{"id":4085,"date":"2025-04-30T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=4085"},"modified":"2025-01-03T14:30:06","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T21:30:06","slug":"book-chimera-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/30\/book-chimera-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: Chimera (2024)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chimera\"Chimera
\n<\/u><\/strong>Year: 2024
\nAuthor: Lena M. Johnson
\nLength: 98 pages<\/p>\n

***THIS BOOK WAS RECEIVED FROM THE AUTHOR***<\/p>\n

It’s interesting how the “shifter” genre seems to use the same animals repeatedly. If you’re looking for something different, look no further than Lena M. Johnson’s Chimera<\/em>. This novella was originally part of the Forgotten Shifter Files<\/em><\/a> anthology, but now has its own release as a standalone novella. I appreciate how Johnson took the shifter prompt in the sci fi direction, as it feels easier to explain (and more feasible) in that context than in the way shifter stories usually go.<\/p>\n

I’ll admit that there were a lot of characters presented at the beginning of Chimera<\/em> that I had trouble keeping track of. I wasn’t sure who was going to be the lead character until about a third of the way through, and there were sparse details to let me distinguish between the different individuals. Even with this cast of characters, there were a lot of interesting backstories and lore hinted at in really special ways. For a novella, the world-building was solid and didn’t spend too much time getting into the weeds past the important facets that made these characters tick. The themes of racism, war, and regret were expertly woven into the story and grounded it with their details.<\/p>\n

Vibe-wise, I thought Chimera<\/em> felt a lot like Alien<\/em><\/a> (1979), but not in the way you’d think. Sure, there’s the element of horror as a mysterious monster slowly kills off passengers one-by-one, but just surviving isn’t enough here. It all leads to Chimera<\/em>‘s climax, which is when the storytelling is at its absolute best. It’s a bit of a slow build at the beginning, but once the action started, I could not put it down. Whether you like shifter stories or sci fi horror vibes, Chimera<\/em> is a novella you should definitely read.<\/p>\n

A unique shifter novella with stupendous world-building and a killer climax, I give Chimera<\/em> 4.5 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n

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Chimera Year: 2024 Author: Lena M. Johnson Length: 98 pages ***THIS BOOK WAS RECEIVED FROM THE AUTHOR*** It’s interesting how the “shifter” genre seems to use the same animals repeatedly. If you’re looking for something different, look no further than Lena M. Johnson’s Chimera. This novella was originally part of the Forgotten Shifter Files anthology, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,54],"tags":[3845,649,55,3907,3908,3909,1048,8,337,3910],"class_list":["post-4085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4-5-stars","category-book","tag-3845","tag-alien","tag-book","tag-chimera","tag-forgotten-shifter-files","tag-lena-m-johnson","tag-novella","tag-review","tag-sci-fi","tag-shifter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4085"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4161,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4085\/revisions\/4161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}