Karen Koehler Shredder: Iron Angel

Shredder: Iron Angel

Karen Koehler

Black Death Books, June 2005, $15.00, 286 pp.

ISBN: 0976791420

Almost every night in the quiet like town of Morninvale, Kansas, high school senior Amy Perry is beaten by her drunken police officer father. When the pain gets too bad and the anger rages out of control, Amy uses the power of the glimmer to keep her father away from her. Everyone knows the secret of the Perry household but nobody does anything about it and soon the town will have more to worry about them a child abuse. Soon being hit will be the least of Amy's woes.

In the catacombs below the town teen club known as the Iron Angel, Cyn, a disturbed and alienated teenage girl has made a pact with Azazel, the Shredder of Human Souls. This entity is bound by iron in a statue and needs thirteen human souls to break free. Amy meets Grendel; a Bane who is a soulless immortal who never sleeps nor eats and can heal from any injury. Grendel informs the teen that she too is a Bane, born to be the one to send the Shredder back to hell. As she sheds her humanity to fight in the upcoming battle, it is her human love for her younger brother Charles that will determine whether she contains the resolve needed to win victory from a being more powerful and older than Lucifer.

In the new millennium one of the premium writers of cutting edge horror is Karen Koehler with her distinctive gothic style, vivid imagery and dark characters. Amy is an attractive "coming of age" character who goes from fighting her fate to accepting the mantle of responsibility thrust upon her; this endears her to readers. Azazel is fascinating in a macabre malevolent way. Their confrontation makes this book worthy of a Bram Stoker award nomination.

Harriet Klausner