More book reviews for January, 2019

Books 6, 7, and 8 of 2019 includes two awesome novels and, unfortunately, one not quite so.

As previously mentioned, Graham Masterton is one of those authors who sometimes can be a little bit hit and miss. Unfortunately, The Sleepless is an example of the latter.

The Sleepless is one of those rare Masterton books I had not encountered before, so when I saw it in a local honesty library (where you can either exchange books or alternatively simply pick one up for a small donation), I decided bravely to give it a go.

Unfortunately I just couldn’t get on with it.

Following a promotion to the position of senior judge, one man and his family are involved in a helicopter crash en-route to his accepting his appointment. Somehow, by some sort of miracle, the man and his family all manage to survive the crash, but as they approached by a mysterious stranger they soon begin wishing they’d died on impact.

When a former Insurance investigator suffering from PSTD is called back to his previous job to investigate the crash, after being made an offer he simply cannot refuse, he encounters a mystery he becomes determined to solve.

But at what cost?

Unfortunately this book simply wasn’t for me. I found it hard to connect with the characters and despite a very grisly opening scene featuring the rather ironically named ‘Jaws of Life’ - ironic because of the way in which they are here out to use - I really just couldn’t get on with this book. Within only a few chapters, I found myself ‘skimming’ pages and one look at how many pages I had left (for it is not a small book) was enough to convince me not to continue.

Fans of this Blog will know that I don’t like giving up on books but at the same time, I have long  reached that point in my life where I am no longer willing to endure something I’m really not enjoying and  unfortunately I’m afraid this was just one of those books I just couldn’t get on with.

Sorry Graham if you’re reading this...

Thankfully, Elevation by Stephen King was a much quicker and more enjoyable read. More of a novella than a full novel, it returns us to King’s Castle Rock, the home of such works as Cujo , The Dead Zone,  and Needful Things and on the surface is the story of a man apparently losing weight whilst on the outside remaining exactly the same.

But it is also much more than that and in the spirit of stories like The Green Mile, ends up being just as much about tolerance as it is anything else.

I really enjoyed this and thought it a nice little read and a good return to form for King. It also features a sneak peek at Gwendy’s Button Box, and this is another of his that I must pick up at some point..,

Finally, we reach Thomas.S. Flower’s Island of the Flesh eaters.

 A playful homage to the ‘Video nasties’ of the eighties, The book looks and reads almost like a new imagining of the classic Zombie movie, Zombie Flesh-eaters - with one scene early on playing out almost exactly like it does in the movie! 

Despite this though, and despite the book being more than a little predictable if you have seen the afore mentioned movie, Island of the Flesh-eaters is a highly enjoyable read as one young boy and a local reporter search for the boys missing sister on a holiday island resort,  in a plot that could also be accused of borrowing heavily from the console game, Dead Island.

If all this makes the book sound highly derivative, then that’s because it is, but that’s not to say that the book isn’t good, because again, it is - it’s very well written and that is enough to almost make you forgive the author for borrowing so heavily from other source material. 

I found the characters well written and easy to like, and this was a short, sharp read that doesn’t pull many punches.

Would I read something else by this author? That’s a question I often ask myself when reviewing a new book and here, the answer is a solid and resounding, yes. I would love to see what this author can do with more original material, and from this example he is certainly one to watch.

If you’re looking for something to really get your teeth into (pun intended) then this book probably isn’t for you. If however, you’re looking for something short and sweet that you don’t have to think too much about, then this probably IS for you. 

It’s a good, solid read despite its over-reliance on familiar tropes and definitely one of the better Zombie books out there and something I would have no problem reading again.

A great little tribute to the eighties, 4 stars out of 5 - losing a star  simply because  I felt like it played out a little too closely to Fulci’s classic zombie movie for my liking despite being very well done.