Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: Suspense/Horror
Approximate word count: 65-70,000 words
Availability
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Author:
“Multi-talented
author, Bryan Alaspa, is a Chicago native who has dreamed of being an author
since third grade when he first sat down at his mother’s typewriter and pounded
out his first short story. It wasn’t very good, but it did give him the habit
for writing that he has not been able to shake since.
He is the
author of several works, both fiction and non-fiction. His non-fiction works
include the history and true crime genres, whilst his fiction is available in
the horror, suspense, thriller, and mystery categories.”
For more,
visit Alaspa’s website.
Description:
“When
successful author, Jeremy Liden, takes his friends up to his vacation cabin in
the wilds of Wisconsin he was hoping for a relaxing weekend. What he gets
instead is a never-ending ordeal of snarling terror as he and his guests become
trapped inside by an unrelenting menace that does not understand mercy.
By the time
the night is through, not everyone is going to make it home in one piece.”
Appraisal:
Vicious combines the
on-the-edge-of-your-chair, what’s-going-to-happen-next intensity of a suspense
novel with some horrifying events that would have obvious appeal to fans of the
horror genre. There are also lessons to be learned, some intentional, others
not. Intended is how early environment affects later behavior, in this instance
animals, but you might extrapolate it to humans as well.
The unintentional
lesson is that, just as you can’t judge a book by its cover, you also can’t
judge a book by its provenance. Although I only review indie books, my
definition of indie is broad,
including both self-published books and those put out by small “indie”
publishers. There is an assumption some readers have that self-published books
are shoddily edited at best and much of the time any editing is done by the
author. While undeniably true of some, many self-published authors put their
books through a quality control process that may well be more extensive than
one of the Big 6 publishers would. I know at least one author whose books run a
gauntlet of three edits (at different places in the process), four rounds of
proofreading, and a team of beta readers, before release.
The flip
side is that just because a book has a publisher, doesn’t mean it was
adequately edited and proofread. The assumption is that the publisher will
provide the quality control and any polishing needed. In the case of Vicious, they didn’t. Although the
proofreading didn’t exceed my threshold for these kind of errors, it was close,
with several wrong, missing, and misspelled words, plus instances of multiple
periods (full stops, if you prefer) at the end of a sentence and words with no
spaces between them.
The bigger
issues were some plot holes or inconsistencies, plus an annoying tendency to
repeat the same words close together, both of which I’d have expected an editor
to either fix or kick back to the author for rework
An example of an inconsistency is in one scene where a policeman sees a puddle of something that “was liquid and the smell told him it was blood.” Then within a few paragraphs we have this:
He could smell something in the air,
but his brain was not, at first, able to process it. It was a sickly sweet
smell that he knew was, at once, familiar, and entirely alien.
Of course
this turns out to be blood. But we (and he) already knew that.
Repetition
of words or entire phrases can sometimes be a good thing, giving the words a
rhythm or emphasis that drives home an important point. Johnny Cochran’s
repetition of the phrase, “if it doesn’t fit, you must acquit,” during his
closing arguments in the O.J. Simpson trial, is one example. Repeating a word
can sometimes act as glue, tying two thoughts near each other together (as when
I say a word again in the next sentence).
However,
more often repetition is, depending on the situation, either jarring or boring
in the same way as a monotone speaking voice. In those instances, using another
word (like using “say a word again” instead of “repeat” a couple sentences ago)
or rewording, can fix the issue. A case in point is this sentence: “Jeremy
Liden awoke to a bright, sunshine-filled morning and blinked his eyes as the
rays pierced his eyes.” Doesn’t the double use of the word ‘eyes’ jar? Here, a simple
rewording, by dropping ‘his eyes’ (what else is he going to be blinking?) fixes
the problem. Another example is these three sentences in a row starting with
“he” and some verb. “He stepped onto the stairs. He descended slowly, always
prepared at any moment, to run back up. He saw nothing and heard nothing.” Changing
the middle sentence to “Descending slowly, he was always prepared …” is one way
this snippet might have been made a bit less monotone.
On the
positive side, we all learn from lessons, even if they’re unintentional.
FYI:
Some adult
language. Graphic violence that may not be suitable for some ages.
Format/Typo Issues:
A small
number of typos and other proofing errors.
Rating: ** Two stars
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