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Thursday, October 21, 2010

The Black Chronicles: Cry of the Fallen

by:  Joel M. Andre 
On a warm summer afternoon, in Northern Arizona, a double homicide stains the ground with blood. Detectives are called out to handle the investigation, each plagued with their own internal demons, and aren't prepared for what they are about to find.


Detective Lauren Bruni, faces a world of darkness and evil, as a demonic force begins to leash an attack on a small town. As the stakes begin to rise, so does the stunning truth, that not even Lauren can imagine.

In a world where her life had started to fall apart, she must pick up the pieces and push forward in an effort to save those that she loves the most.

This is a hard one for me.  I really don't know if I really liked it or really hated this book.  I think it's somewhere in between.  I think my biggest problem was that I didn't like the main character, Lauren Bruni, on a personal level.  Her personality and dialogue grated on my nerves.  It's hard to look past that, but in trying to do so, I thought the book overall was pretty interesting. 

This is a horror novel, there are demons and a goblin (that reminded me an awful lot of Dobby the House-Elf) and a lot of brutal murder.  There's a really freaky Medical Examiner, that makes me wonder about MEs in general and what do they really do with the bodies after dark.  I thought that part of the book was actually pretty funny.  If there's any reason that this book should be made into a movie, the whole scene with the ME and the bodies after dark is THE reason. 

If this book is ever republished or picked up by a different publisher, I would definitely recommend a different format.  I found the double spacing between paragraphs in the first couple of chapters to be disruptive to the reading flow.   However, in that particular problem isn't present throughout the rest of the book so I don't know what was going on with that.

I could see how this book would really appeal to a certain group of people, but I'd suspect a lot of other people would be really turned off by it.  I think you'd have to like the horror/paranormal genre and have a lot of dark humor.

**I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review which I have provided**

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been looking at some of the other reviews on this one too. Generally, it is being reviewed well by those who enjoy the genre. So I agree, there will be a limited audience on this book.
May I ask you a question? I'm concerned with the overall writing on the book.

I've seen a number of people who comment on the content, but only one review has touched on the writing in general. She said it was very visual and it played out like a movie and that it was well written. But one review based on that aspect doesn’t mean a thing.

Your review honestly has me on the fence now and I'd like to know what you thought of his writing from that standpoint. Was it visually well written?

I don’t mind paying for a paperback if the content is well written, I love dark humor.

Thank you,

Alex

Autumn said...

Alex, I will say that I didn't notice anything like spelling errors or glaring grammatical errors. However, I'm guessing this is self published because I couldn't find any publisher information, which isn't to say it's poorly written. I wouldn't say that at all, but just keep that in mind. It's short sentences, short paragraphs, quick easy read type book. I'd agree with whoever said that it was like reading a movie, a creepy little movie. In thinking about this a little more, this author might have his niche there (in movie scripts) more than in novel writing, just because he seemed to have more of a grip on that sort of scene building than in writing books.

If you're wavering on buying the book, if you have a few bucks I say what the hell! Support a new author!

BrendaC said...

Autumn, I am set to review this book later in the week and found it a book that I couldn't put down!I love reading horror and boy this book fit the bill to a tee, I agree about the medical examiner, that scene was creepy in a weird sort of way, and the cowboy boots that made me chuckle just a bit! I think he is an author to watch, and really want to read more of his work, I normally read Clegg, Ketchum, and Bentley Little who is one of my all time faves!