First Light: A Novel

by Liz Kerin

Overview

“A Phoebe Bridgers song in book form, I felt and bled, willingly and gratefully.”—CJ Leede, author of Maeve Fly

With Night’s Edge, Liz Kerin took a bite out of vampire lore. The riveting sequel, First Light, is about seizing a brighter future by confronting the shadows of our past.

It's been nine months since the catastrophe in Tucson sent Mia fleeing from her home. But she’s not running away from the darkness—she’s running toward it, obsessively pursuing the man who gave her mother a thirst for blood and destroyed their lives.

But when Mia finds the monsters she’s been hunting and infiltrates a secret network of fugitives, she discovers she might have been their prey all along.

To escape their clutches, she’ll have to reckon with her mother’s harrowing past and confront a painful truth: that they might be more alike than she ever imagined.

Also by Liz Kerin:
Night’s Edge

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250835703
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/23/2024
Series:	Night's Edge , #2
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	62,761
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 5.50(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

LIZ KERIN is the author of Night's Edge, and a playwright, screenwriter, and graduate of the Rita and Burton Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She is also the author of The Phantom Forest (2019). She lives in Southern California.

Editorial Reviews

02/19/2024

In Kerin’s gritty follow-up to Night’s Edge, the vampire tale continues as Mia—having survived the gruesome events that resulted in the death of her mother, a “Sara,” or sufferer of the vampirism-inducing Saratov’s syndrome—plots revenge on Devon, the man who turned her mother into a vampire in the first place. Kerin toggles between timelines as Mia infiltrates ADAPT, a Sara-supremacist organization that believes vampires are entitled to societal control due to their status as the next evolution of human beings. As she grows ever closer to Devon and vengeance, she learns that her enemies are closer, and hungrier for her blood, than she could ever have anticipated. Though the expanded worldbuilding and dueling timelines sometimes prove difficult to follow, Kerin imbues the story with a twitchy, grimy energy all its own, and the ending wraps things up beautifully. This duology stands as an exciting take on the vampire mythos for the modern era, exploring the difficulties of emotional intimacy in a world designed to make it a fatal liability.Readers will be entranced. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

First Light is rich, complex and achingly beautiful. Kerin has taken the well-traveled world of vampire lore and created something that is wholly unique.” —Chuck Tingle, bestselling author of Camp Damascus

Praise for Night’s Edge

“Complex and fully realized, Kerin’s vampire apocalypse has a palpable beating heart. You'll want to physically shield the world-weary heroine, Mia, from the horrors within.” —Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six

“Night’s Edge is heart-wrenching and magnificent. Kerin’s take on the world of vampires overflows with raw sincerity.” —Chuck Tingle, bestselling author of Camp Damascus

“Fascinating. A powerful, thoughtful, and all-too-real take on vampires that will ring true for abuse survivors and have everyone else jumping at shadows.” —Delilah S. Dawson, New York Times bestselling author of The Violence

“This vampire story from Kerin will sink its teeth into readers’ hearts.” —Library Journal, STARRED review

A heartbreaking story…. It grabbed me from the first page and held me tight until the end, leaving me breathless and fighting tears.” —Damien Angelica Walters, author of The Dead Girls Club and Cry Your Way Home

“Night’s Edge is about vampires, yes. But it’s also about the kind of love we have for our mothers that pulls us apart, that makes us who we are, and the way in which we have to find our own path eventually, no matter how difficult—and potentially beautiful—that path might be. This one’s a killer.” —Erika T. Wurth, author of White Horse

“Kerin’s complex and nuanced novel is immersive, bleak, and twisted. An emotional gauntlet which I really enjoyed.” —Sunyi Dean, author of The Book Eaters

"Incredible world building. A fresh and utterly engaging take on what it means to love a vampire, when the predator in question is your mother. Brilliant. I really loved it!" ―S.A. Barnes, author of Dead Silence

“A harrowing, electric, and wholly original take on vampires and the complexities of mother-daughter relationships. Night’s Edge is a gruesome and surprisingly heartfelt page-turner.” —Alexis Henderson, author of House of Hunger

"Night's Edge is a 'vampire next door' story that feels achingly human, set in a world both strangely alien and frighteningly familiar. So realistic you’ll swear it happened to someone you know.” —Scott Thomas, author of Kill Creek

“I read Night's Edge in two days and I’m jealous of anyone picking it up for the first time. Beware your heart; this book will make it race, make it stop, and ultimately break it to pieces.” —Jac Schaeffer, creator of WandaVision

“Nuanced, dark, fun. Kerin’s novel is a thrilling exploration of the enmeshed mother-daughter relationship and what happens when we outgrow our family.” —Leslye Headland, co-creator of Russian Doll

From the Publisher

★ 02/01/2024

This sequel grows the world that Kerin introduced in Night's Edge while also exploring the trauma of its protagonist. When the novel begins, the pseudovampires called Saras are still being pushed to the fringes of society due to their need for blood, and Mia's mother, who was a Sara, is still dead. Rather than try to move on, Mia finds herself instead pulled deeper into the world of Saras, thanks to her mother's connection to Devon, the man who turned her mother and seems to be starting a dangerous group of Sara revolutionaries. Mia, far from moving on, wants to confront the man who transformed her mother into a Sara and ruined her childhood. Moving between past and present at a brisk pace, Kerin's novel shows how actual vampires might be ostracized from modern society while also deftly dissecting the toxic relationship between Mia and Devon, the man from whom Mia seeks both closure and vengeance. However, along the way, she also discovers more uncomfortable truths about her mother that she must deal with. VERDICT This horror sequel invokes more about Sara rights and splinter cells, and Mia remains a fascinating protagonist to watch as she works through her own pain while trying to stay alive.—James Gardner

Library Journal