Review: Highly recommended horror story at a very reasonable price.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 14, 2014
I love the UK setting with locations such as Tesco and colloquialisms such as "old banger". This makes the story that much more immersive and compelling for me and I find this to be a thrilling read. The writing is easy to follow and has a universal appeal; it's one of those scary stories which you will enjoy even if you are not usually a fan of the genre.The story switches between perspectives from chapter to chapter and the narrative mode reminds me of a Stephen King novel. This approach enables the author to depict plenty of dramatic sequences, but the downside is that it becomes harder to form an emotional attachment when the focus is on multiple characters. I have to say that on balance though, the writer has chosen the correct creative direction for his story.The length of the story is just right and the conclusion is weirdly fantastic; I won't give anything away, but suffice to say, you'll want to read to the end. (Another reviewer was highly critical of the ending and I respect their opinion but wholeheartedly disagree!)As with every book, there are minor niggles, but as a fellow writer I empathise with all of these and fully understand that editing a story to perfection is a near endless process. I've highlighted some of these niggles in case the writer wishes to revise, but I must point out that on balance they do not detract from the excellent story telling in a major way. (I must also point out that far more successful authors are guiltier of these sins!)As a rule author's have half a page to grab the reader so we should always look to open with a dramatic moment. There is plenty of excitement in chapter one, but the start is bogged down by backstory. I feel this could be deleted or shortened so we get to the action quicker. When the action picks up the writer has been smart to not show too much and allow our/ the MC's imagination fill the blanks. This is an effective suspense building tool. There are a couple of points understandably laboured for dramatic effect, but a good editor could rein this in.The author could consider more use of action tags to avoid repetition of dialogue tags, or maybe just delete some of the dialogue tags from two-way conversations. There are instances of telling rather than showing, but most of the story is action-driven and these parts work more effectively.I caught a typo "it's in built torch" – the possessive form is – "its" without the apostrophe. A very forgiveable error!Despite my nitpicks, overall this an excellent and highly recommended horror story at a very reasonable price.