Ghostwriter, Reviewed
June 8, 2009
This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
FaithWords (May 28, 2009)
by
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
It was during third grade after a teacher encouraged him in his writing and as he read through The Narnia Chronicles by C.S. Lewis that Travis decided he wanted to be a writer. The dream never left him, and allowed him to fulfill that dream of writing fulltime in 2007.
Travis Thrasher is the author of numerous works of fiction, including his most personal and perhaps his deepest work, Sky Blue, that was published in summer of 2007. This year he has to novels published, Out of the Devil’s Mouth, and a supernatural thriller, Isolation.
Travis is married to Sharon and they are the proud parents of Kylie, born in November, 2006, and Hailey, a Shih-Tzu that looks like an Ewok. They live in suburban Chicago.
Stop by and visit Travis at his Blog where you can sign up to follow him on Facebook and Twitter!
Also check out the radio interview with Travis on Monday June 8th at BlogTalkRadio/FaithWords
ABOUT THE BOOK
For years Dennis Shore has thrilled readers with his spooky bestselling novels. Now a widower, Dennis is finally alone in his house, his daughter attending college out of state. When he’s stricken by a paralyzing case of writer’s block and a looming deadline, Dennis becomes desperate. Against better judgment, he claims someone else’s writing as his own, accepting undeserved accolades for the stolen work. He thinks he’s gotten away with it . . . until he’s greeted by a young man named Cillian Reed–the true author of the stolen manuscript.
What begins as a minor case of harassment quickly spirals out of control. As Cillian’s threats escalate, Dennis finds himself on the brink of losing his career, his sanity, and even his life. The horror he’s spent years writing about has arrived on his doorstep, and Dennis has nowhere to run.
If you would like to read the first chapter of Ghostwriter, go HERE
Sally Says: I just finished Ghostwriter a week ago, and it was an interesting read.
I picked it up thinking it was suspense. I’ve read a number of Thrasher’s books, and my favorites of his, Blinded and Admission, were more suspense stories than anything else.
But it didn’t take long before I realized Ghostwriter went beyond suspense — into horror. I’m not a fan of horror. I hate scary movies and gore and stuff like that, and I’d heard about the Christian horror genre and wondered how that could be. Now I get it.
Despite falling into the category of horror, this was a Christian novel. Our hero Dennis struggles with the idea of God. He struggles with why his wonderful wife died far too young. There were other issues in the book that I would have loved to seen explored more, like what happened with Dennis’s deceased wife who was a believer. We know that she had a crisis of faith after the death of her unborn child. And that intrigued me. It didn’t sound like she necessarily recovered from that, and I wanted to know more.
As for the story overall, it’s very well-written and gripping. Thrasher is a talented writer. The one thing, other than the violence I don’t like, that bothered me throughout the book was that there were a number of times where the hero received or read something and reacted to it and we readers were never let in on exactly what it was he saw or read. That made those scenes fall a bit flat since we readers didn’t know what to react to and therefore couldn’t react or sympathize with our heroine. Some of the time it was a movie reference that was wasted on me since I hadn’t seen the movie, but that could go back to me not being the right audience .
But as for you, if you like Stephen King, Ted Dekker, Frank Peretti — any writer along those lines — I’m pretty sure you’ll find Ghostwriter an enjoyable read.
Comments
3 Responses to “Ghostwriter, Reviewed”
Hmm, I wonder if I would like this. It sounds extremely intriguing. I don’t mind if something strays over into horror as long as it doesn’t go too far–and I suppose that’s a personal judgment call. I loved Stephen King for a long time and then his stuff started to get too disturbing for me, with images I wish I’d never gotten stuck in my head. I’ve read one Ted Dekker and it was fine.
Probably depends on your level of horror “consumption”, Robin. Read a few of the reviews and then make your decision. Sally’s review is very honest about her preferences, making her definitely not the target audience for this novel.
I’ve read a couple of other reviews of this book, and while the premise sounds interesting, it sounds like the novel strays too far into “horror” territory for me to be comfortable with it. I just can’t “do” horror in books or film. Your review seems very fair & balanced, thanks! And thanks for visiting my blog as well!