Fiend by Alma Katsu

G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2025

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593714348

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook

Buy: Bookshop.org | Amazon.com 

Not being wealthy or influential myself (though I would be somewhat, if you pick up this book based on this review), it’s fun to read about wealthy, ruthless families getting their comeuppance. The only reason why I am not on a superyacht right now is because I have not made a pact with any supernatural force to acquire immense wealth beyond what I can spend in my lifetime, oppress the working class, and wreak havoc on the environment.

Fiend centers around the Berisha dynasty. The clan has existed for over a thousand years, and through arranged marriages and corrupt business practices, has kept the Albanian bloodline and family fortune flourishing. Zef is the cruel and unscrupulous head of household and your stereotypical super-powerful rich guy. Then there’s Olga, his beautiful, unassuming wife, a Melania Trump figure, who stays out of her husband’s politics but is complicit in what she does know. Dardan, the eldest, is weak and ineffectual, but has been primed to take over the family business. He is probably the most empathetic character in the family because he wants to break away from the hold the family has on him, but at the same time,  he won’t totally give up his money and privilege. Next there is Maris, the ambitious daughter who has all the horrible characteristics of her father, Zef, and seems to be the most logical replacement. But Maris can’t compete with Dardan since Dardan’s crowning achievement is being born with a Y chromosome, and she is expected to follow in the Berisha female tradition of keeping house and siring more Berisha babies. Finally, there is Nora, the unstable emo socialite who would rather party than have anything to do with the Berisha empire.

The novel goes back and forth (“Then” and “Now”) of memories the Berisha children have of growing up in a house seemingly possessed by a supernatural force, a fiend known as The Protector, which keeps the Berisha clan rich and powerful while their competitors are suspiciously afflicted with horrible diseases and accidents. 

Under strange and mysterious circumstances, Maris is finally given the chance to break away from her Jan Brady status and the “Dardan, Dardan, Dardan” shadow to take over the business, and, in effect, the whole Berisha legacy. Little does she know that there are responsibilities that she will inherit that are not in her official job description. 

Fiend is a deliciously fun book to devour after a day of business meetings, synergizing, estimating bandwidth and defining deliverables, doing deep dives but still picking low hanging fruit, and talking about circling back to things that you know will never be addressed. Alma Katsu is known for her historical fiction novels such as The Hunger (based on The Donner Party) and The Deep (based on the sinking of the Titanic). Fiend is instead inspired by the television series Succession, about Logan Roy, the patriarch of the powerful and dysfunctional Roy family and owner of a NYC based global media conglomerate and the power struggle by his four children to take over as his health declines. Katsu reimagines the characters and their background and throws in a splash of her signature supernatural, horror talents to create an entertaining novel that will make readers forget all the tech debt that their company has pushed aside until it’s all hands on deck when the whole system comes crashing down. I think I have been working too much because a book about corporate greed and demonic possession makes perfect sense. Recommended. 

Reviewed by Lucy Molloy