Eighteen-year-old Raven is a high school student in the marching band, has a normal social life and lives with her Grandma Lou in their small Texas town. On her way home from performing at an away game, her bus is attacked by an unidentified being. When she gets a better look, she doesn’t believe what she’s seeing. The monster that is killing her bandmates and friends is actually a vampire. The chaos triggers her hidden powers and she attempts to fight them off. But she’s not alone – another super-human-like being is fighting them too. Once the fight is over, he insists that she must come with him or else risk further endangering herself and even Grandma Lou. Considering she is the only survivor left, she has no choice but to comply. Little does Raven know, her life will never be the same after this. Sign of the Slayer by Sharina Harris is a paranormal dark academia novel that follows Raven’s journey from average high schooler to vampire-slayer-in-training. But the more skilled she gets, the more powerful her inner darkness becomes – and she’s not sure if she can control it. 

Khamari St. John – or “Pretty Boy” as Raven likes to call him – knows much more than he’s letting on. But before she has a chance to find out, he leaves just as mysteriously as he appeared. Shortly after the encounter, Raven is recruited to the American Slayer Society (yes, ASS, to Raven’s delight) by fellow vampire slayers Charlotte and Richmond. Torn between seeking revenge against the monsters that killed her friends and returning to Grandma Lou, Raven decides to stay at the academy. But the more she learns about the history and science behind vampires, alchemists, and slayers, the more she understands just how important her role is. And her untamed powers hint that she may be more significant than she ever thought. 

Slayers and vampires have to keep the peace between their groups, or else they risk war that spills over to “normal” humans. So when both sides begin to investigate the attack on Raven’s bandmates, they discover that someone is hiding and sharing secrets that go way deeper than the current conflict. Someone is trying to unleash an ancient power, and they’re getting closer to achieving their goal. When the vampire prince insists on working with Raven to prevent this from happening, she discovers that he is none other than Khamari. Now not only does she have to work with a vampire – beings that she genuinely wants to kill – she has to figure out how to track down and prevent the upcoming evil mayhem. All while learning how to perfect her new skills and not lose control of her strange powers. 

Harris created a fun and entertaining read with Sign of the Slayer. The pacing is a bit slow at first, but it picks up and doesn’t slow down until the end. I enjoyed Raven’s inner monologue. We get her thoughts in first-person, which allows for some funny comments about what she’s going through. And readers will enjoy the addition of Khamari’s POV as well. The world-building is great, but readers might get a bit lost from time to time. There are a lot of details about how alchemy plays into the world, and the different factions/skill-sets among both sides might be overwhelming. Even so, readers won’t see the twists coming their way towards the end of the book. But in any case, those who love urban fantasy, vampires, paranormal adventures, etc. will enjoy this one. With a sassy, badass Black woman as a vampire slayer in training, you can’t go wrong. 

Sharina Harris joins us for a Cantina Conversation to talk about her aspirations to create a vampire slayer of color and her plans for the sequel. Keep an ear out for an upcoming episode of The Nerd Cantina Show podcast and order Sign of the Slayer, available now.