Review: A Thousand Eyes by Junior Burke

Title:  A Thousand Eyes

Author:  Junior Burke 
Publisher: Cosmic Egg Books

Publishing Date:  May 25th, 2018

Pages: 240
Genre: Adult Horror

Series:  Stand Alone
Source:  ARC 

 

Todd Wendt, employed by a multinational corporation, is recovering from the tragic death of his wife and is at a loss as to what direction his life could possibly take. When he is sent to a small mountain town in Colorado he becomes aware of a series of vicious animal attacks on the local population, Over time, Todd realizes the attacks are not random but targeted at the company that brought him there, as well a himself. His decision to confront this situation ultimately transforms, not only Todd, but the entire community.

I came across this ARC and thought well that cover is cool, oh and the story sounds very interesting. Kind of horror and sci-fi mix. I am all over this book. I was more than happy to read this book. I am torn with this book. I just didn't care it. I feel there were some issues and I feel it could have been executed so much better. I can say for sure it was horrific though. 

There is a small town with crazy animal attacks. I mean crazy out of the ordinary animal attacks. People are dying. No one knows why the animals are going crazy. It is all mass confusion until one man and one detective figures out it's all people who had something to do with a pretty rotten company doing bad things to the environment.

I like the sound of this book, I just couldn't get into the story. There are a few reasons why. This will be short and maybe not so sweet. So I will just list my issues out. 

Too many characters to keep up with. I was confused for a majority of the book whenever the point of view changed. I have a hard time with multiple pov's when it's in the third person. I think there should have been maybe some kind of indication when a new pov started. Not just the pov confusion bothered me about the characters though. Ther was just also way too many characters to keep up with. I was also confused on who was who and I just couldn't connect to any of them. I really didn't care who died and who lived. 

The storyline. I liked the idea but really it felt too much like the book series Zoo. Too many things were the same for me to really get into this book. I felt it was just a do-over. I also felt it was too rushed. Things just didn't fit into place for me and didn't flow or feel natural to me. 

I finished the book. I wanted to see where the story would take me and I kept waiting for something big to happen. Then the end happened and I was like really that's it. It was very anti-climatic. 

The only thing I really liked it that the bad guys got what was coming to them. 

Just couldn't enjoy it. 

Junior Burke is a novelist, dramatist and songwriter. In 2004, he founded the ezine not enough night www.notenoughnight.org which for a decade published work by some of the most compelling writers of today. His novel Something Gorgeous appeared in 2005. This work of speculative fiction explored the historical background of the era that spawned The Great Gatsby and was lauded for its invention by the UK's Historical Novels Review.

From 2005 to 2010, Burke served as Chair of Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics and was a literary source for such publications as Le Monde and The London Observer when they presented features on the 50th anniversary of Kerouac’s On the Road. Burke was one of the chief organizers of the first-of-its-kind Poetic Film Symposium held in Boulder in June, 2011, a collaboration between Naropa University and the University of Colorado. His account of the event, "Notice What You Notice" appeared in Bomb Magazine.

In 2013, he co-authored One October Midnight, a musical theatre work, contributing book and lyrics. The musical, based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe, received its world premier at the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival in Hamilton, New York. This year, he will release Spot of Time, a song cycle inspired by classic works by such writers as W.B. Yeats, Arthur Rimbaud and Gertrude Stein.

Review: Insanity by Susan Vaught

Title: Insanity

Author: Susan Vaught

Publisher:  Bloomsbury USA Children

Publishing Date: February 18th 2014

Pages: 384 

Genre: YA Horror

Series: Stand alone

Source: ARC

  

Never, Kentucky is not your average scenic small town. It is a crossways, a place where the dead and the living can find no peace. Not that Forest, an 18-year-old foster kid who works the graveyard shift at Lincoln Hospital, knew this when she applied for the job. Lincoln is a huge state mental institution, a good place for Forest to make some money to pay for college. But along with hundreds of very unstable patients, it also has underground tunnels, bell towers that ring unexpectedly, and a closet that holds more than just donated clothing....When the dead husband of one of Forest's patients makes an appearance late one night, seemingly accompanied by an agent of the Devil, Forest loses all sense of reality and all sense of time. Terrified, she knows she has a part to play, and when she does so, she finds a heritage that she never expected.
With her deep knowledge of mental illness and mental institutions, Susan Vaught brings readers a fascinating and completely creepy new book intertwining the stories of three young people who find themselves haunted beyond imagining in the depths of Lincoln Hospital.

This is a book about ghosts, haunts, shades, and many other spirit types. It is told in several different point of views.

What made me pick this book up?
The cover really, I love spooky/scary books, and they aren't always easy to find in YA. So I thought this was going to be a great one to read. 

What do I like about the cover?
The spookiness. It almost gives me shivers to look at, I love the editing of it and the fact it actually looks like she's a ghost.

What made me read it?
Ghosts. Like I said, I love scary books. And this one really looked like it was going to be a really scary one. 

What did I like the most?
The cover. That's about it, honestly. 

The least?
It was incredibly hard to follow. It was confusing and quite boring in places, and it jumped around way too much. I think it could have been great, definitely has lots of potential, but it just wasn't what I was hoping it would be. 

Would you read the rest of the series/Other books by this author?

Based off of this book, no. But I have been looking at some reviews on other books, some of them have great reviews. So maybe I would. 

I honestly really did not like this book. I only finished it because I wanted to know how it ended. I wish I hadn't. 

Website: http://susanvaught.com

astrology sign: Libra

favorite book: Harry Potter (all of them) and His Dark Materials
(all of those, too)

favorite song:I Will Follow You Into The Dark by Death Cab for Cutie

current pet total:12 if you don't count the chickens, peafowl,
turkeys, ducks, geese, pigeons, or guineas.

Review: Such Sweet Sorrow by Jenny Trout

Title: Such Sweet Sorrow 

Author: Jenny Trout

Publisher:  Entangled Teen 
Publishing Date:  February 4th 2014

Pages: 304
Genre:  YA Retelling/Mythology Adventure

Series: Stand Alone or Unknown Series
Source: Paperback

  

Never was there a tale of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo…But true love never dies. Though they’re parted by the veil between the world of mortals and the land of the dead, Romeo believes he can restore Juliet to life, but he’ll have to travel to the underworld with a thoroughly infuriating guide.

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, may not have inherited his father’s crown, but the murdered king left his son a much more important responsibility—a portal to the Afterjord, where the souls of the dead reside. When the determined Romeo asks for help traversing the treacherous Afterjord, Hamlet sees an opportunity for adventure, and the chance to avenge his father’s death.

In an underworld filled with leviathan monsters, ghoulish shades, fire giants and fierce Valkyrie warriors, Hamlet and Romeo must battle their way through jealousy, despair, and their darkest fears to rescue the fair damsel. Yet finding Juliet is only the beginning, and the Afterjord doesn’t surrender souls without a price…

I was very excited to read this book. I haven't spent much time or seen many Shakespeare retellings so I thought this one would be a great one to check out. I was grabbed by the cover and by the title. Unfortunately the story and the characters did not grab me. I found it very difficult to connect to the characters or get caught up in the story. It had a great concept but I feel it wasn't carried out well. It was quite a boring read for me.


Romeo lost his Juliet and now he is on a mission to find her in the Afterjord and bring her back. Hamlet is out for revenge for her father's murder, he has been instructed he needs to find the gateway to the Afterjord. They team up together to work out their missions. Along they way they find Juliet and they are a fearsome threesome through the Afterjord fighting, surviving, and discovering.

I want to say that I loved the idea of the book. It sounded so intriguing. I though it would be really really good. I wish I could say I thought it was but I just didn't like the book. I had some major issues with the book that kept me from wanting to really finish it but I also wanted to know the ending, so I kept on reading. It didn't do me any good. The story does not have an ending. So I added that to my list of problems. 

So first... I didn't care for the characters, of course I didn't dislike them either. I felt non committal to any of the characters in the book. They all had their moments that made me giggle or made me feel they were honorable or good... but they were far and few between. I just didn't connect with them. '

Juliet had my attention the most but I can't say much other than she was fearless, loyal, and she had some pretty great ideas while in battle. Romeo had a few good qualities, but mainly he was just whiny and selfish. Hamlet was at least humorous. For the most part. He had the best one liners and I think, given a bit more time with him, I could have really liked him. There just wasn't enough character building or personal interaction to really get to know the characters.

The pacing was a bit off for me too. The beginning was very slow and even once the action began, it was non stop battling for their lives. I know that sounds like it would be great, but it wasn't. I felt there was too much fighting and too much detail in the fighting to be enjoyable as a book. As a movie it would probably rock. It just wasn't exciting for me at all. 

The writing was also confusing to me at times. They povs would switch between Hamlet, Juliet, and Romeo and was written in 3rd person. This would normally be fine, but the characters did not have a distinguishable enough voice for me to differentiate  between them. It took me a while to figure out who I was following at the moment. 

That brings us to the ending. It finally started to catch my attention... in the last 50 pages of the book, then the book ends with no real resolution. The ending felt as if it will be a series, but I am not positive of this. Either way I am not happy. The ending left me needing resolution... so if its not a series.. no resolution. If it is a series... I have to read more or no resolution. Either way no resolution. 

I feel awful for not liking this book. It happens rarely and I really wanted to enjoy this book. I just didn't care for it at all. I do think it will appeal to those readers who love a non stop action adventure book. The positive of this book, the action scenes were written well enough to picture it all in my head... like a movie. I just prefer more character development and interaction. More story. And an actual ending. 

This was a boring and detached read for me. 

Jenny Trout is a writer, blogger, and funny person.
Writing as Jennifer Armintrout, she made the USA Today Bestseller list with Blood Ties Book One: The Turning. Her novel American Vampire was named one of the top ten horror novels of 2011 by Booklist Magazine Online.
Jenny also writes award-winning erotic romance as Abigail Barnette.
When she’s not writing, she’s sleeping or otherwise incapacitated.
She is a proud Michigander, mother of two, and wife to the only person alive capable of spending extended periods of time with her without wanting to murder her.