Recommend for the coveted BookViral Crimson Quill. To make your recommendation simply click on the award badge below..….
SUMMARY: In the summer of 2003, a middle-aged obituary writer – our unnamed narrator – discovers a walled-up bathroom in the basement of his new house in upstate NY, & launches a quest to piece together the story trapped within those walls since the 1950s, when the boy named German Jr. lived there.
The BookViral Review: Genre – Literary Fiction
Sometimes when you read a novel, it’s so well-imagined that it just takes over and happens to you. It’s rare a gem that delivers on this level but that’s exactly what The Elephants, I does with Ian Blake Newhem once again on top form.
As with Newhem’s Healing Star the story unfolds through multiple perspectives with the pivotal perspectives being those of a middle-aged obituary writer – the unnamed narrator, Connor X. Mayne and Shimba. Cerebral, meticulous and haunting there are long central flashbacks, which are indispensable to the discoveries ahead. Diversions filled with violence, deviancy, intrigue and reflection and on this level there is hardly an emotion that Newhem doesn’t touch upon.
As with Healing Star his feel for detail is terrific. Every one of his characters is an individual and refreshingly his narrative remains clear of trite clichés as he finds the right pace and style for a story about persistence in the face of evil and the vagrancies of chance encounters. Taking us through a bewildering labyrinth of fictional facts and suspicions over disparate timelines. From Maasai Mara in Kenya to Cornwall NY on a journey which is often chilling and always suspenseful.
At a little under 600 pages, it’s a credit to Newhem that momentum is maintained throughout whilst a cracking denouement is perfectly pitched for the story he has told. A superb read and one sure to find favour with discerning readers of literary fiction, The Elephants, I is recommended without reservation.
Most of us have heard stories of these unusual phenomena, as told by millions of people throughout history and across cultures. Or perhaps we have experienced them ourselves, and we are still grappling with their validity in a world of empirical science and psychiatry that deems anything unseen or spiritual as impossible, weird, or even disturbed.
Taut, action-packed and riveting, the harrowing opening chapter from A Night In Babylon sets the tone for this near future-noir thriller from West but it’s not for the faint-hearted!
As fantastical as science fiction seems, there is often something familiar about the incredible concepts dreamt up by its writers. In fact, not only familiar at times but eerily accurate about future advances. Is this some kind of scientific prophesy? Is there something sinister going on?
We said it so often it seems like we are on continuous replay but we make no apology for saying it again. The days when an author could simply write for a living are over.
In our last Mastering SEO For Authors post, we focused on writing great content. We keep these posts short and succinct but by following the points in these posts any author can improve the ranking of their websites.
From the Scarlet Pimpernel to James Bond, our enduring fascination with espionage shows no sign of abating. Undercover detective and spy stories continue to thrill and entertain us.
From humble beginnings in 2002 as a book review club BookViral has grown to become the first choice in book reviews for authors around the world and one of the biggest book review sites on the web. BookViral reaches millions of potential readers through best practice SEO and a trusted social media presence ensuring readers get unbiased, critical recommendations they can trust.
BookViral also offers a full suite of author services, including, book editing services for unpublished and self-published authors, website design and bespoke SEO that help authors get discovered by more potential readers as well as industry influencers, such as publishers, agents and film executives.
© Copyright 2019 BookViral Reviews. All Rights Reserved.