An edgy, terrifying, and shocking tale for hardcore horror fans.
A Maryland surgeon’s experimental, potentially revolutionary treatment sparks unexpectedly violent results in this novel.
Dr. Paul Laden quickly notices something peculiar about the new hit-and-run victim in the emergency room. Though the patient is alive, his heartbeat and breathing are so faint they don’t register on the hospital’s machines. Amazingly, Laden also spots a wound seemingly healing itself. Keeping mum about what he’s witnessed, the doctor wheels John Doe to his research lab at the hospital. Once he declares John dead, he can experiment on his sedated patient as much as he pleases. Laden soon determines that John’s blood can kill viruses, and his internal organs may be capable of regeneration. Without divulging specifics, so that the fame and resultant wealth will be his alone, Laden offers to pay for organ transplants for three patients residing in various states. He chooses intellectually disabled Evelyn Stroman; Tyler Carson, who has Down syndrome; and Jason Scott, who suffers from Parkinson’s. Laden is certainly hopeful but can’t quite anticipate the changes that these patients ultimately experience. What happens to them leads to a startling level of violence both within and outside the patients’ lives. Jefferson’s horror story is harsh, frightening, and frequently graphic. While the book initially centers on Laden and his experiments, the latter half shifts to the transplant recipients, primarily Evelyn. The author’s prose throughout is crisp, unflinchingly detailing scenes of rape, mutilation, and spurting blood. The majority of the characters are unsympathetic, particularly Evelyn’s appalling, callous mother, Margaret. As such, some individuals subjected to brutality won’t earn much pity from readers. This nevertheless does not allay the novel’s disconcerting tone, which courses through the entirety of the narrative. Specifics on John and his perplexing condition don’t surface until the end, though much of the plot remains unresolved by the sequel-teasing denouement.
An edgy, terrifying, and shocking tale for hardcore horror fans.Pub Date: May 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4834-8508-9
Page Count: 170
Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Small-town claustrophobia and intimacies alike propel this twist-filled psychological thriller.
The loss of her police officer father and the discovery of an abandoned car in a local lake raise chilling questions regarding a young woman’s family history.
When Hazel Sharp returns to her hometown of Mirror Lake, North Carolina, for her father’s memorial, she and the other townspeople are confronted by a challenging double whammy: As they’re grieving the loss of beloved longtime police officer Detective Perry Holt, a disturbing sight appears in the lake, whose waterline is receding because of an ongoing drought—an old, unidentifiable car, which has likely been lurking there for years. Hazel temporarily leaves her Charlotte-based building-renovation business in the capable hands of her partners and reconnects with her brothers, Caden and Gage; her Uncle Roy; her old fling and neighbor, Nico; and her schoolfriend, Jamie, now a mother and married to Caden. Tiny, relentless suspicions rise to the metaphorical surface along with that waterlogged vehicle: There have been a slew of minor break-ins; two people go missing; and then, a second abandoned car is discovered. The novel digs deeper into Hazel’s family history—her father was a widow when he married Hazel’s mother, who later left the family, absconding with money and jewels—and Miranda, a consummate professional when it comes to exposing the small community tensions that naturally arise when people live in close proximity for generations, exposes revelation after twisty revelation: “Everything mattered disproportionately in a small town. Your success, but also your failure. Everyone knows might as well have been our town motto.”
Small-town claustrophobia and intimacies alike propel this twist-filled psychological thriller.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781668010440
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Marysue Rucci Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
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