Samara Daemonium tries to break free from her father’s control as the realms of Heaven and Hell prepare for war, in Kaylin McFarren’s erotic supernatural novel, Annihilation.

Lucinda, the daughter of Satan, rules Hell with an iron fist. She sits on the throne thanks in part to the angel/demon hybrid Crighton and his angel soulmate Ariel. However, power changed Lucinda. She no longer stands as a brighter future in Hell, but rather as a demagogue driving her demons to rise up in battle against the hosts of Heaven. Crighton struggles between his loyalty to Lucinda, and his responsibility for his family—especially his pregnant soulmate. He doesn’t yet know the depths of Lucinda’s deception.

Crighton tries to hold his family together by force, as Ariel gives birth to Cassius and a stillborn Caleb. But Samara chafes under her lack of freedom, kept in a secluded cabin to hide her from the forces of Hell. She turns to her uncle Tyrus for help, and when dark forces descend on her family, she steps up to defend them. While Samara can help to save her parents and brother, she doesn’t see the danger to herself until it’s found her. Lucifer, returned to physical form in the body of Samara’s first love, drags her to Hell and the palace of cruelty he prepared for her.

McFarren illuminates the fantastical stretches of Hell in tactile, colorful description.

Torture, sex, and supernatural powers mingle together in an otherworldly display. Witches take vengeance on the demon who killed their sister, Lucinda consumes the souls of magically gifted beings, and Samara learns of a bloodline with incredible abilities. But amongst all the magic and hell spawn, themes of family and identity ground the central characters.

Lucifer fights the political influence of the Knights of Darkness, strengthening his hold on the realm of demons. Meanwhile, a group of cambions calling themselves the Crows try to stop an apocalyptic war from breaking out. And the Daemonium family fall into the sights of them all.

Though Samara yearns for her freedom, she fears that she won’t have a family to return to. Has her brother Cassius taken her place, left her forgotten? When Lucifer abuses and assaults her in Hell, when she’s abandoned by her father Crighton for two months, she can rely on next to nobody. Only Tyrus, now imprisoned and tortured as well, keeps her sane.

From the depths of Hell, Samara will face a destiny laid out since far before her birth.

Can she really save the world—more than one world, in fact—from Lucifer’s power mongering? The great Red War looms on the horizon, and Samara finds that in the end, she can’t even be sure of herself.

Throughout this story, readers will reel at Lucifer’s horrors, cheer for the protection of the bonds of love, and anxiously await their answers as to how the multi-faceted story lines of the series many characters will come together. Annihilation proves a suspenseful read. The characters stand larger than life, their personalities remaining solid from beginning to end.