David Haynes (4)

Let me preface this review by saying that I am not one to read ebooks. I LOVE audiobooks, but I would much rather read from a real piece of paper than stare at an electronic screen. However, that was the only way I could gain access to this book, and it turns out I stopped complaining about that after a bit. In fact, for the past two nights, I have been awake staring at my phone screen like a maniac until 1 or 2am because I simply could not stop reading.
Needless to say, I enjoyed reading show more this novel immensely. It was exactly the suspenseful adventure I needed after a long binge of non-fiction, which included Into the Wild, the story of a young man who hitchhikes to Alaska and ends up dying in the wilderness. Knowing the details of this true story intertwined with the fiction well for me and gave it more elements of reality, therefore apprehensiveness, therefore fear. It was the experience I was looking for.
And for those of you who will understand this sentence...it was absolutely whumptastic. 5/5 stars from me! show less

This was terrific. It pulled me in and didn't let go until I finished. Here's the thing, I would never have seen a book about the gold rush and picked it up for myself. That's why these group reads with new (to me) authors are so fantastic, I read things I wouldn't have on my own and usually end up loving them. That was definitely the case with Klondike Slaughter and David Haynes has found himself a new fan.

The character development was absolutely perfect for me. I sometimes get a little show more bored when books spend the entire first half developing the characters and their back stories. But David did a really cool thing here, he sprinkled in bits of back story throughout the action. So I still got to know the characters and their motivations without getting bored or feeling like the main story was interrupted. And man were these some wonderful characters to get to know, Jake, Kate, Willie, Samuel and Kaa were all deer to my heart very quickly. The villains were solid too, but they were assholes.

And the Big Bad in this story?! Wow! Very impressive. So appreciative of Castle Dracula for setting up this fun read! show less

I actually enjoyed the very slow build up and the in depth descriptions of the gold mining process. This slow build up of dread was very well written with decent and realistic dialogue. Good characterization; and how I imagine those that follow the spirit of Jack London are similar in real life. The author must have some experience in this field. Found the actual climax though dragged on, and without spoiling anything, some bits towards the end rather unbelievable and hollywood-ish; esp. in show more regards to how well and realistic the characters physical condition was described previously. Kindle formatting wasn't justified as well which I found strangely annoying. show less

Well written with good characterization, although the proprietor's backstory could be expanded on.
The book though is a complete rip-off of Stephen King's 'Needful things'. Literally. Still worth a read however.