Sunday 9 August 2015

World's Scariest Places Vol.1-Jeremy Bates

So the fact that there are two books offered here is both a plus and a minus. Great that there is more reading material, but unfortunately reading them one after the other shows the base story formula that has been used for both.
Being as staunch as I am about grammar and spelling, even a great story will put me off if there is bad editing. Glad to say that for the majority of the pages no glaring mistakes turned me away, but it was still unfortunate that the final checking was not 100% accurate as certain words were missing from sentences. In saying that, the writer has a great way with words and imagery and writes in a clean style with a well maintained flow.
Now to the parallels between the stories-tall hero who steps up to the plate-check. Problems with a current or ex-girlfriend-check. Landing up in a group of people where there are antagonistic feelings-check. Somebody dies first-check. And then I run the risk of spoiler alerts if I carry on with the similarities between the endings of the stories. Basically a group of people in each book that are in the settings for whatever reasons, come up against a force wanting to destroy them. Will the hero save the day? The actual descriptions of the suicide forest and the catacombs are very vivid, and it becomes easy to imagine yourself in the settings. I didn't find the horror as bold as many other readers, but the build up to certain suspenseful parts puts you right in the thick of things. I think if I had read only one of the books I would have been satisfied with the plot and characters and not constantly, even though subconsciously, compared them.

All in all a good read which I would recommend, but a slightly unbelievable leaning towards making the plot fit the world's scariest places.

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