Review: Awesome story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 30, 2014
I first read this book in the ORIGINAL version in 2011.Book info Genre: Paranormal YAReading Level: Young AdultDisclosure: I was given a free e-copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review. That was the original version. I then edited it, and it was released in a second edition. I do not receive any remuneration based upon sales. All opinions are my own and based upon the original version of the full novel.My Synopsis: Alex Drummond has enough to deal with, really. His father was killed by a drunk driver a few years ago; his mother got remarried and moved them in with her new husband, who is a vicious alcoholic and beats Alex frequently to within an inch of his life; Alex's step-brother, Frank, is a layabout who also beats on him, and his two step-sisters are an annoyance to him; and he's an outsider at school, small and picked on by the larger kids. Now he's developed an alarming tendency - when he touches things that were somehow touching a person when they were murdered, he falls into a vision and relives their death. And the people whose deaths he is reliving expect him to do something about it.My Thoughts: Partly a paranormal suspense book, partly a coming-of-age story, and even including a little bit of romance, "A Life of Death" is a completely amazing story! I won't lie to you, it is often very intense - the tension evinced by this book is amazingly well-done and I often felt my heart racing from the extremity of emotions that it raised. It is tightly plotted and suspenseful; the characters are well-developed and realistic - the whole thing just came to life in my mind while I was reading it, and the sudden silence whenever I would look up showed me just how much it filled my mind while I was reading it.The story is bracketed interestingly - the very beginning and very end are Alex as an older man, a police detective, helping his son with a project for school. The story itself is the tale he tells the boy. I thought this was a neat way to open and close the story and it left me with hopes that we might expect a series of Alex Drummond mystery novels in the future. I would certainly buy them!My Recommendation: Fans of paranormal mystery and suspense stories should enjoy this book. Definitely give it a read as soon as you can!