Review: Original and Enjoyable Paranormal Tale
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 28, 2012
3  starsI fretted a bit over rating and reviewing this very interesting and original paranormal novel about a young man haunted by a secret, an addiction and real ghosts.  Because half stars aren't possible and there are a number of things I really liked about this enjoyable story, I upped my star rating to a 4.As the story begins, Tommy, homeless and near broke, is being taken into the police station for what the cops believe was drunken behavior.  It soon becomes evident that his conduct is not - or is not always or is not solely - due to his drinking problem.  Instead, Tommy is in what seems a bit of an inescapable circle:  his drinking has led to a terrible accident; the guilt he bears for this secret intensifies his desire to drink, as does the fact the accident has led to him being plagued by ghosts; and these ghosts' invasion of both his body and his mind only elevates further his need to dull the insanity with more drink.  In such misery and with no apparent way out, Tommy has become rather hopeless about his situation, until he meets a pretty young waitress named Suki.Despite his terrible secret, Tommy is a very sympathetic character, and the author does a wonderful job developing his longing for connection with Suki, as well as with making the reader feel the fear and frustration he experiences as the ghosts possess him.  The mystery of the story is well-sustained and I really enjoyed the story's pacing and Tommy's unique voice.  Further, I thought the correlation between Tommy's possession by ghosts, in which he has little control and a terrible lost sense of self, and the same psychological result of alcoholism was a fantastic, but subtle, symbolic element of the story.The main difficulty I had with rating the story was due to its editorial issues, something harder for me to overlook since I started working as a freelance editor.  Although I'm aware that the use of commas and other punctuation has declined for stylistic reasons in more modern fiction, Soul Mate had a more noticeable lack of punctuation, which sometimes made sentences a bit more difficult to read smoothly - phrases that should have been, but weren't, separated off by commas and no semicolons between two linked full sentences.  In addition, there was the occasional outright missing word.  Though it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story, I also thought that the last 25% or so of the book seemed a little bit rushed and abrupt compared to the pacing of the first 75%.Overall, however, I really did love the voice, style and original premise of the story and I look forward to reading the sequel its ending seemed to indicate would be forthcoming.  I believe Soul Mate shows an author with quite a lot of talent and a distinctive style and I hope to see how he develops this in future stories.