Review: Chapter by Chapter's review of The Dead I Know
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 12, 2012
Before I even began reading The Dead I Know by author Scot Gardener, I read the synopsis on the back of the novel and was instantly hooked.  It sounded interesting and I had high hopes and expectations for the novel.  Lucky me, my expectations were met and I was given a story that was tragic and mysterious and everything that a person like myself could possibly want in a story.  Considering that the story involved sleepwalking, I was excited to see just what a person going through sleepwalking goes through, but I was also surprised by the dreams that were included in the novel.  After completing the novel, I just want to say "poor, Aaron.".The novel itself is about main character Aaron Rowe who lives in the caravan park with Mam and has begun his training to become a funeral director.  Lately, Aaron has been having nightmares and wakes up far from where he went to sleep.  I don't want to give too much away, but I will say that the story itself held major twists, turns and moment where emotion got the better of me.  The way that author Scot Gardener wrote the novel had me absorbed completely and compelled me to read more and more.  In fact, I couldn't stop reading.  Seriously, I would want to stop but the story just had me dying to know what could possibly happen next in Aaron's life.Something that I probably loved most about the novel was the characters.  They felt so real to read about and held common traits that people you would meet in the real world would have.  Either it was John and the way he treated Aaron with such kindness, or it was Mam who was slowly losing her mind.  I found that the way that Gardener wrote about Skye was totally realistic and the things that he made come out of Skye's mouth were hilarious.  Skye had a sense of humor and the proper attitude a kid should have and that forced me to laugh out loud.Despite saying that, the novel was very dark and the descriptions and Aaron's point of view of death managed to tug on my heart strings.  The way that the corpses were described and prepared gave me shivers thanks to the large amounts of detail that were included into the story.  The major thing that kept me around for the remainder of the story was the question of "Why is Aaron having these nightmares?". The nightmares that were introduced at the beginnings of most chapters (taking place after Aaron has gone to sleep) were dark, terrifying and full of mystery.  I have to admit, that by the time I found out the answer to "why?", I had officially decided that this novel is one that will be thought about by readers long after they've finished the novel.