Review: Drawing you in with mystery and sympathy
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 30, 2013
James Hankins's Drawn uses a combination of mystery and sympathy keep you turning its pages. Hankins's novel Brothers and Bones used the same devices; however, Drawn, played with elements of horror and the supernatural. This is my kind of book. I'm a huge fan of horror writers like Stephen King and Joe Hill.Another step up from Brothers and Bones is characterization. It blossomed in Drawn.  This is hard, because getting a grip on good characterization while trying to tell it in four different perspectives can't be easy - someone is going to get short changed. The book started out in the perspective of the artist, Alice. She kept seeing a boy in her work and ended up following the boy. For me, Alice was the weakest of the characters, and at one point in the story she did something that made me not like her at all. It felt uncharacteristic after leading me to believe a certain way about her. I didn't have faith in her after that.Miguel felt a little stereotyped, but it didn't matter because he had my sympathy simply because he was a kid who needed saving. I wanted to save him throughout the story and Miguel was over half the reason I finished the book. He was the sympathy turning the pages.Nathan, the elderly widower reminded me of a Winslow Homer painting completely finished, beautiful touches on him. He had a fantastic back-story.Boone, the agoraphobic, became my favorite character. Other than Miguel, he made me finish the other half of the book. He wasn't exactly fearless throughout danger, but the journey to becoming brave was heartwarming especially when everything stood in his way. Boone in a way reminded me of Bones from Brothers and Bones, so I could have been reminiscing a bit. Anyways, Boone started out afraid to leave his city block, and he is partially blind. All of these obstacles stood like a tower and Boone needed to fight a big bad wolf to save Miguel - talk about a house made of straw.I won't say whether this horror/thriller tale has a happy ending without spoiling it, but I will say there is a twist bringing these four together that is unexpected. James Hankins makes it worth your time.