Book Review #4: The Unseen

Wait. #4? What happened to #3?

If you read the post titled "Book Review #2", you'll see it was actually review Number 3, therefore this is Number 4. You are Number 6.

Don't go there.

Okay, okay.

And you said you weren't going to turn this into a book review blog.

Hey, four reviews out of over 135 posts does not make this a review blog.

Fine, then, get on with it.

Thank you, I shall.


The Unseen by T.L. Hines


It's pretty rare that I'll read a book that grabs my attention on the first page and won't let go until I've finished it, and this book joins those ranks. Have you ever read a book where you could predict the outcome after reading the first fifty pages? This book does not fall into that category.

The Unseen is about a young man named Lucas who makes his living washing dishes and spends his free time being an Infiltrator. He finds his way into buildings (office buildings, primarily), finds their hidden spots, and watches people. He's essentially homeless, living in the boiler room at Howard University, but very content with his life. He is Unseen by those around him, until the night another Infiltrator finds his home base. This chance encounter will lead Lucas into meeting other Infiltrators, or "Creepers" as they're better known, and as he learns about their activities, he can't help but get involved.

Unlike Lucas, the Creepers sneak into homes--something Lucas considers off limits to himself--and they record the activities going on in the homes. But they're not interested in the mundane, everyday activities of the homeowners (like blogging), they're interested in the violence that goes on behind closed doors. Spousal abuse, murder plots, they record it all and play it back for the others in the group. When Lucas discovers that the Creepers are only interested in recording and not preventing the violence they witness, he decides to do something about it.

The events that follow take Lucas on a journey that will make him question who he is, where he came from and will bring him face to face...with himself.


I started reading this yesterday around 8:00 p.m. and finished it around 11:40 p.m. I tried several times to stop, but within a minute or two, I was right back into it. I just could not stop reading it. I guess it's a good thing I'm not working right now and staying up that late didn't bother me.

I initially picked up this book at the Green Valley Book Fair because the plot, as described on the flyleaf, was different. A lot of the writing advice I read tells me that to become a better writer, you need to read, read, read, and not just within your preferred genre. I've heard of urban explorers, or Infiltrators, before but never really read anything about them, so that peaked my interest. Another bit of advice is to come up with your own unique twist on things to make the story stand out from all the others. The writer definitely did that with The Unseen. Plus, another bit of writing advice is that you should constantly ramp up the tension as the story progresses, putting your protagonist into more and more peril, so that the reader keeps turning those pages so they can find out how the hero triumphs in the end. Oh, my goodness does that ever happen here!

I will admit I found the character of "Swarm" to be a bit...um...unusual, and a little sci-fi'ish, which doesn't really fit the atmosphere of the story. As a plot device, it works, but it kinda threw the story a little off kilter to me. And a few times, Lucas looks back on his childhood, but it's always to one specific memory from when he was 10 years old, and nothing else which, in retrospect, is odd, but I didn't think so as I was reading. It's only until "Swarm" reveals all that I realized this.

Another odd thing is that this book was published by Thomas Nelson, a Christian publishing firm, but the story does not have an overall Christian theme. A salvation message? Eh, maybe. A moment of revelation? Yes, but Lucas did not turn his life over to Christ, as you might expect in a Christian story. So I find the choice in publisher odd, but that's really not something for me to judge.

I don't grade my reviews, but if I did, this one would get 7 stars out of 5. It truly is an awesome book, despite the one or two oddities. It's going on my Shelfari list (I read it so fast, I never had a chance to update it) with a great review and I hope to pick up some of T.L. Hines' other works very soon.

EDIT: In accordance with "new" FCC rules, I purchased this book.

Book Review #2

Or is this #3? It's #2 from Leucrota, so I'll call it #2. So without further ado, here's my review of ONE IF BY HEAVEN, TWO IF BY HELL by Rick Maydak.

I had high expectations for this novel and I was not disappointed.

Ethan Reyes hears voices and he can’t stop them, no matter what he tries. The only peace he finds is when he drinks himself into unconsciousness. When the people around him are attacked and start dying grisly deaths, Ethan must pull himself out of the bottle and confront the real-life demon that is haunting him.

Rick Maydack has crafted a great story. I will admit I guessed Ethan’s “secret” early on (and I don’t mean the mind-reading), however, I could not have predicted the twists and turns this story takes and how this story would turn out. Imaginative and well paced, the action kept moving and growing more and more intense right to the very end.

If you’re looking for a great middle-of-the-night-scare-me-read, I highly recommend this book.

The reviewer received an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) from the publisher.

I was hoping the book would arrive before I left on my vacation, but of course it didn't. So I made sure I finished whatever book I was reading so I could start on this one once I got home. It had to wait a day or two for me to finish recovering from my trip, but I dove right in once I was ready. This story wasn't anything like what I was expecting, which I suppose is both good and bad. Good, because it was new and different, and bad because I had different expectations. But it was a good story and I did enjoy it so yes, I would recommend it.

Happy Reading!

Godblog

Relax, everyone. I’m not turning this into a religious blog. It’s another book review! I know, I know, you’re waiting for my review of the second book I got from Leucrota Press. That’ll come tomorrow. This is a different book entirely.

Tall, non-fat, blond, extra-conflicted, to go...

Circumstances force Dag, a young snowboarder based in Whistler, to give up his sport and to find another way to live. He embarks on two paths, the first, a subsistence job as a barista in a coffee mega-chain where he works hard to be a worker extraordinaire to boost his tips. He also invents an online alter ego who pronounces his own brand of wisdom and rant, an outlet to express what Dag can't in his day-to-day role of coffee slave. His dark side blogs provocation in every post and gains a following.

Women figure prominently in his life, including his friend Heathen, whose competitive skiing successes are a painful counterpoint to his own loss; his new roommate Grace, whose expectations are impossible for him to live up to; and the flirtatious customers and the casual flings he suddenly finds himself drawn to and capable of. Dag's personality suffers in the struggle between his real and cyber lives as the blog veers wildly between bluster and baiting, as people begin to do what it says.

When his blog butts heads with the corporate paranoia of his coffee overlords, Dag has trouble keeping his real and cyber selves integrated. His percolating identity crisis boils over into real-life jeopardy, scalding himself and those around him.

Godblog raises fundamental questions about the risks and rewards of reinventing ourselves in the twenty-first century. The story is told through a combination of regular narrative, blog entries, and corporate memos from the coffee-industrial complex, which also becomes a catalyst in the drama.

My review:

Dag Olsson “crash and burns” his opening day of snowboarding on the Whistler slopes, limps into the nearest BlackArts coffee shop and applies for a job. Within a week, he’s the star barista (or as he calls himself, javaslinger), providing coffee and entertainment (coffetainment) to the customers and his fellow coffee-slaves.
But who is Dag? No longer a snowboarder, he struggles to make a living while figuring out who he should be. He vents his frustrations on an anonymous blog, calling himself the Hero of the teeming masses, not realizing the impact his words will have on his readers.

His looks are drawing attention, too, and for the first time in his life, Dag finds easy relationships, well, easy, to the annoyance of his female co-barista Heathen and roommate Grace. Heathen’s attracted to him, even if she won’t admit it to herself, and Grace slowly finds herself falling in love with him, in spite of the fact that he’s so not her type.

When the Hero posts an off-handed rant against BlackArts, it catches the attention of the corporate office, whose attempts to simultaneously capitalize on the publicity and uncover his identity only irritate the Hero into calling his masses to act.

As things heat up between his work, home and on-line lives, Dag struggles to keep up with everything going on around him. In the end, when lives are literally on the line, what can he do to stop the madness his life has become?

I found this book on Wowio back in March, read a couple chapters, thought it had potential, added it to my library and forgot about it. I started thinking about it again recently and decided I wanted to know what happened. I started reading it this past Monday at work and just finished it yesterday afternoon.

Because I’m a writer myself (or working on it, at least), I tend to read with a critical eye. I’m studying characters, motivation, plot construct and keeping an eye on sentence structure, punctuation, and whether or not the author breaks any established writing rules. And if they do break any rules, are they breaking good or breaking bad?

Laurie breaks some of the rules—breaking bad—but I’m not so sure the average reader would notice them—a few places where she gives background information on some of the characters felt a little forced to me. And she broke what I always thought of as a major rule but did it in a way that worked out, so that broke good. I can’t tell you what that rule is because (1) I’m not so sure it really is a rule and (2) it’s a major plot spoiler and I won’t do that.

There are a number of intertwining subplots throughout this story, but Laurie blends them smoothly like a rich cup of (I don’t drink coffee, so insert your favorite specialty coffee drink here), sure to satisfy.

Books are free to read on Wowio, but since some books in my Wowio library have disappeared, I decided not to take a chance on losing this great story and purchased an e-book copy. I encourage you to give it a look.

Click here for a direct link to Laurie's book--you may need to register first!

Review of THE KULT

As promised, here's my review of The Kult. I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher, Leucrota Press, with the proviso that I post reviews on my blog and on sites like Amazon.com, Borders.com, etc.

A gory, terrifying thriller, The Kult will keep you hooked until the very last page.

Detective Chief Inspector Prosper Snow thought paperwork was the worse part of his job, until his partner dropped the photograph on his desk. The mutilated body of a young woman surrounded by photographs of famous serial killers signaled the beginning of a hunt for a killer calling himself the Oracle, and might end with Prosper serving time for murder.

In the midst of searching for a sadistic killer, Prosper receives a plea from an old school friend. Jerel wants to revive their blood oath and get revenge on the man who raped his wife, and he wants The Kult to help him.

Caught between loyalty to his old friends and his duty as a police officer, Prosper makes a difficult decision. And when more photographs start to appear in his office, Prosper comes to a terrible conclusion. Could one of his old friends be the Oracle? And what motive did the Oracle have for framing Prosper?

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started my journey through The Kult. What I got was a roller coaster ride that plunged me straight down that first terrifying hill into a house of horrors, festooned with bloody, mutilated corpses. The Kult will draw you in with a pace that grows more intense as the story continues. Shaun Jeffrey has created a well-crafted horror that will keep the reader guessing and will keep the pages turning until the ride finally comes to an end.

A word of caution, though…don’t be turning those pages late at night in a creaky house!

Reading over it again, it seems maybe a little stiff and business-like, compared to the other review posted on Amazon.com, but then, that reviewer could read mine and think "gee, maybe I could have tightened mine up a bit." He could also think "this person has no idea how to write a review." Whatever...this is the first review I've ever written, so you get what you get!

Anyway, I'm a little disappointed with the folks over at Leucrota Press. Admittedly, I made the first, and probably biggest, mistake. When I finished the book, I wrote my review and sent them an e-mail, asking if I needed to send them a copy of my review. See, I remembered that they wanted me to post my review on several sites, but I couldn't remember if they wanted me to send them a copy as well. And the e-mail...well, I sent it to what was probably the wrong e-mail address. Three weeks later (yes, three weeks...I got busy!), I realized I had never heard back from them, so I dug out the information card they sent me and lo and behold, there's the address I should have sent the review to. I immediately sent them a note, apologizing for taking so long and explaining why, and pasted a copy of my review.

Keep in mind, I've been checking Amazon to see when the book was going to be listed. Finally, I found it last night, but I still hadn't heard back from Leucrota.
So I sent another e-mail this morning, telling them that I had posted my review, which I have. However (you knew there had to be a "however," didn't you?) I was supposed to receive TWO books, The Kult and One if by Heaven, Two if by Hell. I never received the second book and guess what? It's available on Amazon.com. So in my note to Leucrota, I speculated that I didn't receive the second book because I didn't follow orders on the first. I know, I could be wrong. The book could easily have been lost in the mail or some other convenient excuse. I also said that since no one responded to my previous e-mails, I likely wouldn't receive a response from this third one.

I went ahead and ordered a copy of One if by Heaven, Two if by Hell because of the two books, this was the one I was more interested in reading. It'll be interested to see what response I get from Leucrota, if any.