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Aimée Carter: Pawn (The Blackcoat Rebellion)

AJ Garcia — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 10:01:40 +0000

Kitty Doe has been given a III. A III is a pretty low ranking in the dystopian world of Pawn that determines your value to society by a placement test. Once you’ve been branded with your rank you are given a job, a place to live, and sent on your way. Unfortunately for Kitty her job is uprooting her from the only home she’s ever known and separating her from the only boy she’s ever loved, Benjy.

Fortunately Kitty meets Daxton Hart, a member of the controlling family of Kitty’s dystopian world, and quite possibly the most powerful man in the world. Daxton offers Kitty the opportunity to discard her III and become a VII, the highest rank reserved only for the elite. Unfortunately the offer comes with a pretty strict addendum, take the opportunity or reject it and die.

Though becoming a VII sounds wonderful Kitty soon discovers, after waking up from a drug induced slumber, that it comes with a price. Her entire body has been surgically transformed to mirror that of Daxton’s niece Lila, who we find out has died in a skiing accident. Kitty, sharing enough similar features, was selected to step in for Lila, a member of the Hart family who hated the ranking system and provoked rebellion any chance she could, and quell the rebellion left in her wake. Now Kitty is thrust into the battle for power within the Hart family. Each family member using her for their own ends. Will she make it out alive?

Pawn starts off extremely well but quickly fizzles unfortunately. Kitty is just a non-character in the grand scheme of things. Carter introduces us to the main character as an illiterate young girl whose been branded with a low rank that will destroy her world, but that world is pretty vague. Were introduced to her mother figure, the group home matron where she lives, but only long enough to run the gamut of the standard connective devices that make her important in the most generic of terms. We meet her boyfriend Benjy whose existence is pretty subtle and then extinguished until way later in the story. The back story between the two doesn’t do much to provoke a sense of urgency about Kitty’s plight so right off the bat there’s nothing tying you to the oncoming adventure. It also doesn’t help that Kitty goes on and on about her less then invest worthy troubles with Benjy for the next two chapters.

Despite the rocky start I was a bit surprised by the sudden left turn the story takes as we meet various members of the Hart family. In less time then it took to explain Kitty’s situation I was instantly charmed by Lila’s fiancée Knox, who may or may not be a bad guy, but whose charm seems honest enough that you willingly step a bit deeper into the story.

It’s not just Knox though. Lila’s mother Celia is a interesting character bordering on protective and repulsed. Celia makes it known right away that Lila’s death was probably not an accident. It’s here that we start to see some light shining through the Hart families facades and also where the story really begins, but let me throw yet an another “Unfortunately” in the mix though.

Carter wants to expand on this world of secrets and lies, and for the most part it works. So many of the Hart family members have such conflicting personalities that you pick your favorites, pick your most disliked of the group, and are taken down a windy road of political and familial subterfuge that you never know which way is up. Still, the complexities of Carter’s story start to unravel the more Kitty gets involved.

Kitty is pretty much a nuisance when it comes to furthering the story. She’s like a child pouting that it’s unfair. A bad actor from a third rate drama whose emotions never really swell beyond her boyfriend problems or being generically written in as a bleeding heart anytime something happens. What’s worse, when given the opportunity to be used as a device for illuminating the theme of class rankings Kitty simply reads like the product of someone whose never really dealt with living rough, or at least someone who doesn’t have the capacity to put that in writing and chooses not to do so. If all Kitty cares about is herself and her boyfriend, how can she become any type of relatable character?

By the end of the book I was feeling pretty disconnected with the story. I assume that this would have been the exact same way I would have felt if I had read the Twilight books. Less romance, but more then enough space taken up by a lead character I care nothing about. The story only survived by the charm of a grouped amount of characters with differentiating personalities and a villain whose only time within the story is written to put into context the mortal danger the main character is in. In the end though you’re left with fleeting instances of connectivity with the remaining characters that have barely hung on to your heartstrings but no real reason to continue on with the story as it hints at a sequel.

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Book

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Grade:

1.36

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Pawn

Aimée Carter

Harlequin Teen

Author:

Aimée Carter

The Lost Girls of Rome

Paul Arca — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 02:57:52 +0000

“The lost girls of Rome” is a novel written by Donato Carrisi, who is best known for being a TV writer, but he has already written one novel and studied law and criminology. In this novel, there are two main plot lines involving Sandra, a forensic analyst, and Marcus, a private investigator. Sandra is a fairly new widow because her husband was involved in a suspected accident. However, some new evidence surrounding her husband’s death is making her lean towards different theories. As for Marcus, he is working on a case involving a missing college student. Are these two plot lines somehow related? You are going to have to read “The lost girls of Rome” to find out.

Being a criminal justice major in college, this book was right up my ally of interest for novel genres. The writing is very mature and full of suspense. I was not sure what to think or figure out what was going to happen until the end of the book. I loved how this book kept me guessing until the end. If you love suspense thrillers and mysteries, this is the book for you.

The only minor issue I found with “The lost girls of Rome” were the transitions between the plots. Other than that, I enjoyed reading this book. I could not put it down until I read every page and found out what happened. For those reasons, I am giving “The lost girls of Rome” a “B+.”

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Book

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Grade:

3.45

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The Lost Girls of Rome

Donato Carrisi

The Lost Girls of Rome

Talent:

Donato Carrisi

Author:

Donato Carrisi

Through the Zombie Glass

Lee Roberts — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 04:07:23 +0000

THROUGH THE ZOMBIE GLASS:
Young slayer Alice Bell has had a hard life where she has lost almost everything. Her family has been taken away from her where she is left alone in a world where zombies attack at any given moment. Trying to cope with the hardships life has given her, Alice must find time to fight the zombies that attack while also finding time for a love life. Can she deal with the expectations that the boy she loves has for her while dealing with having the dead talk to her as well as having a darkness inside her tring to control her? All Alice knows is that she has to stay strong in the face of death, friendship, and love or she will lose it all.

LOVE AND ZOMBIES:
When I first got this book, Through the Zombie Glass by Gena Showalter, I was looking forward to it. That old saying of not judging a book by it's cover comes into play when I first saw the cover of this book, as well as the title. My first impression was that this book was going to be like some other books that's came out over the last few years where the plot takes a classic tale and it's characters and throws in some zombies or vampires. In this case I assumed it was going to be the classic tale featuring the famous Alice who went to Wonderland, or I should say the sequel to that first tale of Alice. Which in a way this is a sequel to the first book that Gena Showalter wrote called Alice in Zombieland. I also assumed that the book was going to be about her fighting zombies while in Wonderland. In both cases I was basically wrong and right.
This book was inspired by the famous Alice and her adventures but aside from having the name of Alice she is not the same Alice. Also the zombies that she fights in this book are not the typical kind of zombies. Instead of flesh eating, undead thing that's only out to eat some brains, or flesh of any normal person, these zombies are closer to being ghosts/spirits/apparitions. Where instead of eating the flash of people these zombies are out to eat the spirits of people, usually slayers that go to hunt them. Also, where I assumed that the story was going to be about this girl Alice fighting off the zombies, which it kind of is, it's more a story about this girl Alice who is struggling through her life after a horrible loss of her family and being in love with the head slayer.
Now, that you know the basic idea of the book I'm sure you're wondering what I thought of it. Well, this is a book that I at times I liked but all the other times I didn't. Let me explain why I didn't like the book first before I get to the reason why I do. First and main reason, I'm not a girl from the ages of 17 and up. Through the Zombie Glass is mainly about the girl Alice dealing with her feelings for her lost family and Cole, the guy she is in love with, which if I were a girl I would have been really enjoying this book. If I were a girl I would have enjoyed reading about how Alice is this strong girl who is dealing with her feelings for this guy who is the bad boy that's handsome, strong, who scares all the other guys, has all the girls wanting him, knowing how to make her tremble, and her just wanting him to talk to her, kiss her, and be her bad boy that's a good guy on the inside. Basically I read a book that's the thought process of what a girls fantasy being played out while fighting the zombies that are now somewhat better than the typical zombie with the rotting flesh, these are spirit zombies. Sure they might be ugly and want to kill them but they are not the rotting flesh, stinking, body parts falling off or already off, of a disgusting dead person. This is a novel about a girl and her love life with some polished up zombies mixed in.
For the reason I did like it is because Gena Showalter has a good sense of writing. I might not have cared much for the plot but I did enjoy the moments that Alice was having to fight the zombies. Not that I only wanted a book about zombie fighting, I don't mind some romance in a book, but this has a little too much for my taste. Gena Showalter knows how to write a story that tells what a young woman is going through with her emotions and I'm sure there will be a lot of girls out there that connect with Alice or want to be her, I am just not one that can do that. The writing is good, the book does have some good fight moments in it, and the characters are brought to life on the pages. However, there was too much of dealing with Alice's feelings toward her boyfriend and having to read all the moments of her thinking about her dreamy bad boy. This will be a lot of fun for girls, who I would probably recommend it being girls 17 or older because of the sexual innuendo and moments, though they are handle quite nicely and though they are sexy they are not dirty to the point of being adult only, but they are more for girls who like boys or whoever else might like boys.

Review:

Book

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Grade:

2.89

Tags:

Through the Zombie Glass

Gena Showalter

Through the Zombie Glass

Green Golly & Her Golden Flute

AJ Garcia — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 01:43:12 +0000

Green Golly & Her Golden Flute is Rapunzel with a twist. Instead of Rapunzal we have Green Golly, named by the witch that took her in after her parents traded her for a salad. Yup, a salad. The story is a lighthearted retelling that offers up the heroine of this tale in a bit of a different light, as well as throws a twist ending in there that kids might enjoy.

The book is 52 pages long and comes with a read along CD that features music from the story and lots of fun character voices to add that extra bit of magic to the tale.

Overall, I thought, without the accompanying CD, that the book was a bit meh. It really relies on the core story of Rapunzel, really feels like a well intentioned story for kids by someone who loves and respects the classic composers, but all together feels like it keeps trying to sell itself all the way through to the end (the story drops the official website address into the story).

With the CD you get to hear the story as it was meant to be heard from the writer and the performers of the music. Mind you, if I had an issue with the story relying to heavily on the tale of Rapunzel, I also had a bit of a quirk with the CD relying on the established music in the story from Mozart and friends.

As a parent I think the idea is fabulous. I’d always tried to broaden my children’s minds when it comes to music and, as a parent, I really did find this a decent enough model in doing so. As an individual? I thought the illustrations were great, the twist ending fun, but overall, especially in this day and age when everything else is a remake of some classic tale, do we need to enter that habit in literature?

If you’re a parent looking to get your kids into music I think this is a pretty neat little idea. The CD is an opportunity for a family to come together and enjoy one another’s company while bonding over the silliness and starting up a conversation about the music. Unfortunately with my kids being quite older I just didn’t fall into this demographic. So if it’s peaked your interest you might want to check out your local library or if you’re sold on the idea the book is available on Amazon now. Enjoy.

Review:

Book

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Grade:

2.82

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Green Golly & Her Golden Flute

The Thicket by Joe R. Lansdale

Cody Endres — Tue, 27 Aug 2013 04:20:02 +0000

The Dark Knight

Lansdale wrote three episodes for Batman: The Animated Series.

With his latest novel, The Thicket, author Joe R. Lansdale has created a cast of interesting characters in the heart of East Texas. Although not straying too far from his popular Hap and Leonard series, Lansdale paints an incredible picture upheld by strong dialogue and characters readers will find easy to love.

Having published works in a great number of genres, Lansdale is no stranger to the limelight. Lansdale has been awarded the Edgar Award, eight Bram Stoker awards, and the British Fantasty Award among numerous other achievements. Perhaps most famously, Lansdale's novella Bubba Ho-Tep was turned into a feature film starring Bruce Campbell.

The Thicket takes place in East Texas during the turn of the 20th Century. Sixteen year old Jack Parker and Lula Parker, his younger sister of two years, suddenly lose their parents during the smallpox epidemic. Their grandfather helps them leave the deteriorating town of Hinge Gate in order to live with their aunt. While on a small ferry, Jack's grandfather is callously murdered and Lula kidnapped by Cut Throat Bill and his notorious gang. Jack travels to the nearby town of Sylvester and begins to assemble a posse including grave-digger Eustace, his pet wild boar Hog, and a dwarf bounty hunter by the name of Shorty. Their main objective: revenge.

The narrator of The Thicket is an elder Jack Parker as he looks back at the pivotal moments in his life. Change is definitely a theme as East Texas at the start of the 20th Century was in a state of rapid advancement due to the oil boom and the rise of the automobile. In comparison, Jack's life was in a rapid state of maturation after the shocking death of his parents and grandfather. In the blink of an eye Jack is forever changed and affected for better or for worse by these happenings. Readers are given the opportunity to experience these changes with Jack and see how opinions of God and love can transform over a lifetime.

Lansdale relies heavily upon dialogue to enhance the story and accomplishes that task to perfection. Conversations between characters bounce between witty and light to downright gritty and unapologetic. Undoubtedly the dwarf bounty hunter Shorty will become a fan-favorite with his overall demeanor and fascinating backstory. This western is rugged, so be forewarned that violence, sex, and racism is prevalent as it was in this particular point in history. Readers eager to escape to the Texas countryside with a ragtag group of misfits should dive headfirst into The Thicket.

Review:

Book

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Grade:

4.00

Tags:

The Thicket

Joe R. Lansdale

The Thicket

Author:

Joe R. Lansdale

Skinner

Lee Roberts — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 05:08:48 +0000

SKINNER:
After one of his assets was killed and someone trying to kill him, CIA's handler Skinner disappeared for a while until he's brought out of hiding. Now with a new asset to protect, Skinner must find a way to get back into his old life as a spy while trying to keep his asset Jae alive. With a growing cyber attack that could take down the powers of the world and kill millions, Skinner and Jae must put aside their own problems to work together or both will end up dead.

READING A SPY NOVEL:
I like spy novels, they can be a lot of fun to read as long as they are done right. By right I mean by making the story have a really cool main character that's they spy of all spies who can use all sorts of fighting techniques, never misses what he shoots at, has cool cars, gets put into very scary situations but still able to get out, and always gets the girl. To me that's a spy novel, or I should say that's the beginning of a spy novel. There still needs to be a villain or some sort of group that's masterminding an evil plot that the spy has to stop or take down. So what exactly does the book Skinner have when it comes to a spy novel?

Well, it does have a super spy who is supposed to be skilled and scary, though really Skinner wasn't really a spy in my terms because he didn't do any real spy stuff. His job and skill set is protecting his asset and though doing so would put him in situations that would be considered a spy related job, he was still really only a body guard. Sure he is tough and scary but just because he worked for a people that would be considered spies does not make him one. Is the janitor that cleans the building they work in a spy? What about the receptionist at the front desk? Maybe the one that drives the bosses around during work hours is a spy? If this is the case than anyone can be a spy and if so then I supposed then that Skinner is a spy. His asset however, Jae, now she is a spy and one that I liked more as a character than I did Skinner.

Skinner was a book that took me reaching around 100 pages before I could get fully invested in the story. Typically when I read a book I want to know what I should be expecting out of the story, whether it's a story that' going to be about stopping aliens attacking the world or if someone is lost and needs to be found, but it took too long for this to be fully revealed. Sure, if I had read one of the descriptions about the book online I could have seen that the story was going to be about a cyber attack and would revolve around Skinner getting his asset Jae in the right area to help find and stop the people responsible. But I didn't do that, I did like I typically do with a book, I pick it up and start reading it. Most books will tell the plot at the start and then the rest of the story will cover the characters following along with that plot idea. Author Charlie Huston does things differently with this book because instead of really writing where this story is going to lead to he writes about the characters.

It's very interesting in how well he writes his characters and as I read about their histories and what they where going through in that moment I was pulled into the book. He has wrote about these characters in a way that make them feel like they are me as I read them or at least someone that I know and/or relate to. Charlie Huston pulls you into the character before he pulled me into the story of Skinner. Once he got to the meat of the story where I was beyond the character development the story really picked and became very interesting. Skinner didn't quite feel like a spy novel but it is, just one that instead of being the normal fast cars and beautiful women, Skinner seems like what real spy life would be like. It's dirty, it's gritty, and you can't trust anyone, which is what this book becomes about as well as being about the main character Skinner who is a tough guy that people shouldn't mess around with. I might have been slow to get interested in the book but by page 120 I really didn't want to put the book down. Charlie Huston writes his characters better as well as more interesting than anyone I've read in a while and because of that I wanted to read more of this book.

Review:

Book

Exclusive?:

Grade:

4.03

Tags:

Skinner

Charlie Huston

Skinner

Author:

Charlie Huston

Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics, 5th Edition

Peter Oberth — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 14:42:48 +0000

Focal Press is known for their helpful guides to the art of filmmaking and photography. In their fifth edition of "Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics", Michael Rabiger and Mick Hurbis-Cherrier expand the readable manual to a hefty 532 pages.

Unlike the previously reviewed "Producing" book, this one reads more like a text book for a film class than something for every day reading or the passing film buff. With that said, it has a MUCH higher readability factor than your standard text book because of the various first-hand account stories on set and random factoids strewn about. This is not something you would want on you coffee table for a random guest to pick up when you are too lazy to entertain them, unless that guest happens to be a film student.

Focal Press' "Directing" is an intriguing text filled with numerous helpful tips and advice from fellow filmmakers and is a great addition to any budding director's book collection. I am generally not one to think that art can be taught or creativity can be expanded through the use of text but, from a technical standpoint, there is a lot to be learned from this book. With that being said, it is a great purchase if you already have the natural creativity but lack the technical expertise.

Review:

Audio Book

Exclusive?:

Grade:

3.90

Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics, 5th Edition

The Simon & Kirby Library: Science Fiction

Lee Roberts — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 05:27:56 +0000

If you want to know about comic books there are two names that should always make the list of people to read, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. These two men wrote and drew some of the most influential comics and characters in the industry. One such notable character is non other than Captain America, a character that Simon and Kirby created and has since become a icon for comics and the fans. Though when these artists first started in the comic book industry there was nothing like there is today for readers, so instead of the typical superhero of today, Simon and Kirby had stories that where more science fiction than super heroic.

A new hardcover book is out that has me pleased, I mean I was thrilled to see this book, the Simon & Kirby Library: Science Fiction collection. Here in this massive 320 page hardcover book I was able to read stories that I've only heard about. This book spans over 20 years of some of the work that Joe Simon and Jack Kirby did. Some are when they worked with other writers/artists and some are when they worked together. One such time is their 10 issue run together on the comic Blue Bolt, a man who was struck with the power of lightning who would go out on adventures to fight the Green Sorceress (yep) and her evil forces. The stories contained in this book range from the 1940's to the 1960's, some are just a few stories and some are multiple stories, but they all have one thing in common, two of the greats worked on them.

Well, let me tell you now, if you are unfamiliar with the comics prior to what has been going on in the last 20 years then you will be in for a huge surprise. I can't tell you how many people that are new to comics that want to read these stories by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon because they start to learn about their influence so they decide to check it out. When they do they find out that the comics of the golden and silver age are nothing what they where expecting, in any sense. This is what this book shows, the comics that where of the time when science fiction was the popular trend, having to go out as an astronaut and having to fight people/creatures from and on other planets. These are science fiction stories, as the title of the book says, the Simon & Kirby Library Science Fiction.

Don't get me wrong, I love these stories, this is comics when comics where young, they where fun, and they make me laugh. Most of the stories are short that started and finished in the one issue, some lasted longer, but they all are fun to read. They might not be the greatest stories ever written, some of the plots skip right over the main action where we are told the hero of the story is going to go after the villain then the following two panels are one of the hero telling the villain that he is after him, then the second would be the hero walking away after capturing the villain. What happens, how did he get him, what did the two do, the the villain give up, was there a huge battle that nearly killed the hero? I don't know but it's part of this that makes these comics appealing because I have to use my own imagination to tell the story. Not all are like that but all of the stories are simple, they don't have any devious plots, the hero always wins, and the villains are always over the top but they are good. Joe Simon was a great writer and I love reading his stories. Same goes with Jack Kirby and his artwork. Sure it's not the greatest drawing that's been put on the pages, it's rough, some of the characters look different from panel to panel, but he still had a great amount of talent.

This book is not only Simon and Kirby, there are many other artists and writers that worked on these stories along with Simon and Kirby. They put in a great deal of work as well to make these stories as fun as they are and to be able to still be an influential story today. That is why this book is so great, because it gives people, new to or fan for life of comics a chance to read them. I've seen, read, and own many collected books of comics but I have to say this is by far one of the most impressive books of them all. From the dust cover to the pages that the book is printed on, it's all beautiful. Let me start with the dust jacket, it has artwork that shows you what you are going to be getting, a book about science fiction comics. If you take off the dust jacket you see more artwork on the hardcover showing an astronaut and a space ship in a wrap around cover. It's beautifully made and that's just the outside of it. Inside the book is printed in bright vibrant colors, the artwork, lettering, everything stands out bright and clear. Even the pages are well made, they are thick, sturdy, and will withstand being flipped for years before wearing out, if they even do. There's a great contents page for you to find what you want in a hurry as well as introductions that just bring home how much these men mean to comics. This book has it all for any comic lover, fun stories and artwork put together for an awesome collectors item and it even smells good.

Review:

Comic Book

Exclusive?:

Grade:

4.50

Tags:

Science Fiction

The Abbey

Lee Roberts — Thu, 09 May 2013 05:16:05 +0000

THE PLOT OF THE ABBEY:
Detective Ash Rashid has been an officer for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department for many years. While being a detective he attends a law school so he can one day be a part of the juridical system but a case that hits close to home might end his career goals. When his niece's body is found in the home of a wealthy family, Ash must work out how she ended up there and why she was dead. During his investigation Ash slowly learns that the case of his niece's death is turning out to be more than he ever expected it to be and it now threatens other family members.

THE CHARACTERS:
The Abbey is the first book featuring the character Ash Rashid by Chris Culver. For a book that is introducing a new character that's middle aged and established in his life and career, Chris Culver gives a decent account of what the character has been doing. Though there's not much to be told at the start of this book about the character other than he's a cop, he wants to be a lawyer, has a wife and a kid, and is now investigating a case that involves his family. It's all that is needed to be told really, which I liked because there was no wasting of pages trying to tell me what this character has been doing before this particular story begins.

One thing that I liked about the characters is that they are made to feel familiar to me. If that's not what Chris Culver was aiming to do with his writing that is what I ended up getting from them. There's not much to the characters though when it comes to making them different from other mystery novels involving a cop as the main character. Ash is a guy who is smart, he's the good cop, he will do what it takes to get the job done, and though he spends way too much time working he still loves his wife. Along with being a good cop and man, he still has some flaws that make him seem more realistic as we are told what he has to go through during every day life. Not to be left out there's also the cop that is rude, mean, and seems to put more effort into giving Ash a hard time rather than working on the case.

HOW IT'S TOLD:
When I read The Abbey it was after I had read The Outsider, the second novel to be about the character of Ash Rashid. Oddly enough I found that reading the second book first gave me a different and maybe a better perspective into how Chris Culvers writing style was different between the two books. What a difference it was too because every time I explained it someone I described the two books as almost being wrote by different people. If it was not for the similar characters appearing in both books, the small details that the character is always bringing up, I would really believe that these two books where written by different people. In the Abbey, the first book, Chris Culver writes in first person format where I'm being told everything that's going on by the main character Ash whereas in the second book, The Outsider, it's told in third person as I read about Ash doing something.

It's a bit odd reading the book in first person but after around halfway through the book I was somewhat ok with it but there was something else that got on my nerves more. It was the telling of the same small detail over and over again. Yes, I understand that the character has a religion that requires him to pray a lot but does that need to be told every time he does it? I have to use the bathroom more than once per day but that don't mean I should let it be known every single time I go. I picked up quickly what the daily rituals where for Ash but then was treated to being told again and again. It got bothersome having to read the same bit of information again with a slight difference in the way it was worded.

It's not a book that surprised me nor is it one that breaks the mold of a cop murder mystery but it was told in an interesting fashion. Chris Culver writes in a way that makes the story easy to read as well as being a fast read. Which ended up being a good thing for me because I had 2 of his books to read in just a little over a month and I'm a slow reader, a very slow reader. Usually it takes me 2 months to read one book and that's if I'm really into the book but I was able to read both of these books in the allotted time. Even though it's a fast read there's just enough information to make the story interesting. Though at times I did wonder why the characters behavior was being wrote in that fashion because it seemed to be they where made to be that way without any real explanation. The story also centers around Ash the whole time and don't include any chapters that has other characters being talked about. With having the whole book be about Ash while he interacts with others is one of the reasons why it's a fast read. Having the only character narration being centered on Ash is good but by not including the thoughts and actions of other characters while leaving out Ash would have explained why they are the way they are in the book. Pretty much it would have given a second point of view in this story that is centered around Ash trying to solve the mystery of his nieces death. The Abbey is a decent book, it has enough mystery in it to keep me interested in finding out who done it and why, and it's a book that's a easy to read story when I want to just read a distracting story.

Review:

Book

Exclusive?:

Grade:

2.45

Tags:

The Abbey

Chris Culver

Ash Rashid

The Abbey

Author:

Chris Culver

The Outsider

Lee Roberts — Thu, 09 May 2013 04:57:21 +0000

THE OUTSIDER:
Seasoned Police Detective Ash Rashid has seen a lot during his career as a police officer but he can still be surprised with what his job brings. While sitting at home, Ash is visited by a local mob boss who tells Ash that there is a case he needs to look into. After checking into the case, Ash finds out that a friend was found dead by a hit and run but no one knows anything about it. Ash gets drawn into this mystery of a case that involves a death that has all the signs of a murder but what he discovers are ugly truths about the police force and people he knows. His friend, the mother of his daughters best friend, is dead, the police don't know anything about it, neighbors are being threaten by what might be police detectives, and Ash's job has now been put on the line because of it but he will not let anything deter him from finding the truth, not even when his family is threaten.

READING THE OUTSIDER:
This is the second book for the Ash Rashid character by Chris Culver and it's the first one that I read of the series. When I read this book I didn't know it was the second of the two, which normally I try my best to avoid doing if at possible, but in this case I just couldn't find anywhere that said this was book two. Not that it mattered because after reading this book I realized that I didn't have to have any prior knowledge of the character to follow along with the story. If this was the only book that you read of the Ash Rashid character than you will be reading a book that is easily a stand-alone book. Sure, there are characters being used in this book that where used in the first book, The Abbey, but that book and what the characters do in it plays no real roll in what happens in The Outsider.

As I read The Outsider, because it was the first, I didn't notice the difference in writing styles from the first book The Abbey. Once I read The Abbey it was easily seen what the differences where between the two and how this book is wrote in such a different manner. With The Outsider, Chris Culver writes in the typical book style of having it done in third person. I'm being told what Ash is doing, what he's seeing, and what others are doing by someone else. It's a story being told to me but in the first book The Abbey, Chris Culver writes in first person where Ash is telling me the story. This change is a very different between the books but it's the style I liked the best out of the two. Though it was different having The Abbey being told in first person view, I enjoy reading a story where it's almost like I'm a part of the story as it unfolds.

One thing I noticed more so in this book was getting told about the same thing multiple times. With some instances it needs to be done because it was part of the character but there are certain occasions that it felt like Chris Culver was telling me something just to tell it. Though that is not my biggest con for this book. During the building of the story and mystery of the case, Ash was going around asking questions that led him to other questions and answers. However, instead of having to work out each lead and figure out where they would lead, Ash just seemed to find his way so easily. There are a lot of questions that I had for the character as he went on the search to solve the mystery. One is why is it so easy for him to know who to call and why did they all have some form of an answer to give him? Everything seemed too easy and then the book was over and I was left wondering exactly how did he solve the case. If all those people knew what was going on then why was it allowed to continue or not be stopped? It's similar to me calling 411 looking to find the number and address to a business, I'll be greeted, asked what I need, and then I’m told the answer. That's how this was done, Ash needed to find some information, he would make a call, greeted, he asked the question, then he was told where to go. Once there he would have new questions but then the same formula was used in him getting those questions answered and so on until the case was solved.

Those are my only real negative remarks about the book and writing style of Chris Culver, which for the second was kind of a major one considering this is a mystery novel and having how it's solved explained well does more for the book than the mystery of it does. But I do want to say that it's not so bad that the book wasn't enjoyable. I did like the mystery itself and how it made me want to know what was going on. The Outsider was a story that felt like it could be made into a good movie, with some fleshing out of the story some, it has a good plot and idea behind it. It's an easy book to read where I was able to finish it pretty quickly and ahead of the time frame that I thought I was going to. Ash seems like he could be someone I could know in life because he has flaws that make him relatable as well as being someone that fits well in a book where he seems to be more than the average guy. The Outsider is a book that I would read when I just want to read a book while not having to worry about getting too involved or when I just want something to take my mind off things. It's not deep or life changing nor would it be one of those literary novels that stand the test of time to be taught in classes but it's a decent book to read when wanting a mystery novel with a good plot and an ending.

Review:

Book

Exclusive?:

Grade:

2.56

Tags:

The Outsider

Chris Culver

Ash Rashid

The Outsider

Author:

Chris Culver