Of Shadows and Obsession: A Short Story Prequel to Of Metal and Wishes
By Sarah Fine
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
Since his grisly accident on the killing floor, Bo has “haunted” the Gochan slaughterhouse, and his myth is already powerful. But he still has a thirst to visit the world he left behind all those years ago, so on the eve of First Holiday, he ventures out onto the bustling streets full of revelers—and unseen dangers.
One night to rejoin the living.
One girl who touches his heart.
And one moment that shatters everything.
Sarah Fine
Sarah Fine is the author of several popular series, including The Impostor Queen and the Guards of the Shadowlands. And while she promises she is not psychoanalyzing those around her, she manages to use both her talent as a writer and her experience as a psychologist to great effect. Sarah's stories blur lines, challenge convention, and press boundaries. Her mash-up of seemingly disparate genres yields stories that not only are engaging but will keep readers guessing. Sarah has lived on the West Coast and in the Midwest, but she currently calls the East Coast home. She confesses to having the music tastes of an adolescent boy and an adventurous spirit when it comes to food (especially if it's fried). But if her many books are any indication, writing clearly trumps both her musical and culinary loves.
Read more from Sarah Fine
Life Inside My Mind: 31 Authors Share Their Personal Struggles Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Of Metal and Wishes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Of Dreams and Rust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unstill Waters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Reviews for Of Shadows and Obsession
35 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is the first book in the Of Metal and Wishes duology. I really ended up enjoying this steampunk YA book about a girl who lives in a factory with her father (who is a the factory doctor). This is based on The Phantom of the Opera and it does a great job of paralleling that story while introducing a unique world and characters.The story does start out a bit rough; the writing was a bit stark and simple for me. However, as I progressed through the story I found myself incredibly engaged with this world, the characters, and the story. I would have liked to see more of the broader world and maybe a bit more world-building because we never really leave the factory area. Hopefully the next book will show some of this.Overall this was a good read and I enjoyed it. I would recommend to those who enjoy steampunk mystery reads. This is a lighter read but does combine some interesting themes. I plan on continuing the series.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I feel like there's a lot going for this book, but the YA romantic trope was just too same-ol, same-ol, and I couldn't get through it. Possibly it's just me.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Nicely written retelling of The Phantom of the Opera. I found the use of the standard YA tropes irritating as this could've been such a lovely standalone novel. But of course, fantasy YA books are never standalone.
Love triangle was handled relatively deftly. Still gets the stupid love triangle shelf, because it is yet another love triangle. Even if the author is pulling the relationship directly from her source material. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I've been wearying of the whole dystopia thing and then this piqued my interest. Superstition, tradition, injustice and sidelong romance combine for a compelling and suspenseful narrative set in an unpecified industrial Asian nation. Looks to be the start of a series...of course.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5While an easy way to describe this novel is to say "a Chinese Dystopian version of Phantom of the Opera," that does not come close to describing the intricacies of this book. Wen's father is the only doctor for Factory One, where cattle are butchered and the workers are kept in massive debt by the trickiness of overseer Mugo. After her mother passes away, Wen moves to the factory and begins to learn how to translate her seamstress skills into medical skills; however, her fancy clothes make her stand out and not in a good way. The "balance" in the factory is shifting as the wild Noor (think Mongols or Russian, based on the physical descriptions) are brought in to help during the busy season - and Wen finds herself wrapped up in their struggles, falls in love with the unofficial leader Melik, and is on the path to a ruined reputation if she isn't careful. Then there's Bo. Bo = the Phantom. He is known to the factory's residents as the Ghost. He was severely injured in a butchering accident years before the novel begins, but Wen's father patched him up and told him stories of Wen to give him something else to focus on. Bo is a very well developed character as even though his actions are not always nice (some are downright psychopathic), the reader always understands WHY he chose to commit those actions. His fear, his devotion, his obsession, they all come through clearly with each interaction he has with Wen. Fans of romances set in a dystopian world or who are looking for a fantasy with a non-European basis will especially like this book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy.allthingsuf.comOF METAL AND WISHES hits that perfect blend of interesting world building, real characters, and romantic danger. Reminiscent of The Phantom of the Opera and THE HUNGER GAMES, these familiar components click together to create an altogether different dynamic. I couldn’t get this story out of my head until the very last page, and now I daydream about what comes next.Mixing realism with fantasy, OF METAL AND WISHES contains culture clashes that could be found in our own history with an utterly original bleak, industrialized world. Wen too is a well-written teenager, with elements of drama and misunderstanding leavened by strength, courage, and a willingness to grow. She alternately treads close to Mary Sue and unredeemable, but never tips either extreme to the point where I would lose sympathy for her. Through grief and romance and danger, I was always invested in her next move. Even the romantic elements, tuned to such a dramatic story as The Phantom, take a more nuanced and sympathetic path. Despite the desires and expectations of so many men around her, Wen finds her own way.The downside of realistic dystopias, however, is that even a happy ending doesn’t wash away the political and societal dangers surrounding characters. OF METAL AND WISHESoffers a satisfying, short-term standalone, but true happiness waits behind momentous events in future books. Wen is a well-equipped to face this future, however, and I can’t wait to read along with her.Sexual Content: Attempted rape, references to sex.
Book preview
Of Shadows and Obsession - Sarah Fine
Chapter One
THE POINT OF THE COMPASS punches through the paper and lets out a tinny squeal as it scrapes against the steel work surface. Unacceptable. My perfect metal fingers lift it straight up, smooth and strong and steady. I slide another sheet of thin rice paper onto my desk and turn the knob at my elbow a fraction to loosen the tension. Sometimes I forget to adjust it when I switch between tasks, when I go from heavy work to intricate calculations. Sometimes I forget how strong I am. Sometimes I destroy things accidentally. Other times, I destroy things on purpose.
Last night was more the former than the latter, but that doesn’t make the situation any better for the family who waits out in the Ring, wondering when their boy will arrive home for the First Holiday feasting. I am the only one who knows the answer to their question.
Never.
He is the reason I need to finish my calculations. Well, not him really, because as I sit here, his bones are slowly turning to ash in the factory’s furnace. This is for others like him. This is to protect them, all of them.
From me.
With my grip adjusted, I dive into angles of reflection, curvature, intensity of ambient light. . . . I live for a while within the grid on my paper, between the axes, contained by lines and degrees. There is nothing as soothing as this, nothing that quiets my thoughts so well. I pull the factory blueprints onto my work surface and make sure I have the scale right. I select each mirror from my collection, choosing only the flawless ones that will give me an undistorted view.
By this time tomorrow, I will be able to peer through one of my pipes and see the entire area around my altar. I can already see all of the cafeteria, including the kitchens. The killing floor from four different angles. Boss Jipu’s office, and Underboss Mugo’s office too. All the entrances to the factory and the compound gates. The furnace room. The roof. The corridors. But there is a blind spot just outside the cafeteria apparently, and that is where the young man was hiding.
I didn’t see him until it was too late. Strongly built and nearing twenty, maybe. I’d seen him wolfing down steamed buns in the cafeteria, and laughing with his friends after shifts. One who came back with candied dates from his mother and a bottle of rice wine from his father after weekends off. His name was Atanyo, and I knew his habits like I know those of everyone else at Gochan One. He didn’t like hard brown bread but loved barley soup. He visited the whores in the Ring sometimes but never stayed long. He lusted after Mugo’s pretty, young secretary, Lovey, like every other man in the factory, including and especially Mugo himself.
Atanyo’s sloppily scrawled wishes were all about Lovey, day after day. He left me a few candied dates each time to convince me to turn her head, as if I had that power.
Perhaps his often-repeated and as-yet-ungranted wish was the reason he was waiting for me. Or maybe he was simply wondering who collects the offerings that crowd that low wooden table every single day, dripping and rolling off its edges, sometimes getting singed by the candles set up in a row over the top. Thirteen candles, for the thirteen years I was alive and whole. Thirteen candles, for the years I was a child, when I believed I would go on and on. Four years have passed since then. I’m not a child anymore. Nor am I alive. Or whole.
Now I am the Ghost.
But sometimes I think I’m something . . . more.
I don’t know what Atanyo thought, though. Perhaps he was only curious. Or greedy. Whatever it was, it made him stealthy. I emerged from the stairwell and walked to the altar to gather the wishes and the gifts, the things that connect me to the people of Gochan One, the things they hope will connect them to the Ghost. I always check outside the cafeteria before I come up here. If there’s anyone there, I wait until they leave. But Atanyo, he must have been snugged