Ash - A Thriller (Asher Benson Book1)

Ash is a thriller with a touch of the paranormal and is suitable for mature young adults and up.

Ash Benson is a war hero. After suffering a brain injury from an exploded IED, his brain has changed in unexpected ways. Ash developed the power of telepathy. But hearing people's thoughts day in and day out is making him lose his mind. Alcohol helps, but not entirely. When he thwarts a bank robbery using his powers, a special branch of feds are after him to help them with a telepathy problem of their own. It seems a rogue agent is having too much fun controlling others with his powers and generally spreading chaos with violence. Can Ash use his own ability to counter this foe without being arrested for being the bad man himself?

While the story itself was interesting I battled to relate to the characters. If Ash was as snarky before the accident he would have definitely had problems in the military - the whole thing seemed forced. Sammy is basically a character with big boobs. She meets Ash in the bank robbery and all of a sudden is willing to give up her life to be with him. Her "assets" are mentioned frequently in the book. Throwing in an arch villain who should have been on the side of good able to force people to do things with his mind was a good plot line. Very reminiscent of Heroes. Nami would have been a great interjection of a character but her only qualities that were emphasised was that she was short and swore a lot.

An average read for me - an entertaining afternoon's fun but not interesting enough to want to carry on with the series. 

Brailing for Wile by Jason Zerndt

This is a fiction story aimed at young adults and up. Between the time the book was offered for review and the review going up the name has subsequently changed to The Roadrunner Cafe and the main character's name has changed.

Secrets are what caused this. Too many secrets have ruined too many lives. Like the fact that Mattius's father Wile was having an affair and after he was found out he hung himself. Four trees that used to symbolise the family sit outside of their cafe and Mattius's mom is sick of seeing them. She decides to have the one that symbolised Wile taken away, which causes the townsfolk issues - whether about the landscaper (Norwood) taking it away or even where it gets put. Norwood is currently dealing with his girlfriend who is desperate for a baby and Easy (Norwood's apprentice) still suffers from the loss of his father. Helyana (Mattius's friend) has lost both of her parents and been brought up by her exceptionally religious grandfather. All of their stories are just waiting to collide as death finds life and life finds death.

An interesting take on a story that is not that far removed from real life. It deals with the floundering that so many people feel when a loved one leaves them (by their own hand) and how to deal with the aftermath. Not just within themselves but also with friends and family. The only negative that really stood out to me was that it read like a book one would have to study at school when dealing with signs and hidden meanings in action - like a film study class trying to decide why a director used a specific shot. Otherwise a good read dealing with some difficult topics.

Stephen King and Philosophy: Various Authors. Edited by Jacob Held

Having been a Stephen King fan for many years I figured that this would be an interesting philosophical discussion of his more disturbing (or not) works. Having previously studied branches of philosophy for academic work , I thought I was partly equipped for what was to come, but I was oh so wrong. Jumping straight into Desperation after the forward set the tone of the dialogue, since the dark and good themes in the book weigh quite heavily on the mind. Moving into Carrie and Pet Semetary, the discussion moved past casual reading for me. It was like being back at varsity and I put the book away a number of times. So much repetition and rewording of the same ideas just gave me a headache. Once we hit the topics of bonds of friendship in The Body and Rita Hayworth I started feeling like it was a book I could read comfortably again, and the writing flowed a lot better for me. More interesting ideas were now explored from the teacher/pupil dynamic in Apt Pupil, to the possibility of time travel in The Langoliers and 11/22/63 and the application of power and violence in The Running Man and The Long Walk. Of course The Shining and The Dark Tower cropped up time after time with a look at many different aspects of the books.

This is not a light read by any means and I wonder sometimes if we can't just read a book for the sake of reading it. Do we need to dissect the author's intentions or just accept it for the narrative it is meant to be? I thought that too many of King's books were overlooked with some of the same books repeated in a number of different chapters. In some places the write ups about the authors were far more entertaining than the philosophy. An interesting take but not my cup of tea - I think I'll stick to "Stephen King for Dummies". 

The Unwanted (Black Water Tales Book2) by Jean Nicole Rivers

This is a horror novel suitable for mature young adults and up.

Blaire and Travis are two young Americans on a care aid program to Borslav and will be looking after orphans at St Sebastian's. On arrival they realise that their year abroad will be no picnic - Borslav is a cold and desolate place and the locals don't seem to want them there. When they finally reach the orphanage they are shocked by the condition of the children. Malnourished, lacking education and some children with physical defects is just the start; fresh injuries spring up each day and the children are scared to death. The two set to work in their roles as teacher and nurse, but as the days go by more and more strange things start to happen. Humming and scraping is heard at night and the constant whispering of threats from the basement threaten to implode their sanity. As they dig deeper to find the origin of the supposed curse on the orphanage, they are met with info so shocking that their lives are in danger. Can they save themselves from the cycle being repeated?

This had the promise of a really good horror but I was disappointed by its predictability. I was hoping to be surprised by the ending but it turned out exactly as I thought it would. The editing had me grimacing - from spelling errors in simple words, to spelling towns in different ways in the same chapter, to using verbose outdated adjectives and even having different POVs in the same paragraph with no breaks. To me the bullying, her parents' deaths and the self harm didn't tie in with the whole story enough. It was like being fed a clue and then not following through on it. It was a good effort but the story could not pull off the proper horror aspect.

All These Perfect Strangers by Aoife Clifford

This is a psychological thriller aimed at adults and is the debut novel for the author.

Penelope Sheppard, who is on a scholarship, is off to University - on the back of reinventing herself after a tragic accident that occurred when she was 15 which left her best friend Tracey in jail. She is back in the psychologist's chair for a formal report and is advised to keep her thoughts and deeds in a diary. We soon realise Pen is more of an anti-hero as she shares only the info which makes her look good. Cut to Uni and she has met a plethora of characters: Michael, the loner; Joad, the bully; Rogan, her crush; Toby, the RA and Rachael, a 2nd-year interfering busybody. A murder occurs near the campus prompting the females to call for more stringent security measures as the "Screwdriver Man" finds more victims. Add to the mix her mom's money grabbing boyfriend and a headmaster who seems to have a secret agenda, Pen is sure to "cook the book" a little. Time will tell if the past and future collide and truths make themselves known.

I'm rather ambivalent about this one. I liked the way the author fed you titbits about many aspects of the story and led you in a completely different direction only to catch up with the previous storyline later. The story with Tracey is constantly alluded to and each time you think you know what happened you find out you were wrong. Pen is extremely flawed and you never know if you should be rooting for her or not - she manipulates for her own gain and you can feel as others get sucked into the web only to find out that it was not her web in the first place. The ending was a bit predictable and yet when it happened I felt it needed a bit more substance. There was so much info into leading characters to the ending and then *poof* it was over. Still, an impressive debut and interesting read.  

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

INK: Fine Lines (Book1) by Bella Roccaforte

This is a supernatural thriller and due to the language, intimate scenes and violence is suitable for adults. Unless of course you happen to be an extremely mature young adult.

Shay is a comic book artist and has had a rough time of it recently. Her ex-fiancee Aiden keeps popping back into her life and then disappearing again, and the person who keeps putting her back together is her on-again/off-again lover Eli. She could just ditch Aiden and love Eli, but his drinking habits are tearing them apart. On the night of her birthday Shay has a dream involving a character in her comic - the Sanguine Specter. He targets people Shay doesn't get on with and kills them in over the top ways while declaring his love for her. Shay uses these nightmare images to make her comics come alive. When her neighbours are killed the police come round to question Shay and discover the comic graphics - identical to the murder that has just happened. Shay now becomes the main suspect in the police investigation as connections start being made with her images and previous murders. Enter McNab, a paranormal investigator, who is determined to find the supernatural being targeting Shay. Will Aiden and Eli be able to work together long enough to help Shay stay out of the clutches of the being, let alone the police?  

This is a really intriguing idea for a story and only half way through did I realise that I missed a previous book, as a lot of questions about characters arose. I liked the way that the story's chapters are told from different character's viewpoints so that you understand different perspectives. I felt the characters weren't quite developed enough, but with a number of follow up books to this I'm sure that a lot more will be explained and that the cliff-hanger will have the ending readers are hoping for. Some editing and spelling mistakes were off putting but on the whole, a good job.

I know who I'm voting for to get the girl, but I guess I'll have to get my hands on the next book to find out! 

The History Major: A Novella by Michael Phillips Cash

This is a novella and an exploration into the mind's psyche.

Amanda wakes up with a hectic hangover. Where's her boyfriend Patrick when she needs him? The memories start flooding back of the fight they had because she wanted to spend their date time with her friends. Guess he won't be there to pick her up then. As she rejoins the land of the living with a splitting headache, she knows she needs to get to class. But who is this new person that claims to be her roommate? Why is she enrolled in History when she knows she never registered for the class? Who is Nick, why is he protecting her from the being trying to get into the classroom and for heaven's sake - why is the teacher dressed like Aristotle? Can someone please stop the chain of thought creating laws of association mantras that keep getting thrown at her?

The book was both hit and miss for me. I fully understand where the author was coming from and what he was trying to portray, but in trying to create the laws of association some serious stretches of relationships were made here. Being a novella, not a lot of time could be spent in fleshing out characters or creating links in Amanda's chain which left an incomplete feeling. I think that the author had a clear idea of how the titbits of info would tie together but as a reader I was confused with the jumping back and forth between situations and alluding to incidents about to happen that don't get explained. Amanda was a piece of work - I could quite happily have thrown something very heavy at her. Good editing was a relief during the read.

An interesting piece of work but not strong enough as a solid story for me.