Greaveburn

            Greaveburn: A Penny Dreadful Review

            A death on page two is a good start for a horror novel. Greaveburn, by Craig Hallam, grabs the reader and dives right in. I barely came up for air and tea whilst immersed in Mr. Hallam’s rich, gothic world.

            The city of Greaveburn stands alone in an abandoned world. The Archduke Choler has usurped the throne, and Lady Abrasia, the rightful heir, lives as a hermit in the vast palace in order to stave off assassins. Meanwhile, a scientist named Professor Loosestrife creates disturbing mechanisms in a subterranean lab. With a name like “Loosestrife,” how can he be anything but a villain?

            Mr. Hallam tells this gothic tale with a twist of humor in a series of short, cinematic scenes. It is packed with action and intrigue. The characters who turn out to be the heroes are not all the characters one would expect. I can’t even tell you who, or I might spoil the story!

            I adore Mr. Hallam’s vivid description. He has a brilliant way of evoking the spookiest locales. From the first word, the city of Greaveburn rises, decrepit and dark, in the reader’s mind, full of dim alcoves that could conceal anything.

            Greaveburn is awfully short for the amount of plot and the number of characters it contains. On one hand, it can be devoured in the course of one sleepless night, but on the other hand, I feel like the reader misses some bits of story. It feels like it isn’t long enough to properly explore this strange city.

            I give Greaveburn four gears out of five. On the whole, it is quite satisfying. I highly recommend it. 

            Here’s the link to it on Amazon.com.  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=greaveburn+

Your Correspondent From The Bookstore,
Penny J. Merriweather

Incarceron

Incarceron: A Penny Dreadful Review

Remember how odd and twisted Through The Looking Glass was? I just read a book that’s odder. In Incarceron, by Catherine Fisher, nothing is what it seems. The truth slides around like sand dunes. Nothing and no one is straightforward. It was fantastic!
Inside the titular Incarceron, an inscrutable sentient prison, lives Finn, a young man haunted and tormented by a past he cannot remember. He dreams of escaping and finding his missing memories.  And he is not as innocent as he appears.  Incarceron has no room for innocence.  Outside dwells Claudia. Her father is the Warden of Incarceron, keeping secrets within secrets. Claudia is trapped in another sort of prison: a cage of rules. The Protocol instituted by a long-ago king traps her world in a stereotype of history with archaic customs and clothing. Nothing may change. Claudia wants change.  She wants to escape her impending wedding to the boorish heir to the throne.
Then Finn and Claudia find the keys. The mysterious crystalline artifacts allow them to discover each other and untangle the secrets and truths of their world. I shan’t spoil the twists and intrigues. They are far too much fun to read.
Incarceron is a book of labyrinths inside labyrinths. None of the characters know the entire truth about their world, and no one knows who might be lying or why. The dystopias of the worlds insides and outside the prison were meant to be utopias. Incarceron was intended as a glorious social experiment. The Protocol was meant to protect everyone in a simpler, friendlier time. I really enjoyed this unique look at stagnation and decay.
         This book takes a brain to read. I am fairly skilled at guessing the outcomes of plot points and predicting twists. I was blindsided and wrong too many times to count. Incarceron is fascinating. I could hardly put it down.
I believe this work deserves four and a half gears out of five. It was a dark and twisted journey through a dark and twisted world, and I must see whether the lies are all untangled in the sequel, Sapphique. So many questions left unanswered!

Your Correspondent From The Bookstore,
Penny J. Merriweather