Shatterproof

September 19, 2016
Sanders gracefully handles the loaded subject of suicidal depression in this tale of life, death, and love in present-day Savannah, Ga. Grey Jean-Marcelin is a painter with clinical depression. When medication and therapy fail to help, he decides to take his own life. Saint, an EMT who finds Grey after his unsuccessful attempt, offers a deal instead of platitudes. Saint is a leanan sidhe, cursed to consume the life force of the men he loves; they die after being magically imbued with creative inspiration. If he refrains from killing, he will die. His abilities could enrich Grey’s art—and Grey’s freely given life could break Saint’s curse. Both men enter into what they agree will be a business transaction with no attachments, but it inevitably becomes more. When Saint realizes how much Grey means to him, he starts searching for another way to escape the curse—but he knows the choice to live or die can only be Grey’s. Grey’s depression and Saint’s guilt give the story depth without weighing it down. “I think we complicate each other quite nicely,” Grey comments, and this rings true throughout the novel. There are no easy answers for these two men, and their story is cathartic and pleasurable.