Alvin Alonso has self-esteem issues. Mostly, they’re his mother’s fault. At twenty-two, he has a new job, working as an assistant to a Private Investigator, Ms. Stryker. His goal, it seems, is to make himself feel less useless. I loved Alvin right away, but I also felt really sorry for him. The book is fast-paced and hugely entertaining, as well as emotionally engaging.

Oddly enough, Alvin is not ashamed of the fact that he’s gay. His problem is that he’s not human. He looks perfectly human (if sort of short and chubby), but he is an incubus—a paranormal being who can draw on the life-force of humans by seducing them. However, Alvin is ashamed of who he is, and refuses to feed off of humans, because he feels that makes him a monster. Alvin doesn’t ever want to become a monster. Like his mother.

I lay out all this because it sets up the world in which Alex Woolfson places this, his first print book. It is a trope that I see a lot, and enjoy in all its variety. The human world knows about paranormal beings—from fae to vampires to werewolves. Humans can use and control magic, but they have an innate hostility to paranormal beings, who are generally seen as evil creatures (a bias supported by the behavior of various characters in this novel). Sometimes in this literary genre, humans and paranormals get along fine—but not in Alvin’s San Francisco.

The whole course of the novel covers just a few days, and sees some pretty drastic changes in Alvin’s life. I won’t go into any detail because the fun of the story (and it is laugh-out-loud fun) is watching Alvin’s carefully controlled existence turned inside out.

The story ends on a rather significant cliffhanger (not my favorite kind of ending); but I credit Woolfson for giving Alvin some major development as a person and a character. I am also a bit forgiving of the cliffhanger because of what the author is known for previously: graphic novels. In particular, his best-known work, The Young Protectors, looks so good I actually ordered a physical copy of it. Comics always have cliffhanger endings. Also, I really want to buy book two in the Alvin Alonso series.