Hoffman (Spirits That Walk in Shadow
) infuses this entertaining supernatural thriller with cozy, sexually explicit scenes of reawakening and personal growth. Opal Lazelle’s magical gifts and her talent as a makeup artist have earned her a career in the movies, most recently on the set of Forest of the Night
. She soon discovers that actor Corvus Weather is being transformed in both appearance and soul by Phrixos, a mysterious being with designs on Opal and the rest of the cast and crew. Although Phrixos seems generally helpful, Opal wonders whether its ultimate goal is benevolent. Opal’s struggles to anticipate and stymie Phrixos are undermined by her failure to act decisively and Phrixos’s inability to deliver on any of its veiled threats, but Hoffman manages to sustain the tension to the slightly bizarre end. (May)
