Discover Well-Read Black Girl Books and the projects reshaping publishing →

Book Summary and Reviews of Our Vicious Descent by Hayley Dennings

Our Vicious Descent by Hayley Dennings

Our Vicious Descent

by Hayley Dennings

  • Published:
  • Oct 2025, 400 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

In this stunning conclusion to the bestselling Ravenous Fate duology, Elise abandons her legacy as heiress to a glittering empire to ally herself with the criminals and reapers―vampires―of the city's underworld, including Layla, the reaper she loves. Together they must discover the truth behind an alluring new poison that ravages New York.

It's 1927, and shocking upheavals have rocked Harlem's most powerful factions and left Elise Saint estranged from the reaper she loves, Layla Quinn. The Saint family empire is in decline, the neighborhood's notorious reaper lair has lost their ancient matriarch, and gangster-run blood houses are peddling debauchery to humans and reapers alike. Elise is desperate to find her beloved little sister, Josi, who has been poisoned with the reaper affliction―bitten, but not quite turned vampire. Layla must contend with unrest in the Harlem clan while trying to control the violent impulses that a so-called "cure" for reapers awakened in her.

With shifting alliances and new players in the city's underworld, Elise and Layla can't trust anyone, let alone one another. Yet both suspect sinister forces behind the mysterious reaper-venom drug that's all the rage with thrill-seeking blood house patrons. When the drug's effects have deadly consequences, the two are joined in purpose as they trace the origins of the elixir. They will risk everything to unearth the secrets of reaperhood, where the shadowy boundaries between the dead and the living are even more treacherous than they imagined.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Tragically romantic... an intense gore-fest." ―Kirkus Reviews

This information about Our Vicious Descent was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Click here and be the first to review this book!

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Hayley Dennings

Hayley Dennings loves stories centered on queer female characters. A recent graduate from Loyola Marymount University, she discusses books and writing on her Pages of Hayley YouTube channel. Seeing people like her represented in books encouraged her to write her own books and pursue publishing. She currently resides in the Bay Area, working as an editorial and marketing associate. When Hayley is not working, she is spending time with her dogs, reading, painting, and baking.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked Our Vicious Descent, try these:

  • As Many Souls as Stars jacket

    As Many Souls as Stars

    by Natasha Siegel

    Published 2025

    About this book

    For fans of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, an inventive and romantic speculative novel about two women—a witch and an immortal demon—who make a Faustian bargain and are drawn into a cat-and-mouse chase across multiple lifetimes.

  • The Last Bloodcarver jacket

    The Last Bloodcarver

    by Vanessa Le

    Published 2025

    About this book

    "A gritty world filled with a beautifully crafted cast and an intricate magic system. A smart, lush, and utterly compelling read." —Marie Lu, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Legend

  • Nobody's Magic jacket

    Nobody's Magic

    by Destiny O.. Birdsong

    Published 2023

    About this book

    In this glittering triptych novel, Suzette, Maple and Agnes, three Black women with albinism, call Shreveport, Louisiana home. At the bustling crossroads of the American South and Southwest, these three women find themselves at the crossroads of their own lives.

We have 10 read-alikes for Our Vicious Descent, but non-members are limited to three results. Join free to see the complete list of recommendations.
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes

More Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History

Browse all Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History books

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
When No One Else Will
by Amanda Skenandore
1940s Chicago nurse risks everything at an illegal women’s clinic during a high-profile trial of courage and sisterhood.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket
    Look What You Made Me Do
    by John Lanchester
    A propulsive tale of intergenerational tension and revenge from the Booker Prize nominee.
  • Book Jacket
    The Jellyfish Problem
    by Tessa Yang
    A marine biologist rescues a Maine island menaced by a giant glowing jellyfish in this inventive debut.
  • Book Jacket
    Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young
    by Zayd Ayers Dohrn
    Son of Weather Underground radicals recounts life on the run and decades of revolutionary struggle.
Who Said...

Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Book
Trivia
  • Book Trivia

    Can you name the title?

    Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

Q S, S

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.