Review: Dark Magic
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 23, 2013
I once believed that a good book had to be a long book. You know, over five hundred pages; up around there. This mindset came from a near-constant diet of King and McCammon, Straub and early Koontz. Then I stumbled upon the likes of Rick Hautala, Scott Nicholson, Jack Ketchum, and, most recently (last year, to be exact), Kealan Patrick Burke. Sure, a few of their books are longer, but I believe that their best work is well under the 500 page mark. Kealan Patrick Burke's JACK & JILL feels like a full-length novel. The character development is on point. The descent into madness is vacuum-like, sucking you down into the belly of the piece, and, once you're there, you'll want to dig deeper and scrabble to get out, all at the same time.JACK & JILL is quintessential horror. Burke pulls no punches. The dream sequences alone are worth the price of admission. Burke managed to create a monster so terrifying that I might swear off cellophane ANYTHING for a while. I can still hear the crinkling plastic.The book touches on such tragedies as the death of a sibling, child molestation, and mental illness. If you cringed at the mention of any of those things, you might want to skip this book. This is, hands down, Burke's darkest story yet.Now, about the ending. You might become unglued. You might just scream at your Kindle. Kealan Patrick Burke is a dark magician, highly-skilled in sleight-of-hand. He'll make you believe that quarter's been behind your ear the entire time.