With a simple phrase, Tucker Gibsen is taken back to the day when, as a child, he came face to face with a madman and barely escaped with his life. Now, as an adult, he finds himself embroiled in a decades-old grudge between two modern-day witches, putting his life and the lives of those he cares for most in danger. What chance does one ordinary person have when threatened by uncaring supernatural forces set in motion long ago?
Overall, this was a fairly enjoyable effort. The central storyline here is immensely effective, detailing a fun callback to a haunting incident in the past when he was a kid, which inspires a struggle to uncover the source of the hauntings and traces everything back to a witches' curse that is enacted against him, and serves to introduce everything rather well. The mundane nature of how it all starts, looking at how the introduction comes from his attorney work and leads him back to the incident years ago that scarred him for life, as that particular memory comes back as an adult to disrupt his life. This starts a series of impressive scenes investigating not just that encounter but also the strange woman who's following a trail of supernatural guidance towards the city, eventually bringing them together in a race to uncover the meaning behind the cryptic saying.
As it comes into a cohesive storyline with the connection growing into a direct confrontation with the strange being wandering around looking to find devious ways of containing her fury, this gives off an engaging and wholly impressive atmosphere that is present here. Showing how they come together initially with the astral-projection allowing them to connect initially and using their skills to investigate the creature wandering through the city leaving a trail of carnage with the series of incidents involving the different figures she comes across influencing them to gruesomely attack and kill others around them for the chaos of it all. There's a lot to like with these incidents, as not only are the few encounters throughout here quite brutal and graphic, but they also help to bring about the strong connection to its storyline's implications.
If there is something to knock about the book, there's an odd sense during many scenes to make it hard to distinguish how and when we're introduced to a backstory. The flashbacks just come in out of nowhere, especially in the first half when we get to see his thoughts when recounting the relationship struggles with his girlfriend once they meet up or the situation reminds him of their past, yet the way it goes about this is awkward with the flashback starting in the middle of the conversation without warning or context and carries on until dropping us back into the action in the same way. Considering how well the rest of the writing comes off, this is a decidedly odd way of introducing flashbacks, yet it is really the only factor that comes about to lower this one overall.
4/5
Comments
Post a Comment