Reviewed by: Keith Nixon
Genre: Thriller
Approximate word count: 10-15,000 words
Availability
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Author:
Shaun
Jeffrey grew up in a house located in a cemetery so he believes it’s only
natural that he writes books with a darker side. Besides the novella Day by Day the author has also published
five novels, a collection of short stories and is published in a large variety
of magazines and anthologies.
Description:
Tina is a
fifteen year old girl from a broken home. She has few friends and plays second
fiddle to her older sister. Her divorced mother, trying to stay young, regularly
brings men home from the pub. Tonight her companion is Trevor, a smooth talking
guy who makes a connection with Tina and she soon falls in love with him. But
he has ulterior motives and soon Tina is on a path of drugs and prostitution to
stay with the man she loves.
Appraisal:
This is a
short tale, even for a novella, at 15,000 words. I read it quickly, in just a
single sitting. It’s a decent story that gets better as it progresses. At first
I wasn’t greatly engaged. Initially there is a lot of dialogue, which is okay
and sets the scene of Tina’s predicament. As Tina drifts into her more
difficult situations, the dialogue is internal and much stronger. More time is
spent on descriptive narrative and then it gets interesting and compelling.
Because of
this, it feels that the characters, besides Tina, are only lightly painted as
is the backdrop. As it’s a first person narrative you get more of a view of
Tina, but she doesn’t spend a great deal of time on herself either.
Dodgy
Trevor arrives in the book immediately. The way he manipulates Tina is well
done, it’s subtle and all too plausible. And quite scary to think it could
happen to your own children given the wrong circumstances.
So, overall
a decent read, albeit incredibly fast, and well enough written for me to want
to pick up another of Mr Jeffrey’s longer novels.
FYI:
Some adult
scenes.
Format/Typo Issues:
None.
Rating: *** Three Stars
1 comment:
Thanks so much for all the reviews.
I have used your site frequently as a source for books to read.
Best wishes in all you do.
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