Review: Awesome and unique read....
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 14, 2012
"Death Train: Ticket to Ride" has a very real sense of time and place. From the music, to the James Bond reference (the town hood wants a car phone like James Bond - the phone first appeared when Sean Connery played Bond in 1963's "From Russia with Love), to the snappy patter and hot cars. In actual fact, the chatter seems maybe still a little stuck in the 1950's as one would expect of a small town.Kurt and Jesse are very well developed characters. We see their ingenuity in the way they approach the problem that they caused of a death train that isn't happy just taking on folks who died naturally. They are fearless but in a way that the reader can believe boys of that era who are accustomed to relying on themselves would be.The storyline was phenomenal. As you can see from the description, it's a rare and extremely interesting plot. To add to the mix, there's a subplot involving the funeral director not being all he seems to be and the cultivation of a human head! Where will Peterson go with that! The quality of writing in this work only serves to enhance a spectacular reading experience.  What follows is extracted from Location 871 in the Kindle version:The strands of blonde hair were now the blooded webs from a monstrous stalking spider, grilled in the sun until they became like tangled barbed wire.Chilling.I did find the character of Chloe to be shallow. She's a beautiful girl who is kind to kids who are weaker, loves someone she shouldn't and goes out with another person she shouldn't. She gets a moment in the sun at the end but before that moment when she was in the narrative she seemed to be all surface.Overall this book was a spectacular read. I wouldn't call it horror, though it may qualify. I think it would be misleading to call it paranormal, though it might qualify for that genre as well. I would call this novel unique. "Death Train: Ticket to Ride" is like nothing I've ever read before and I'd like to read more.