Mark Tullius

I don’t recall reading anything else quite like this before. It drew me in, more so than I expected after reading the synopsis. It’s an intriguing coming of age story; dark and sometimes sad.

Born into a life he didn’t deserve, Joshua is abused and deprived of any love or affection. He’s strictly a pawn to his family as the focal point of their twisted religious cult. The father constantly torments Joshua, placing the blame for all that’s bad in the world on his young shoulders, and show more causing turmoil through Joshua’s life. I see Joshua as a sweet and gullible boy, just trying to find his way and where he fits in. He makes bad decisions, but really just wants to do what is right.

Several characters come and go within the book, perhaps showing Joshua’s innocence and need for acceptance throughout his life. He seems continually wanting of just one true and stable relationship, something or someone to believe in, but continuously puts faith in the wrong people.

This is a thought provoking story touching on several sensitive topics with which people may be uncomfortable (abuse, violence and sexuality), but ultimately made me stop and think at each turn and left me wanting to know more when it ended. Very well written.

I've received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for a review. show less

I read the original Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid, and this was a fun older version. Amazon says they are geared for ages 12-18, so it's still fairly low stakes horror. It was written well with a campy sort of Sci-Fi horror. If you don't want to do the interactive version, you can read the survivor version at the end. The first couple of choices seemed like common sense if you wanted to live, but they get harder as you go along. Did I make it through flawlessly? No, but what's the show more fun in that? I plan on reading more of these as fun little fillers in between my longer novels. show less

I have always been a fan of the "Choose Your Own Adventure" series, in fact I recently found myself wandering my local library trying to figure if they had any to read. With this in mind I was very excited to pick up this book, and it did not disappoint.

Although not my perfect preference in reading style - I'm generally not a fan of horror - I do appreciate sci-fi and suspense. The authors did a nice job of keeping you guessing. There are plenty of twists and turns and enough dilemmas to show more challenge your moral and emotional sensibilities.

A good quick read with a touch of fun and a pull at the heart strings. show less

Brightside is a fascinating concept – a group of telepaths forced to live where there’s no way out because the rest of the populace are terrified of them. They’re terrorists and thought thieves. But how do you, as a telepath, survive mentally when you know every thought someone has about you?

The main character, Joe, isn’t very likeable, but that’s ok. The feeling I get is that he’s *supposed* to be a prick, someone who is more concerned with himself than how others may feel. He show more sort of deliberately dives into other telepaths minds, finds their embarrassing past, and then makes sure the other telepath knows that *he* knows what kind of disgusting things they’ve done. Joe does have a few redeeming moments, just enough so that you don’t hate him completely, but start to pity him for being such a prick.

The one thing that had me puzzled was how did Joe live without learning how to block out other people’s thoughts? Just from a self-preservation aspect, I would think that doing so would be automatic for a telepath. Of course, if he (and the others) did so, there wouldn’t have been a book….

The interweaving of past and present can get confusing at times, but it became a necessary aspect of telling the tale. Without knowing Joe’s history, the reader wouldn’t see the how’s and why’s of his behavior in the present.

Overall, it’s a complex read. It’s not a book where you can take it to the beach and read a chapter in between beers. Rather it’s a book that forces the reader to think – not just about the concept of whether or not it’s morally and ethically ok to virtually imprison a group of people for something they have no control over, but also about how a telepath must feel, when they know literally every thought someone has, good or bad. Non-telepaths may call them "thought thieves" for invading their privacy, but remember, telepaths have no privacy either when every thought is forced on them.

I'd recommend for hard-core scifi and dystopia fans. Fantasy fans, not so much. Those who like happy endings with puppies and rainbows, not at all. show less