Hereās a little ramble on why I think the best Johannes Cabal books are the ones where Horst is also in them. Spoiler warning for basically the whole series.
Johannes Cabal by nature is a character who works fine by himself but is really only at his best when he has a partner.
Now, that isnāt to say he isnāt a good character on his own. Heās still plenty entertaining even if heās doing evil deeds by himself. But his evil deeds and tetchy attitude tends to become a little one-note when heās the only major player. Personally, this is exactly why the Fear Institute was my least favorite in the series. It was still good, but after a while I got used to Johannesā general vibes and it started becoming less interesting after a bit. Honestly, by the middle of the book I was pretty bored. It wasnāt until near the end when everything started falling into place that my attention was recaptured.
He needs a foil, someone who is genuinely a friendly and nice person so that they can work off of each other. Having a good, moral person as a contrast makes both of their personalities shine.
Now in the series he has multiple different foils, but I will likely always like Horst the best. And it isnāt just because heās my favorite character.
Leonie Barrow works fine as a contrast. She got the job done in The Detective, and she was pretty good at it. But sheās not the best. She just doesnāt have enough personal drama with Johannes. Sure, sheās has a past with Johannes (*cough* cough* circus *cough* *cough*), but it just never felt personal enough to me. She is someone who Johannes wronged, very badly in fact, but thereās frankly thousands who have been wronged just as badly or even worse than her.
Horst on the other hand is super personal. Heās practically the only family member who still talks to Johannes, and he was literally locked in a crypt by him for eight years, with nothing to do but sit with his own thoughts and be bored. This mix of bitterness because of what Johannes did to him, protectiveness because at the end of the day heās still his little brother, righteous rage as Johannes continuously does horrible acts without a lick of remorse, and hope that maybe, just maybe, he can redeem himself and get better, is just so overwhelmingly entertaining and creates such a tense but at the same time loving dynamic.
My favorite example of this might be in the Brothers Cabal, which fun fact is my favorite book specifically for this scene. Throughout this book, Horst is very obviously conflicted about his relationship with Johannes. He is constantly in struggle between his righteous fury andā¦ I wouldnāt call it regret per se, but it was certainly sadness over the general situation. He thinks he did the right thing, but at the same time, Johannes is his brother and he just doomed him to an eternity of suffering. Then thereās the added wrench of being told that Johannes has saved the world multiple times since Horst died, and now thereās this tiny flicker of hope that maybe Johannes can be redeemed.
And then, at the end of chapter ten, after Horst gets a bunch of dreams of what Johannes is up to in the Fear Institute, we get honestly what I consider to be the best lines in the entire series, āAt 14:35, with the sun up and storming down rays of purifying light that pitter-pattered hopelessly upon the darkness, the vampire Horst Cabal awoke. He awoke in fear and mourning for a death too close, and with tears filling his eyes. He awoke with the name of his brother, Johannes, on his lips.ā (Howard 121).
And this line is honestly what truly gave Horst the Best Character Award in my eyes. Because even after Johannes shoved him into a crypt for 8 years, and even after Horst tried to doom Johannes to eternal suffering, and even after all these two have done to hurt each other, at the end of the day, Johannes is still his little brother whom he loves very, very dearly, and if heās in trouble and needs Horstās help, Horst is going to try and save him.
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