Welcome to Bob's Book Reviews for
Horror/Thriller Novels,
your online source for information on everything imaginative.
Pine Shallow: The Serpent Prophecies - Darrin Wilson
Matthew Blackwood's life has been turned upside down as
strange things begin to happen in his sleepy little town of Pine
Shallow. Starting with his house being eaten by a strange insect
infestation and paranormal events following him wherever he goes things
are quickly turning from bad to worse. His son Eric is stuck in
much the same predicament. When Matt calls upon a psychic who
helped his aunt years previous he finally begins to understand the
depth of the trouble he's in though he can barely begin to grasp
exactly what it is that is plaguing the town. It all comes down
to one thing, the Serpent Prophecies and its grip upon his life.
Pine Shallow is the first novel from Darrin Wilson, a new
Canadian talent. The main cast of characters have a fair bit of
depth and a goodly amount of backstory to make them more real. At
the same time though they are somewhat faceless with lacking or vague
easily forgotten descriptions. The settings as well have scant
descriptions. It is the price of keeping the story flowing
quickly making for something of a whirlwind. Once rolling it is
quite a page turner. There are some nice horrific flourishes, a
couple of really nice cinematic scenes, and an overall good atmosphere.
There are some first time mistakes. For the most part the
story has no voice, taking on something of the unadorned documentary
style that some horror movies have. Then there are spots where
this quality is broken. Occasionally the carpentry of the
writing is visible with sudden telling not showing spots and
telegraphed moves or spots where the narrative jumps the gun.
Initially the supernatural elements were a bit ham-fisted and it
remains heavy handed later on. There are some cliches which are
a bit distracting but in contrast there are some interesting homage
type moments.
The book itself also has a few problems. Initially the
punctuation and grammar is stiff and strict but then later on it is
comparatively loose in spots. There are obvious printing problems
such as missing paragraph indentation. One of the last pages
carries a disclaimer that claims any errors within the text are the
fault of the author and would seem to indicate the lack of a professional
editor. It would certainly explain things, including the
occasional gaffe in terminology. As it stands, these printing
problems aside, Pine Shadow is a good first effort from a new author
who should definitely be kept track of in the future.
(
Thank you for reading my review.
Bob Male)
All ideas, opinions, and information are from the reviewer
and are not representative of any company or group involved with the creators
and/or staff of the materials being reviewed.