This book is really good! The flip between past and present built the story nicely, and the relationships between the core characters were nuanced but interesting

An enjoyable read with some action packed highlights, but there were many parts that were an absolute slog to read in a book that didn't need to be this long.

"Who are you?" he asks. "No one you'd know," the thing says. "What's important is why I'm here." "Okay, then. Why are you here?" "To save the world."
***
Twenty years ago, when they were in high school, Athena, Hal, Peter and Erin were the best of friends. Not only that, but they were the students of Peter's grandfather, Professor Marsh, in Dissonance, a system of 'magic' that comes from harnessing negative emotions like anger and pain. It felt like they'd be friends forever, until a horrific day that changed all their lives forever and pulled the coven apart.

Now, Athena, Hal and Erin have been summoned back to the small town where they grew up, invited to a memorial service to remember that day. But the service will be interrupted by a being of great power that will force the trio to reforge their broken connections. Because the world is starting to fall apart and unless they can make one last stand, they'll lose each other and everything else, all over again.

This contemporary fantasy-horror is not perfect. Yet, I gave it five stars because it was just so damn entertaining that I couldn't put it down. It reminded me a bit of the series "Heroes" (which only had one good season before dropping off the radar) and of "Stranger Things". It is a great exploration of how even deep friendships are precarious, especially during the highly emotionally charged teenage years, but how bonds formed in childhood are often the strongest.

It has adventure, magic, and romance, has a diverse cast of characters and is just oodles of fun.

The remaining members of a coven met up for the twentieth anniversary of major disaster that claimed most of the students at the high school. Twenty years earlier a chance encounter with a magical book introduces four kids to another reality, where a magical force can be used with a twist of the hand and a magical spell (in another language of course). Some members of the newly formed coven thrive with their new abilities, but Hal does not, instead he is given a magical sword and told someday he will be the Defender of the Universe. Back in modern times, Hal has been charged with murder, and the other members of the coven are now eking out a living as a barista and an occult bookstore owner. And Peter is dead.
Told through several timelines, leaving the reader always wanting to know what happened next from each cliff hanging end of chapter. While dealing with magic, secret societies, monsters, forbidden information end of the world events and time travel, perhaps the major theme is friendship, the kind that last decades, even when you are not currently talking to each other.

3.5 Stars

I have to say this is my second novel/story by Shaun Hamill and it’s easy to say he is becoming a favourite. My First was his Conan short story Lethal Consignment. The Dissonance was a gripping read that I became fully engaged with, within the first page.

The more I read the more captivated I became. Being a 90s girl and a horror fan this did give a bit of a The Craft or IT vibes but then sort of melded into Dreamcatcher all while being completely original. The main thing that drew me in was the tone and atmosphere of the novel, followed closely by the characters.

I never like spoilers as we know so I won’t go into great details but I will say that this is probably one of the best dual timeline novels I have read in a while. I also liked how Hamill manages to combine these two lines together but leaves a few little strings loose so potentially we might see the characters in the future.

If you enjoy horror and fantasy this one will be for you. I will definitely be looking into Hamill’s other works now since everything from the atmosphere to the writing and characters were brilliant. I could hardly put this one down.

Thank you so much to Titan Books and Netgalley for my copy. My review is left voluntarily and is honest.

The Dissonance is the story of three characters who form a coven. The novel spans many years and we follow the characters in their youth and later years.
Hamill's craft is engaging, gripping and enjoyable.
Plot 3/5
Concept 3.5/5
Characterisation 3.5/5
Mood 4/5
Writing Style 4.5/5
Pacing and Structure 3/5
Payoff 3/5

Overall, The Dissonance shows a lot of promise, and the author's writing is wonderfully readable.
3.5 stars rounded up.

The Dissonance is a contemporary horror/dark fantasy told in two timelines. During the summer before the start of high school, childhood friends Athena, Hal, Peter and Erin find a missing boy in the forest surrounding their small Texas town and are suddenly plunged into the secret world of sorcery where they are taken under the tutelage of Professor Marsh in the secret art of the Dissonance. But when tragedy strikes on the first day of their senior year, they go their separate ways. Now on the 20th anniversary, they are drawn back into their hometown for the memorial when they encounter Owen, a teenage boy taken hostage by an undead entity. They must face the sins and mistakes of their past if they want to save Owen, themselves, their hometown, and reality itself.

There was something that felt endlessly cool about the book, channeling horror classics like The Craft and even IT. It starts out with very strong horror vibes with the missing boy in the past and dreary and bleak tone of the friend’s lives in the present, but it does mostly taper off thereafter and goes for more a dark fantasy feel. I am personally not that big on horror so I liked the direction it went to. I liked the contrast between the characters from young adolescents who are still hopeful and growing into their potentials to these broken and traumatized adults who carry the heavy burden of their past. It’s a bleak but hopeful story of enduring friendship, unfulfilled love, and tragic loss. Anyone can find someone to latch on to here as the characters are all very diverse and imperfectly human with very relatable troubles despite the grand powers they wield.

In following two timelines, the book is essentially telling two stories, and this does limit the depth I was wanting or expecting from it. It is going for this very character-focused story, constantly shifting perspectives between chapters, but the propulsive plot was really rushing it along. The mystery element is satisfying as it builds towards two reveals—the tragic event in the past that has been teased and what is currently transpiring in the present. Unpredictable, inspired, and insidiously dark are how I would describe the reveals, but I am still uncertain about some things. I don’t know if this is meant to be a standalone, but it certainly feels like the start of a series. While it does tie up the main storylines, it feels like so many threads are still left open and many questions left unanswered.

The Dissonance is a dark occult fantasy with strong horror elements that is both bleak and hopeful.

Both an homage and reinvention of the horror and fantasy that we love, "The Dissonance," by Shaun Hamill is objectively masterful, deeply personal and cosmically grand.

Stephen King loved Shaun Hamill’s splendid debut, “A Cosmology of Monsters,” and rightly so. That book was a challenging, sometimes frustrating ode to horror itself, and I loved it.

And I loved this new book as well, which feels like a direct response to King himself, though he’s not the only influence you can see hanging from the sleeves of this story. This is a rich story of whole lives, much in the vein of classic Stephen King stories, but is maybe closer in kinship to his son, Joe Hill. Though the plots have very little in common, this book evoked the same feelings as when I read Hill’s, “NOS4R2,” which I similarly adored. Other clear influences here range from Narnia to The Prophesy film franchise, with a touch of dark academia and, unsurprisingly, a bit of Stranger Things.

This is a more commercial and, frankly, easier read than Hamill’s previous book, but it loses none of the author’s particular personality for that. His characters are appealing and repulsive in appropriate measure and his otherworld - if a little more derivative than expected - is richly realised in economical strokes, which is no mean feat. Telling the stories of this broken little coven in two timeframes makes it easy to care for the brittle adults who have to save a world they struggle to love. And here, again, is the core of grief that carried Hamill’s debut to such great places.

I still love this author after two books, and I would heartily recommend this to anyone who loves King, Hill, Chuck Wendig or the comics of James Tynion IV. Can’t wait for the next one.