Review: World Pretending, or, Maybe It's Only Me
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 11, 2014
For anyone who reads my past reviews, it is evident that I make it a habit of giving five star reviews. If a book is not at that level, 5 stars, then I simply do not review the book. There is no "magic formula". Diversity and variety is a good thing. Yet with this book, I am truly at 4 and a half stars. I loved this book...but it isn't 5 stars...Don't get me wrong. As others have rightfully said, this is a brilliant book, full of brooding horror, stealthy terror, and fermenting madness. There is mental dysfunction, craziness, in this book.In the other reviews, the plot and characters have been adequately covered. I can't add anything new to what has been said. I think what is important, however, is to say how I relate personally to this book. As a teacher of English as a Foreign Language, I draw my students' attention to music. Language has music embedded within it, the iambic pentameter of Shakespeare's Hamlet, for example, in his famous, "To Be Or Not To Be Speech". It's the rhythm of life, the heartbeat itself.In this book I find this rhythm of life, the heartbeat, in this music: Paradise Lost, Fields of The Nephilim, Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, Machine Head, Slipknot... the list goes on - they all get quiet nods in the gothic noir that would give Bram Stoker and Edgar Allen Poe a run for their money. The heartbeat that goes still but must go on...and on.The musical interminglings add great texture to an already rich canvas of doom laden fantasy-horror that is destined to become a classic. Let there be no doubt here, I loved it. Yet I cautiously give this book only 4 stars. Maybe it's only me, and this is not your music. Or then again, maybe the music and the dysfunctionality will thrill you also? You must read this book to find out...Reviewed by Thomas Jerome BakerAuthor ofHow to Coach a Debate Team (Volume 1)**Disclaimer: I recieved a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.