What if Succession had demons?

Book Review: Fiend by Alma Katsu

Fiend by Alma Katsu

Published: September 16, 2025 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons

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Synopsis:

Imagine if the Sackler family had a demon at their beck and call.

The Berisha family runs one of the largest import-export companies in the world, and they’ve always been lucky. Their rivals suffer strokes. Inconvenient buildings catch on fire. Earthquakes swallow up manufacturing plants, destroying harmful evidence. Things always seem to work out for the Berishas. They’re blessed.

At least that is what Zef, the patriarch, has always told his three children. And each of them knows their place in the family—Dardan, as the only male heir, must prepare to take over as keeper of the Berisha secrets, Maris’s most powerful contribution, much to her dismay, will be to marry strategically, and Nora’s job, as the youngest, is to just stay out of the way. But when things stop going as planned, and the family blessing starts looking more like a curse, the Berishas begin to splinter, each hatching their own secret scheme. They didn’t get to be one of the richest families in the world without spilling a little blood, but this time, it might be their own.

Rating:

Review:

Alma Katsu is one of my favorite authors. I’ve read a number of her books and thoroughly loved every single one of them. I have been meaning to make time to go through some of her other books that I haven’t read yet but this one demanded attention first. As expected, I absolutely loved it.

Zef is the patriarch of a family owned shipping company. They are one of the most powerful families in the world. Dardan, his only son, is slated to take over the family business when Zef passes. But his sisters, Maris and Nora, are convinced that this is an antiquated patriarchal idea and they don’t want any part in it. But, as it turns out, this is a job that no one wants.

Admittedly the beginning of the book was a bit slow, but it was necessary. We needed the history of the family to get an idea of the scope of the story. Just how much power did these people have? Just how important is it that the family keeps their power? That story had a lot of elements and so it needed to be slow.

As the story started to reach its peak I was really invested in what was going to happen. By then, we know how the family got its power and why Dardan was going to be the next in line. And we also knew that Nora would do almost anything to put herself in Dardan’s place.

The ending was entirely unexpected. I thought I knew how it would end and I was incredibly wrong. This is an instance when I am delighted to be wrong. The actual ending was completed twisted and I never would have guessed.

My final thoughts are that although this book isn’t a traditional horror novel, it was very creepy and such a fun ride.