Book Review | When We Were Animals by Joshua Gaylord

When We Were Animals is Joshua Gaylord's latest novel.

A small, quiet Midwestern town, which is unremarkable save for one fact: when the teenagers reach a certain age, they run wild.

When Lumen Fowler looks back on her childhood, she wouldn't have guessed she would become a kind suburban wife, a devoted mother. In fact, she never thought she would escape her small and peculiar hometown. When We Were Animals is Lumen's confessional: as a well-behaved and over-achieving teenager, she fell beneath the sway of her community's darkest, strangest secret. For one year, beginning at puberty, every resident "breaches" during the full moon. On these nights, adolescents run wild, destroying everything in their path.

Lumen resists. Promising her father she will never breach, she investigates the mystery of her community's traditions and the stories erased from the town record. But the more we learn about the town's past, the more we realize that Lumen's memories are harboring secrets of their own.
A gothic coming-of-age tale for modern times, When We Were Animals is a dark, provocative journey into the American heartland.

When We Were Animals is getting a lot of high praise, and it’s all true. Every bit of it.

And then there was me.

The writing in When We Were Animals is fantastic. I must read all the things by Joshua Gaylord. I’m happy to hear Alden Bell is a pseudonym for Joshua Gaylord because I have a copy of The Reapers are the Angels and I will be tearing into that soon.

I was hooked by When We Were Animals right away. Lumen grew up in a very strange town, and I loved the alternating timelines between her childhood and the present day. Somewhere in the middle, though, the book got stuck for me. There was no shift in time, no forward movement of the story, so much so that I almost didn’t finish reading it. I imagine readers with strong skills in literary analysis will have a field day with all of the allegory present in Lumen’s teenager years, but I’m not that reader.

I am glad I persevered and didn’t miss out on the ending of When We Were Animals. This is a special book that I won’t easily forget.

Like I said, this book is getting high praise and it is well deserved. For me, I just can’t get past the fact that I wanted to put it down.

6/10: Good Read

Review copy provided by publisher

Book Review: Black Light by Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan, Stephen Romano

Black Light is the first novel written by the guys who wrote the later (IV, V, VI, 3D) Saw movies - Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan, and Stephen Romano.

Book Description

If you have a supernatural problem that won't go away, you need Buck Carlsbad: private eye, exorcist, and last resort.

Buck's got a way with spirits that no one else can match. He was normal, once. Until Something Horrible killed his parents and left him for dead.

Buck has spent years using his gift to trace his family. It's his only hope of finding out what happened to them-and what made him the way he is.

Now the voices say that something big is coming. Buck already knows what it is-a super high-tech bullet train running express across a stretch of unforgiving desert known for the most deadly paranormal events in history. A place where Buck almost died a few years ago, and where he swore he would never return.

But as the train prepares to rumble down the tracks, Buck knows it can only be the inevitable hand of fate pulling him back to the most harrowing unfinished case of his career at four hundred miles per hour.

Black Light is a ghost story unlike any other haunted tale I have read. Buck earns his living as a ghost whisperer of sorts. Instead of gently leading them into the light, however, Buck pretty much chews them up and spits them out.

When Buck gets an offer to eliminate spirits on a hyperspeed train, he knows somethings not right, but he can't pass up the chance to get more answers about his past from the Black Light.

Like the hyperspeed train itself, Black Light is an intense experience with non-stop action. I enjoyed reading this supernatural thriller and really appreciate its originality.

6/10: Good read

Additional Topics of Interest:
Other ghost books reviewed at Book Den

Review copy provided by publisher

Book Review: Guilt by Association by Marcia Clark

Guilt by Association is the debut book of both Marcia Clark (of O.J. Simpson fame) and Mulholland Books (a new imprint of Little, Brown).

Book Description

Los Angeles D.A. Rachel Knight is a tenacious, wise-cracking, and fiercely intelligent prosecutor in the city's most elite division. When her colleague, Jake, is found dead at a grisly crime scene, Rachel is shaken to the core. She must take over his toughest case: the assault of a young woman from a prominent family.

But she can't stop herself from digging deeper into Jake's death, a decision that exposes a world of power and violence and will have her risking her reputation--and her life--to find the truth.

With her tremendous expertise in the nuances of L.A. courts and crime, and with a vibrant ensemble cast of characters, Marcia Clark combines intimate detail, riotous humor, and visceral action in a debut thriller that marks the launch of a major new figure on the crime-writing scene.

When I first heard about Guilt by Association, I knew right away I wanted to read it.  Experts claim you should "write what you know", and there is an automatic expectation when someone like Marcia Clark (whose career was in spotlight) writes a book.  I'm happy to report Guilt by Association surpassed my expectations. 

Clark's insight into criminal behavior and law enforcement made Guilt by Association very authentic.  The characters were likeable - the kind you would want to go out and have a few drinks with at the end of the day.  The story was complex and complete.  If you are a fan of mysteries, crime fiction, or legal thrillers, Guilt by Association will not disappoint you.

Review copy provided by publisher