Dan Newman

I found the varying time frames, and the back and forth among three throughout the book a bit confusing, and I also thought it diluted the suspense and tension of the book. The story follows a man from his 13 year old self when he is the son of a diplomat on St. Lucia to this man 20 years later, and then to the present day which is about three years later than the second time frame. As a thirteen year old boy an event happened when he was with his three other friends that has haunted him and show more his family for years. After Nate's father commits suicide twenty-three years later, he realizes that he just go back to St. Lucia to put some old ghosts to rest. When he arrives he finds out that the old crime is still very much front and centre. I think the book fell short in the dark and atmospheric tone that the author is trying to create. Lack of continuity and jerky time changing within the book cause this. show less

In The Clearing by Dan Newman chapters alternate between three different times in Nate Mason's life, the past, recent past and present day. In the past, 1976, he was a twelve year old boy playing with his friends, Tristan, Pip, and Richard, on the island of St. Lucia. The boys went into the jungle to play but only three of them came out alive. The youngest, 10 year old Richard, was left behind, dead. In the recent past we learn of a more contemporary tragedy in Nate's life. The current show more chapters deal with Nate going back to St. Lucia, trying to come to terms with what happened in 1976 and in the recent past.

In 1976 it seemed clear that the monster, the bolum, may have been responsible for many of the bad events. Even in the present there is some kind of black magic/voodoo trailing along Nate's path, out to get him. In fact, even other heartbreaking events in Nate's past may be somehow traced back to that tragic day in 1976. Once Nate steps foot on the island it seems something or someone is systematically trying to harm him.

While Newman is certainly a competent writer technically, The Clearing seemed circuitous in the delivery. There seemed to be too much information in the back story that Newman wanted to share which made the delivery of the story a bit ponderous to get through all the meandering at times. It starts out strong and then lags until almost half way at which point it picks up only to slow down again. I think this might have been solved to some degree if more of the back story was told in those chapters and some of the superfluous details were pared out. In the end the novel felt uneven to me, not really terrifying, and the ending was a bit anticlimactic.

Newman excels at his descriptions of island life and capturing the dialect of the natives in the text. He does manage to set an atmosphere of mystery and intrigue. You will also care about what happens to Nate. Although a comparison to Stand by Me isn't warranted, this is certainly a novel for this time of year.

Recommended

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Angry Robot via Netgalley for review purposes. show less

I bought this when I purchased A Top Gear Christmas – a sort of a Top Gear buying spree you might call it! Sadly, I was not quite as enamoured with this book – here’s why:

1. I’m about 20 years too old for it
This book is definitely targeted towards young boys – while it is funny, the humour is a little more simple and a little less rude. There’s several activities that would amuse a younger version of myself (even though I’m a girl) – a word search, a maze, a Snakes and show more Ladders – like game and a poster of very fast cars.

2. It’s an exceptionally fast read
At only 64 pages, you could read this very quickly.

3. There’s a lot of picture stories that are episodes of the show
When I was young, I enjoyed those photo stories / photo comics that came with English girls’ magazines annuals. However, when they’re a straight rehash of an episode it’s not quite as fun (unless you missed the episode, which can be quite easy to do over here because of the programming or that it started 20 minutes late and the DVD recorder cut out – but I digress).

This is just a very light book that should just be borrowed from your younger cousin or library. Having paid for it, it wasn’t quite as fun for me. However, I have donated it to my local library so everyone can share the fun!

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com show less

A great start, and then it got really slow, but I was willing to stick with it, if it weren't for the language. The setting (St. Lucia) was fabulous, and I really wanted to see how it turned out.

Advance copy received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.