The Underglow (Kindle Vella Review)

Teshelle Combs is killin’ it in the Kindle Vella world right now. Absolutely on fire. There is plenty of positive buzz surrounding her work already, but I am just going to go ahead and test her humility by adding another log to the fire.

The Underglow is an immaculately worded, elegantly creative, and conceptually intriguing vampire love story set in the Victorian era.

Let’s start with the conceptual intrigue, in that our protagonist Aurelie Kendrick has zero dialogue (at 29 episodes and counting). Well, she is our narrator, so we get nice and cozy with her thoughts and personality, but when it comes to interpersonal communication within the story? Not a word. Why she doesn’t speak is one of the mysteries plaguing much of the supporting cast. Her lack of verbiage is seen as a problem to be fixed by many, but to the reader it quickly becomes apparent that Aurelie gets on just fine.

The intrigue expands when we see the strength and resourcefulness of her personality fleshed out more, and the noncompromising methods she employs to interact with her world and its denizens. Aurelie is a force of nature, unstoppable when she sets her mind and heart to a cause.

This is made all the more interesting by Combs’ lovely command of the English language. It was a regular occurrence for me to drop my jaw at her creative similes, turns of phrase, and exquisite vocabulary.

The dangers and creatures of The Underglow emanate next-level creativity. Sometimes I had to re-read certain passages to fully absorb it all, simply due to how outside-the-box it was.

A true achievement here, is that the narrative and characters exude clear and strong themes without the tale coming across as preachy or condescending. The story’s admonishments of sexism, classism, speciesism, and ableism flow with organic vigor without ever getting overly heavy-handed.

I said it was a vampire love story but haven’t even mentioned vampires yet. Here they are called pyres, and humans enslave them for labor and to provide pleasure. Aurelie’s family, however, buys pyres and cultivates their freedom and autonomy.

When Aurelie meets one particular enslaved pyre, it feels like destiny. He’s said to be dangerously irredeemable, but the connection she feels with him is profound and undeniable. She bargains for his freedom (again, with no dialogue on her part; isn’t that amazing?), and the tale proceeds unto new frontiers of adventure and romance.

It’s hard to read Teshelle’s work without smiling, and I’ll indubitably be seeing The Underglow through to the end.

Here is a link to all of Teschelle’s Kindle Vella projects.

And if you can’t get enough of Teshelle, here is a great talk between her and Hella Vella’s Azrielle Lawless: