Charlton Pettus

WARNING: Contains gratuitous animal cruelty

If you have cats or like cats, maybe give this one a miss. In it, a cat dies in the most horrific way imaginable, which is described in epic, gruesome detail. What makes it worse it that its death serves NO PURPOSE WHATSOEVER, not even the all-too-frequent "the bad guys here are really bad guys" signalling of the lazy writer, as at that point, we are already quite aware of how bad the bad guys are. (There's also some cruelty done to a rat but at least it serves a plot purpose and things end well for the rat.)… (more)

I'm at a loss. This book's description offered everything I'm drawn to in a story. The story itself, though... The kindest thing I can say is that I didn't like it.

This book consists of extremely short sections, alternating a variety of narrating characters. We jump from one thing to another and then to something else. Adding to the confusion, we also have flashback chapters. The result is a choppy mess. At times I'd read a section and wonder if any of that was actually necessary information, or if it was necessary to add that narrating character into the mix. Other times, sections were so short that I couldn't even grasp the point of it. The scenes I found compelling ended before they went anywhere. Many of the scenes are no more than a few short paragraphs.

Then we have the characters, who are mostly stereotypes behaving in expected ways. This novel is very clearly written from a man's perspective, as far as women's behavior, at least.

I got about halfway through this book. The disjointed storyline was giving me a headache. I was irritated. The short scenes made me want to scream. I stopped reading and tossed this one in my 'give to charity' pile, mainly because I can't bring myself to throw away a book.

*The publisher provided me with a copy of this book, via Amazon Vine, in exchange for my honest review.*… (more)

I received this ARC as part of a Goodreads giveaway in return of an honest review. Thank you very much to Hanover Square Press and author Charleston Pettus for sending me this book.

Jordan Parrish, brilliant scientist, finds himself in a precarious situation and sees no other way but to dial the number that will change his life completely. Literally. Before he knows what’s happening he is kidnapped, held hostage for a few months, and given a new identity in Japan. Meanwhile his family is convinced he lost his life in a car accident and tries their best to move on. But what was Jordan running from and will starting a new life be enough to live in peace? More importantly, does he even want to?

Charly in Pettus’ debut thriller is a very complex book with many short chapters that dive into the lives of a variety of characters. And that’s where the main issue lies in my opinion: the jumps between characters is way too frequent and no character really gets the chance of introducing him or herself fully. As a result, the reader still is not really sure what the main story is actually about and how all the story arcs come together and add to the overall premise. Moreover, the story is unfortunately a little dry and I had a very hard time picking the book up and keep on reading. Even after over 100 pages I was not really immersed in the story and I decided to DNF it. I do think, however, that Pettus’ thriller has a lot of potential, if the chapters are edited better (ie longer chapters with focus on one character at a time) and the story progresses faster. Not really my type of book. 2 stars.… (more)