Feed Me by Dana J. Wright
https://booktrib.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/feed-me-dana-j-wright.jpg
Such is the case for Leda Malcolm as she stands on a bridge, about to commit suicide. She’s stuck in a low-paying, miserable job where she is abused mentally and sexually. Her feelings of self-worth have plummeted to nil. Little does she know, as she plunges into the water below, that this moment is not the end of her life, but the beginning of a new one.
Feed Me by Dana J. Wright, the story of Leda’s new beginning, is primarily a fantasy novel blending a modern urban setting with legends, mythology and alien worlds. It starts out quite grounded in reality (as does Leda) but grows ever more fantastical as Leda gains more power and insight, and the reader is along for the ride as her knowledge unfolds of the other realms beyond our everyday world.
As Leda travels across the earth, to various other planets and through underworlds, she learns about her destiny as a strong and magical woman of mixed fantastical heritage. She will meet both gods and aliens along her journey through time and space on her quest for personal empowerment and to save humanity from others and possibly from itself.
As Leda becomes more and more connected to the otherworldly beings she encounters, her life in the earthly world begins to change as well and she leaves her humble beginnings behind. Leda goes from being a suicidal, abused woman to being society’s darling — a rich fashion designer at the top of the world who uses her magical abilities to try to change how people think. This meteoric rise is all thanks to the help of her otherworldly kin and her newly adopted “family,” which unbeknownst to her has its own agenda for taking her into their fold.
Leda is a chosen one — think Harry Potter, but for adults — an abused person whose belittled and broken state turns into the strength she needs to rise above her circumstances and help others. There’s a tiny hint that just maybe the ill-treatment she’s endured might not have been an accident, but a tool of the gods, a brutal hammer to mold her into the shape they will need in the future.
ROOTED IN WORLD MYTHOLOGY, TACKLING DIFFICULT THEMES
The book is written in short, self-contained chapters reminiscent of the style of James Patterson that move the story along quickly. Most segments are from Leda’s point of view but other character viewpoints are featured when necessary to move the story forward.
Wright skillfully explores (and in some cases offers solutions to) themes such as woman’s empowerment, revenge, animal abuse, pedophilia, metaphysics and sacrifice. The book also contains strong elements of explicit sexuality, including rape, incest and group sex, as well as drug use, which may disconcert more sensitive readers, but the inclusion of these elements is in service to the plot.
Feed Me has many classical elements from various pantheons and legends woven together with some unique elements and stylings — including Biblical, Greek, Egyptian and Persian. There are a lot of Easter eggs in the character and place names. It might be worth a minute or so of the reader’s time to do some research on those names for a bit of extra plot depth, and also for an appreciation of how much research the writer must have done for this book. The story can still be enjoyed without that extra knowledge, however.
Feed Me is the first novel in a planned series called Inamorata. On her Facebook page, Wright explains, “I wanted to write fantasy with strong female characters who weren’t good girls. I was fed up with stories centered on virgins, or almost virgins, who met bad boys and then basically kowtowed to whatever the males wanted. My females were going to go head-to-head with the males — make them work for it. … I will probably always write stories that star bad girls, who, in my eyes, aren’t bad as much as fighting for freedom. Freedom to live their lives, and won’t allow anyone/thing to get in their way.”
The world needs more of that kind of heroine.
Feed Me is available for purchase on Amazon.
Buy this Book!
Amazon
