[Billie · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

NVK
by Temple Drake
Horror Paranormal
Scribd audio

Zhang, a married forty-something Chinese man meets a beautiful foreign woman at a nightclub and in the coming days begins to have an affair with her, but unlike his other affairs, he begins to fall in love with her.

Naemi was only looking for a one-night stand, but there was something in Zhang that drew her to him, and that one-night stand kept repeating.

At least her point of view was a little more fluid than Zhang, his sentences and narration were clipped, as if the guy had no idea what a vocabulary was.

This book was boring and slow. There were no descriptive scenes, so thankfully it failed to reach the erotic classification it claimed. It was way too blah for that. There are young adult novels a lot more descriptive than this book, and that includes all descriptions. Of those that were there, they were covered over by fluff and then a sentence so bland, telling what was happening instead of showing, that it sucked all color away from the story, which was mostly about two people and their affair, their feelings, and she has a secret.

There's no in-depth plot whatsoever. The dialogue was clipped, false, and after five or so exchanges, was summed up so the MC of the chapter could leave, as if that part of the story had no meaning. (If it didn't mean anything, why include it?)

So, do not believe the blurb. It is very misleading!

1 Star

[wagner5sarah35 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm not entirely certain how to describe this novel - a thriller, a mystery, a horror? It's a strange blend that somehow works. What the title character, NVK, exactly is never quite becomes clear, although she's clearly supernatural and yet sympathetic. The ending of this novel left me with more questions and I'm hopeful that the note on the back of this book that this is the first in a series indicates sequel will be available soon.

[viking2917_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

quirky Chinese ghost/vampire story set in modern China. It never 100% jelled for me, but an interesting take.