Review: Great Escape
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 27, 2013
This tale definitely shows the creativity and writing ability of Daniel Kelley.  It is one of the most unusual books I have read in a long time. Alyssa Lewis and her younger sister Sammy witness the appearance of someone who calls himself the Jack of Diamonds while playing cards. As implausible as this sounds, other “cards” follow: the Queen of Spades, the King and the Queen of Hearts, the Jack of Clubs. What follows is a most unusual story of how these “cards” have done this several times in the past, how they can immediately just mix right in with the society/culture/country where they have emerged, and a bit of their back story. Alyssa and her girlfriend Mags summer will not be the same once this event occurs.  Naturally, everyone who is in on the appearance of the “cards” has tons of questions for their new friends, and over the next several days the “cards” fill them in on who they are, how they come to emerge and how long they stay on in an area once they are out.  The story is filled with lots of interesting and intriguing facts and stories about their pasts, and jump starts everyone’s life as the short time passes.  There is intrigue, some violence, romance between the “cards” and others, stories from their other “visits” to life, etc. In addition, I found the characters and the stories they told both interesting and very well developed.  I loved at the creative thinking on the part of the author that went into this story. However, having read others of his works, I am not surprised, because Daniel Kelley is a very good writer, who knows how to spin a tale for the reader.There were two things I did not really like, however, which caused me to grade this story four stars instead of five stars.  Throughout the book, the author used a sort of dialect/vernacular when Alyssa and Mags speak to each other or to Sammy and when Sammy speaks.  I realize Sammy, because she is rather young, may have spoken this way, because she was still young and learning.  However, I seriously doubt that Alyssa and Mags would speak this way.  Neither comes from a part of the country where such a dialect is prevalent.  They are both college students and probably do not speak this way in class or among friends—hopefully they learned to speak properly before college.  Sometimes, it may seem like people are speaking in the sort of dialect the author used, but that may be because of speech patterns (e.g. tonality and speed of speaking, to name a few things), but the characters/people are actually speaking correctly.  What is spoken is just not heard as clearly as it could be. I really do not know what the author’s goal in this was, but I do know it became a big distractor for me as I read the story and I thought it lent absolutely nothing to the story except for the distraction. I also did not like the ending. I got the impression it would end differently and, suddenly, poof, it was ending abruptly--and not as I felt it would but a lot harsher.This story will appeal to just about anyone who enjoys something a bit different and who can let his/her imagination run the course with the author’s story.I received this from Library Thing to read and review.