Author Archives: Rose Herbert

Review: Amanda Hocking – Frostfire

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Frostfire
Amanda Hocking

24059777Bryn’s job is to rescue her people that have been placed in human homes to generate revenue for their real parents. But her dream is to be part of the elite guard protecting the royals – made difficult by the fact she’s just a little bit odd compared to everyone else.

At first it isn’t obvious what is special about Bryn. But Hocking gently guides the reader, until bam! You know what she is, who she likes, and everything else in between. Except the writing was poor. This felt dry, and not too well written. I simply couldn’t get into the story. There wasn’t enough feeling attached to the Bryn for me. She felt like a placeholder just put there to be different, and let the story revolve around her.

The romance element in this novel that I was promised in the blurb, and the chance of her to ‘lose her heart’, are slim as far as I can see. I wasn’t buying the touching romance, in fact it just felt like a set up. Can’t she keep a hold of herself? She’s going to live a while longer right?

This novel felt incomplete at the end. It felt like it was waiting for a sequel – and it fact, it has a sequel so that’s not so bad. But! It just didn’t feel complete, and had I needed to wait to read the sequel, it’s possible I never would have picked it up.

I received this novel free in preparation for reading and reviewing (plus interviewing!!!!) the newest novel in this trilogy, Crystal Kingdom. The boss has said I can’t read it until I’ve done these reviews, so here I am.

Nothing special to see here folks, a 3 stars from me. But when you combine it with the second novel in the series, things do improve. Stay tuned for that review.

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Review: Tracy Alexander – Hacked

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Hacked
Tracy Alexander

Dan is a hacker. When he drifts from one side of the law to another in order to get justice for his friend, he suddenly finds himself on the wrong side of the law – with no-one listening to what he can do to help.

22678001Ok, first off. It’s a plot driven novel. That basically means you can kiss goodbye to character development. In fact, if you ignore character development all together, you would be better off. I found the characterisation of the main character patchy, and I never really got into the motivations of the other characters.

The premise of this novel is that it is easy to cross a line with hacking on the internet. There’s a couple of different terms I could use, but the easiest is ‘White Hat’ and ‘Black Hat’. Basically, the Black Hats are the guys with a malignant intent – they want to destroy things just to prove they can. Then there are White Hats, those who find the holes in security and help out the ‘good guys’.

The ending was particularly unsatisfying. Yay, happy for everyone. But not really… I wanted more meaty bits of details! How many other people were scammed? The second half of the book was far weaker than the first.

Dan didn’t seem like he was 16 years old. He could have been younger. In fact, his friends also acted very young, with the exception of the girl he liked – who seemed a bit up herself to be honest. She saw only black and white, no grey.

I didn’t like the explanation of ADHD being the reason Dan wasn’t to blame for anything. it’s a diagnosis. It’s the first line of the blurb. But it doesn’t do anything for the story. It’s about the computers, and I don’t think the author should be trying to sell anything else with it.

Other reviewers have given this one star. I don’t think it’s that bad, honestly, provided you read it for what it is, and you hit the target market just right. It’s not going to appeal to everyone, that’s for sure.

I put off reading this novel because I was warned it wasn’t very good. I actually enjoyed it, and read it in one sitting. Granted, I had nothing else to do, but I just couldn’t seem to put it down. The more I think about it, the more holes I want to poke in it though. My initial assessment was 4 stars, and I’m going to leave it at that (err on the side of nice). It’s a driving plot that should keep people enthralled – even those people who ‘hate’ reading.

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Review: Matthew Selwyn – **** or The Anatomy of Melancholy

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**** or The Anatomy of Melancholy
Matthew Selwyn

Sex – it’s the new currency. Men reign supreme. Women are simply boobs on sticks. Warning – this is a bad novel. I’m sure you think I didn’t finish this novel. But I persevered! I hoped for something redeeming. But there just wasn’t anything there worth saving.

23876717The author has a fabulous grasp of inventive high profile vocabulary with a mix of swear and slang words spread in. It seems as if he’s taken the dictionary and swallowed it. That being said, I could see this style working in a more structured and focussed novel.

I just couldn’t get away from the confusing bubble of words being constantly spat at me. The characters were one dimensional, which was fine because they were supposed to be women in their place. The protagonist came through as a man stroking his own ego and penis and that was certainly some solid characterisation – but in the wrong way. Bombarded by constant reminders of his penis’ superiority, it was difficult to get beyond those thoughts.

I’m sure this novel is supposed to be a powerful social commentary on the present world. Instead it comes across as an insane babble of internal consciousness flow that adds nothing to current informed literature. The one thing I got out of this novel was on page 154 – ‘Napoleon’s penis was dismembered and sold to an American urologist’. Now, who ever knew that fact?

If you want something with sex and commentary – PLEASE DON’T CHOOSE THIS NOVEL. There are far better examples on the market, 2094 for example. If you even just want some titillating sex scenes, Mercedes Lackey writes better ones! I wouldn’t go so far to read Fifty Shades of Grey instead – that has its own problems with the depiction of sex. If lesbian sex is more your style, pick something with an actual storyline, like The Purveyor.

This novel request actually went though to my spam mail. I fished it out, I assumed it went there because most **** do by default, and I guess it had enough other trigger words in it. I almost wish I hadn’t fished it out, but other people deserve to be warned.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I can enjoy sex and swearing in the right context. But this novel didn’t leave me feeling anything other than dirty. If I could give negative eggs, I would. This makes Marked look like a literary piece of fiction.

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Interview with Josef Smith

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Author Interview with Josef Smith

Q1. Would you still have written this book if it had not been an assignment from your therapist?

FSOT cover 4A: That is an interesting question.  During one of our sessions I made an offhand comment to my therapist that maybe I should write a book about my life, so perhaps the seed of an idea about actually doing that was already in me.  She ran with the idea, and suggested that writing it down could be a valuable clarification in helping to understand my life, so I began writing it all down.  She felt the experience could be very cathartic for me, and help me let go of a lot of anger and cynicism about the world that I had grown up with.  The book may still have found it’s way into the world without my therapist’s encouragement, but I don’t know.

Q2. What would you like readers to take away from your book?

A: The idea that our lives, and every experience we have, is valid and worthwhile in what we can learn from it.  The more difficult and challenging something is, the more potential there is for soul growth, and everything about life is about growth.  It does not mean our lives should be difficult.  Far from it.  It just means that we should embrace difficulty, because fighting it only makes it harder, and why would we consciously want to do that to ourselves?  We are given exactly what we need in life, but what we need is not always what we want.  When we can open our minds beyond seeing ourselves as the center of the universe we explore a greater sense of being within the dissolving of earthly hurts and troubles.  Living outside the prison of my urges and desires is helping me to see and experience that.

Q3. Are you planning on writing another book?

A: I have thought about it.  I wrote Fifty Shades of Truth as an exercise and it was a very valuable one.  As I wrote more and more I began feeling subtle changes in my own sense of self.  I felt washed clean by the tears of pain and remorse that flowed while writing, which has given me a clearer mind beyond the anger I had lived with all my life.  I do feel there is something more I’d like to say, but only time will tell whether or not it is said in a book.

Q4. Did you develop any strange writing habits?

A: No, I don’t think so, lol.  I think I had some strange writing habits right from the beginning.

Q5. What would you say to others who are going through this same experience right now?

A: What I would say are the things I might say if I wrote another book.  I’m not being secretive.  It’s just that every day now my life becomes clearer and as it does I see more about what I’ve learned from my experience and it’s not 100% clear yet.  At this point I would tell them to find someone they can trust, and talk to that person.  A therapist is a good person to start with but even finding the right one is not as easy as looking in the phone book.  The first therapist I spoke with got nothing from me because she was useless and I knew that as soon as she opened her mouth.  It may not need to be a therapist but that is how I found my opening to then talk to some close friends.  I chose my friends well and have trusted them with my life.  If you can find the right people to talk to it is extremely supportive in that you are no longer alone.  The friends I told are people I’ve known for 30 years.  They actually love me more now so I definitely chose well, and I have no doubt that they will take my secret to their graves.  Telling friends is all or nothing though, because telling the wrong person would be an absolute disaster and I’m not suggesting it is important to even tell any close friends.  Start with the right therapist and see how it unfolds. Essentially you need to be totally honest with yourself and truly looking for a way out, and to be patient in how you go about that.

Q6. Do you feel that writing this book helped you move past the things in your book?

A: Definitely.  Writing Fifty Shades of Truth was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.  Forcing yourself to re-live emotional depths of despair and entanglement is a difficult journey, but doing it consciously, rather than as victim of urges you cannot control, provides a very different view, painful as that is, and looking at it rather than being it, helps to develop a sense of identity separate to it all, which provides a foundation for true change to begin.

Q7. What was the hardest thing about writing this book?

A: Just the book itself was very hard because of the need to re-live/feel the experiences I was writing about.  It bought all my old feelings and urges to the surface in a storm of desire, which at times almost saw me contacting someone, for a session of something.  But shining the spotlight on the way I cheated on my wife was definitely the hardest part.  It is very difficult to think about her at any time, but doing so within the context of my enormous infidelity and writing about it was incredibly painful.  At times it was simply too difficult and I couldn’t keep writing, and only able to come back months later and try again.

Q8. In your opinion, is the BDSM community correctly portrayed in the media?

A: Not at all.  Every single person (and the media are people) who cannot accept BDSM as a part of life does so through ignorance, fear and judgement, so that will tell you how much value they offer in their portrayal.  I’m not saying people should be walking their bitches (men or women) around the streets on dog collars.  The BDSM community respects the general conventions of society and that respect should be reciprocated.  The media could do a lot more to help people get over their fears and balance the equation.

Q9. What is one thing people would be surprised to learn about massage parlors?

A: How beautiful some of the women are.  I’m talking about the ‘deeper than skin’ kind of beauty, although some of them are gorgeous looking as well.  Some of the strongest, most honest, and loveliest people on Earth are working in massage parlours.  I will always cherish the time I spent with them, with a heartfelt gratitude for what I learned about life.

Q10. What writing advice would you give someone thinking about writing a memoir/autobiography?

A: Tell the truth, even if it hurts or you think people will judge you for your life.  But if you lived a life like mine, use a name like Josef to write it…..unless your name really is Josef!

Q11. What has been the most positive outcome of writing this book?

A: Being able to live an honest life and not having to constantly lie.  For 60 years I had wished to be the person everyone thought I was, and now I don’t have to pretend.

Q12. What famous person would you love to have as a fan of your work?

A: Bill Clinton.

Q13. If you were stranded on a deserted island and you could have ONE character from a book on the island with you, who would it be and why?

A: Nelson Mandela.  Mr Mandela knew more about forgiveness than anyone from the last century or so.  If I could learn the art of forgiveness and apply it to myself I would be completely free.  That would be a beginning to understanding and knowing true love.

Check out Fifty Shades of Truth yourself.
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Review: Li Cunxin – Mao’s Last Dancer

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Mao’s Last Dancer
Li Cunxin

A poor Chinese boy, one of seven brothers, is the favourite of his mother and family. With little food and littler hope for the future, Li is determined to make something different of his life. This chance comes for him when he is selected to become a ballet dancer for Madam Mao. Li’s determination to make his family proud means that he rises through the ranks, and eventually sees outside of China.

298137It’s interesting to see within the head of someone raised during the time of Communist Mao. Such brainwashing seems absurd now, but it happened not that long ago. Goes to show that corrupt politics can have a huge impact with brainwashing, and the people within it don’t even question it. Perhaps that explains some of the religious stuff that people can get away with now…

There’s not actually very much I can tell you about how this novel was written. As a non-native English speaker, Li does an excellent job of communicating. His written English (with considerable editing support I admit), flows more naturally than his spoken word. The ‘episodes’ or ‘chapters’ of Li’s life fitted in well, and I didn’t feel like I had missed out on anything important in his life.

I listened to this novel as a talking book. The reader of Mao’s Last Dancer was amazing. His voice was just how I wanted it to be told, soft in the places it needed to be, and louder when it was more important. I felt like I was really experiencing the things that happened. I’ve never tried searching for audiobooks using the reader’s name, not the author’s, but this reader makes me want to do it.

I had the privilege of speaking to Li in person, and hear him give an interview about leadership. Some of the little things he told us about in the interview were covered again in the novel, and it made a huge impact on what came out as the most important point of the narrative. The thing I took out of it was the savour the process, not just the endpoint, and that just because things have always been that way, doesn’t mean they will be that way forever.

Would I have been so interested in the story if I hadn’t met Li? Possibly, but perhaps it never would have gotten off my never-ending reading stack. I’ll give this one 4.5 stars, because it is a brilliant and well-told story, but I wouldn’t re-read it. I really want to watch the movie and see if it is as wonderful as the novel. Inspiring, and you should go read it, but it might not be for everyone.

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Review: Kristen Cast & P.C. Cast – Marked

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Marked
Kristen Cast & P.C. Cast

A clueless teenager is Marked with a blue tattoo on her forehead. This mark makes her a vampire, and she must learn how to adapt to her new environment or die.

30183I can’t believe I opted to listen to this. 2 hours into the 10 hour audio recording, I gave up. Some of this fault might have been the reader. The voice was breathy, with a strong US accent. I’m sure it was supposed to convey lots of feeling, but mostly it just made me think she was vacuous.

Ugh, filled with such boppy teenage crap that just didn’t do it for me. Really? Completely clueless. Sure her step-dad is a bastard, and she has to live under his rule, but seriously? She just wants to ‘fit in’, but we don’t even learn what is so different about her. This was so bad, I can’t even remember the name of the main character, except that her grandmother calls her ‘Redbird’.

Everything felt overdone and stereotypical. Blah, blah, children of night. Not everything that is dark is evil etc etc. Things are not as they seem. Wow, vampires are beautiful. Vampires like blood. Oh look, a potential romantic interest. Oh wait, he’s human and his blood smells good.

There wasn’t nearly enough background to the novel. Maybe I just missed it, as I gave up listening by the time she got to the School of Night, but it wasn’t clear why she was sick and how her grandmother knew what to do with her. The biological explanation of how vampires came to exist in the world.

My care level is so low for this novel that I didn’t even bother looking up how to spell things correctly to write this review. Or the main character’s name. Oops?

This was so bad I ended up just wiki-ing the novel to see how it finished, and realised that even if I had kept reading it, I still would have been disappointed. I can’t believe there are 12 books in this series. Even Twilight is better than this. 1 begrudging star from me.

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Review: Ann Brashares – The Here and Now

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The Here and Now
Ann Brashares

Prenna has come from the future to prevent that future taking place. In that future, a blood borne disease has killed the entire world, and left everyone fearing the outside world. Prenna doesn’t know when or how the world will be stopped from doing that, but it seems like the rest of her community couldn’t care less. Ethan, a boy she wants to love but can’t, has more to offer her than she will ever imagine.

18242896Prenna can’t seem to help getting into trouble. And the catch-cry of her elders is ‘Stop looking so stupid Prenna’, which at some points was so true! Arg! Prenna! Grow a spine! You have a good chance of dying anyway, so you might as well try and escape or be different, or something!

Sometimes I thought Prenna was completely ignorant and hopeless. I thought that the author was having time-outs in her characterisation! But then I remembered that someone from the future would have had that sort of thing, and in fact it was a deliberate device used by the author to remind the reader that she was no ordinary person. I hope.

I have to admit, the reader did some parts brilliantly, and others in a bit of a fluffy way. Sometimes the characters blended together in a soft, floating cloud of breathy speech. It felt like the reader didn’t know how to make voices other than ‘quiet’ and ‘very quiet with air’. That being said, I didn’t care, and it was far better than the reader having a very strong accent of anything. This fault was easy to live with and didn’t kill my enjoyment of the novel.

The author seems to have really considered how best to drag her readers forwards mainly by the second third of the novel. The suspense was killing me towards the end. I wanted to read faster! But of course, it was a talking book, and I couldn’t do it. The ending was a satisfying yet saddening conclusion. I felt frustrated at the same time as feeling sadly expectant. I do so wish things could have turned out differently, but it was obvious why it couldn’t be so simple.

Something that did jibe well with me was the fact that it was a blood borne disease, dengue virus in fact, that caused the plagues of the future. Maybe that confuses other people who don’t understand climate warming or anything else, but given this is a topic close to my research interests, I was fascinated to see how it turned out. Overall, the message about the future being obvious to those that take the time to look forward, even if they weren’t actually time-travellers, and that that world is disintegrating by our actions, gives certainly a bad reflection on common humans.

I am entirely, entirely guilty of listening to this novel without having reviewed the other four novels I had read in the preceding week. Oops? But I thought I had better review this good one before it left my head. If there’re more novels out there by Brashares in the same genre, I’m pretty sure I’ll be sourcing them shortly. 5 stars from me.

NOTE: While I was looking on GoodReads for the book cover, I found that the reviews are really mixed. I possibly wouldn’t have picked it up as a paperback, but as an audiobook I loved it. I certainly wasn’t bored!

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Review: Kerr Thomson – The Sound of Whales

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The Sound of Whales
Kerr Thomson

The summer in Scotland is just as miserable as its winter, at least for its forced inhabitants. With nothing to do, the two Scottish boys hunt down whales, each in their own way, and the Texan girl gets caught up purely by accident. With unknown bad-guys on the loose, the children need to keep their communication open.

25094908I felt like the author was trying to tackle too big an issue with too small a novel. People smuggling is a serious offence, but this novel couldn’t get deep enough into it to even really start a conversation on it. The same thing bothered me about the culture. The dance and the Sunday church could have had so much more emphasis and interest in them.

Should I tick the box for fantasy on this one? Or something else? The whale drawing abilities were something that I could put down to real-life, or augmented reality, I wasn’t really sure where to put it. That being said, it was certainly sensitively done and I felt absolutely certain that there wasn’t anything being made up.

Dunny doesn’t speak. To you or I, or Hayley for that matter, his name sounds like, well, a toilet. I think the author has done that on purpose. On the other hand, I’m certain that Fraser often feels like his brother has his head in the dunny most of the time! Dunny certainly doesn’t make thing straight-forward.

I was grateful for the lack of ‘ikky love stuff’. You know the typical boy meets girl, they fall in love immediately, but neither want to admit it? Yeah, doesn’t happen, instead its more about being friends first, overcoming a lot of cultural boundaries and some language ones as well.

This novel was driven by subterfuge. The ending was not what one might have expected. I came away from reading this novel with mixed feelings. If it was planned to give an overview on how life can be complicated, then yes, it did the job. But if you wanted something more powerful in terms of human feeling, this said it would, but failed to deliver. I didn’t actually care very much whether any of them lived or died.

I’m surprised by the lack of other reviews for this novel. It’s actually pretty good, I tossed up between a 3 stars and a 4 stars, and settled on 4, because I thought about it while I was away from it, and really wanted to finish it. Get on it! Read it! Even if it’s better suited to teenagers, it’s totally a book you want your teenager to read, and it might even appeal to non-readers (provided you sell it to them in the right way).

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4star

Interview with Robert Eggleton

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Interview with Robert Eggleton

Q1.How did you start your writing career?

A: In the 8th grade, I won the school’s short story contest: a redneck semi truck driver became so obsessed with the conflict between Jewish vs. Christian theology that he lost concentration on the road and caused a terrible accident. I decided that I wanted to be a writer and dreamed of getting rich. As it often does, life got in the way.

During college, I wrote poems on scraps of paper. One was published in the state’s 1972 West Virginia Student Poetry Anthology. Another was published in a local zine. After college, I focused on children’s advocacy. I got so involved in this emotionally charged work that for the next forty years, I supplanted my need to write fiction by writing nonfiction: manuals, research, investigative, and statistical reports about local children’s services systems and institutions, many of which were published by the WV Supreme Court where I worked from ’83 through ‘97. 

In 2003, I became a children’s psychotherapist at our local community mental health center. It was an intensive program for kids with very severe emotional disturbances. One day at work in 2006, during a group therapy session, I met the real-life role model for my fictional protagonist. Lacy Dawn had been severely abused, but was so resilient that it was inspired everybody who met her, staff and her peers alike, including me.

I started writing fiction. Three short Lacy Dawn Adventures have been published in magazines.  My debut novel, Rarity from the Hollow, was released in 2012 by Dog Horn Publishing, a small traditional press located in Leeds. It is may be reprinted sometime this year. In May 2015, I retired from my job as a children’s psychotherapist so that I could concentrate on writing fiction that introduces Lacy Dawn to the rest of the world. 

Q2. Tell us about your current release.

A: I don’t want to spoil anything for its readers. Rarity from the Hollow is full of contrasts: harsh reality amplifies outrageous fantasy, bitterness blends into acceptance and empowerment, tragedy inspires comedy, and a biography of a victim becomes a science fiction story. It does not fit neatly into a genre, such as romance, horror or even speculative fiction.

This novel was written for an adult audience, but does not have graphic sex scenes, a lot of violence or any of the other similar content that one might assume to be attributable to an Adults Only classification. It is sweet but frank and honest with no holds barred. It addresses the complexities of real life, but presents sensitive topics that might trigger emotional distress with comic relief. My intent was for readers to enjoy the experiences that I created with everyday words and colloquialism, but not to gloss over realism in the way that some YA titles accomplish.

In a nutshell, Rarity from the Hollow is about a little girl who learns to be the Savior of the Universe with the help of her family and friends. It’s up to readers to decide which scenes are dissociative as a result of Lacy Dawn’s traumas and which scenes are pure fantasy and science fiction.

Q3. Who are your favorite authors and biggest influences?

A: I’m not sure that you have enough bandwidth for me to make a complete list of inspirations and favourites, so here’s a few. Ferlinghetti, the poet of the Beat Generation, showed me how to enjoy my anger about political and societal issues. Similarly, Vonnegut’s anger in Breakfast of Champions helped me stay strong as a children’s advocate and as a writer, and how to experiment with my writing style outside of commonly accepted structures and formats. Nora Roberts knows how to get me in a romantic mood. The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Harry Potter series reinforced my faith in the potential of adolescent morality and the future of the world. Watership Down by R. Adams was such a sweet adventure that some of this element just is a necessary ingredient of even the scariest, saddest, or most erotic story. The versatility in cross-genre and the use of humour by Bradbury had to have been a subliminal inspiration, especially now that I think about it. Dean Koontz has been masterful. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by D. Adams and Another Roadside Attraction by Robbins pushed me into the wilder side of writing regardless of censorship, as did the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comics. And, Stephen King’s use of everyday horror convinced me that alarming scenes can be created by using almost anything as a prop. Piers Anthony sure knew how to write a goofy pun and has always gotten me to giggle.

Q4. What does your significant other and family think of your writing career?

A: I’ve been married for forty-four years and have a forty-one year old son. They both think that I’m nuts, and, of course, they’re right. Both of them proof read my work, make comments about plot and substance, and my son is an IT specialist who makes emergency house calls to my home to keep my computer alive. My wife is the smartest person I’ve ever met, seriously, so I bug her all the time to bounce around ideas, and she doesn’t complain about it too much. The rest of my family is very supportive, but a few of them don’t like for me to use curse words or sexual content, even if it fits a character’s personality. The passing of my wife’s mother was not only a sorrowful experience, but a big loss to my writing. She was the type of woman who could argue for an hour about which Chicago Cub baseball player had the cutest butt, and she had a serious romance novel addiction. I could always go to her for advice. Whether or not my writing is a second career depends on you, the readers. Regardless, my family just wants me to be happy, and that’s what I want for each of them too.  

Q5. Who are your books published with?

A: Dog Horn Publishing is a traditional small press located in Leeds, a long way from West Virginia and a place that I would love to visit, but am unlikely to ever afford to go. Adam Lowe is the owner. He didn’t charge me a cent to edit, create the book cover, or to print Rarity from the Hollow. I have been paid royalties, half of which have been donated to a child abuse prevention program in my home state. Adam has won a zillion awards (a slight exaggeration, but not much of one) and is very active in the GLBTQ movement in England, about which I’m proud to have an indirect association. He posts some very funny stuff on Facebook if anybody is interested in a giggle. 

Q6. How do you react to a bad review of your book?

A: Rarity from the Hollow has never received a negative review, except for a fake one by a fellow who posted on Goodreads that he was tired of apocalyptic novels. There is nothing remotely close to apocalyptic in this story. I sent him a private message to ask for clarification, probably a mistake and one that I will never make again, but the fellow did not reply. No harm, no foul – whew! My novel has received several reviews, some by expert book critics, and all reviews have been glowing so far. Keep your fingers crossed. A former Editor of Reader’s Digest posted that Rarity from the Hollow was the best science fiction that he’d read in several years. Of course, my story has also been referred to as a love story, horror, social commentary, satire…. I guess that it’s all a matter of what one reads into the story instead of the story itself. I have resolved, however, that if I do get a negative review, I will not complain or argue about it. People have opinions – different strokes for different folks. So, if you decide to read Rarity from the Hollow, and I hope that you will, I welcome your input. I depend on it to become a stronger writer.  

About Robert:

roberteggletonRobert Eggleton has served as a children’s advocate for over forty years. He is best known for his investigative reports about children’s programs, most of which were published by the West Virginia Supreme Court where he worked from 1982 through 1997. Today, he is a recently retired psychotherapist from the mental health center in Charleston, West Virginia. Rarity from the Hollow is his debut novel and its release followed publication of three short Lacy Dawn Adventures in magazines: Wingspan Quarterly, Beyond Centauri, and Atomjack Science Fiction. Author proceeds have been donated to a child abuse prevention program operated by Children’s Home Society of West Virginia. http://www.childhswv.org/

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Review: Jerry Kaczmarowski – Sapient

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 Sapient
Jerry Kaczmarowski

Jane Dixon is on the hunt for a cure for autism – a subject close to her heart because of her son, Robbie. Robbie is a high functioning autistic pre-teen, who nevertheless needs complete order and routine to survive. After Jane successfully transforms a rat, Einstein, into a brilliant typing rat she finds Robbie on the run and herself imprisoned.

25334953Although the blurb makes a big deal out of Jane being single thanks to an abusive husband, this wasn’t something that really concerned me. I was more interested in her current relationships, which I felt weren’t particularly influenced by her past.

I loved seeing things from the different perspectives. Each character had a very distinctive mind-voice, and I knew what was going on at all times, even if I felt pleasantly frustrated that the other characters were so clueless. All the characters were real people to me by chapter 2.

You can absolutely feel the tension radiating through Jane and the entire novel. Robbie and the animals add some humour at least, but I found myself wanting more and sitting on the edge of my seat. The plot is gripping and well thought out.

Even the end is innovative. I wanted to know what happened next! And I wouldn’t have objected if there was a sequel in the making. At the same time, I was satisfied by the ending, and didn’t feel cheated.

All I can think to myself after reading this novel is “Wow, let me get my hands on Jerry’s other novels!” I read this novel in pretty much one sitting while on vacation. I was completely absorbed and didn’t feel like doing anything else. I had forgotten what compulsive reading felt like – this is it. Get your hands on it ASAP.

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