Review: Review from Closed the Cover
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 17, 2013
Fire on the Water by PJ Parker appears to take on a monumental task when it attempts to weave the iconic story of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein with a more modern tale of a young American biographer named Rachel.  This book is full of the potential to revitalize a classic tale but it could also have turned into a colossal disaster.  Fortunately for readers PJ Parker is enormously talented and Fire on the Water is a tremendous read!Rachel is in Switzerland researching the life of Mary Shelley for a biography and digging through the contents of a trunk that has remained unopened for generations.  Inside this trunk are personal letters and diaries which detail events, dinners, and conversations between Mary Shelley and her confidant, Doctor John Polidori.  It is within these letters and diary notes that a mystery is revealed.  Rachel tries to discern fact from fiction as she uncovers a progression of horrors that leave her haunted by the image of a man of gigantic structure and beautiful intrigue.The story is fascinating but the characters are what captures the reader and won’t let go.  Mary Shelley, with her scientific interests and relationship with Dr. Polidori, leans toward logic and research; Rachel, having recently lost her boyfriend to a tragic accident and attempting to piece her life back together, appeals to emotion and pathos.  As Parker weaves the past and the present into one shared story readers are left to rock gently back and forth between the lives of Mary and Rachel.Fire on the Water far surpasses any expectations that could be placed upon it.  It was an ambitious undertaking by Parker to take a classic horror story such as Frankenstein and put a new perspective on it.  He does infuse his own imagination into the background of what may have inspired Mary Shelley but his creative liberties blend so seamlessly with the classic story that it is nothing short of a pure success.  A highly impressive novel which is fully recommended!Review by Ashley LaMarClosed the Cover