Tag: Religious

Edward Lorn – Life After Dane | Review

Title: Life After Dane

Author: Edward Lorn

Type: Fiction

Page Count: 268

Rating: 4.5/5

I’m probably quite biased here because this book was written by a BookTube friend and because my name’s in the title, so I guess it would almost be weird if I didn’t like it. I was also given a copy as a gift from someone who’d seen my wish list. But it also has a lot of the themes that I like, and the story line itself is cracking, a sort of paranormal thriller following the weird stuff that our narrator starts to experience after her son, the Truck Stop Dentist serial killer Dane Peters, is put to death by lethal injection.

This was very, very good for an indie book, although I don’t like the cover much. But covers don’t matter, and I was impressed by everything from the quality of the writing to the interior layout. I was also a big fan of the way that Lorn told the story using Dane’s mother as a mouthpiece. She’s perhaps the only person in the world who knows why he turned out like he did.

And then there are the religious themes, as well as the recurring motif of the hymn Amazing Grace. It’s funny because while I’m not religious myself, I’ve always found it interesting to read about religion in fiction. I’ve even dabbled with writing about it myself. The bottom line is that I’d recommend this if you’re interested in thrillers in general, but especially if you’re keen to support indie authors in a difficult marketplace.

Learn more about Life After Dane.


Stephen King – Revival | Review

Title: Revival

Author: Stephen King

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 390

Rating: 3/5

 

 

This is one of King’s more recent books and so that’s probably why I hadn’t picked it up until now. It’s been sitting on my shelves for a while, but I always have a big pile of King books ready to go at any one time. I wasn’t particularly impressed by this one, but then I wasn’t expecting too much of it either. In fact, it’s one of the few King books that I just haven’t really heard anything about.

Here, the main themes are rock ‘n’ roll and religious leadership, as epitomised by the two main characters. What’s weird about that is that it ended up reminding me of Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill, King’s son, because the main character in that had similarities to this one, at least at times.

Honestly, I couldn’t recommend this book over any of King’s others, but it’s not necessarily bad. It’s just not got the magic that some of King’s other work has, and I don’t think it does a great job of representing him. At the same time, other than disagreeing with some of the science and not enjoying the way it basically turned into Frankenstein, it was decent enough. I read it in the space of two or three days and it didn’t drag.

 

Stephen King
Stephen King

 

So all in all, I’m glad I picked this up because I’m still working through King’s back catalogue, but I’m also glad that I didn’t go out of my way to get to it. At least it was better than Black House, which he co-wrote with Peter Straub, and it didn’t waffle on for as long, either. In fact, it’s relatively short for a Stephen King novel, but other than that it does follow some of his tried and tested formulae. It has a lacklustre ending for a start, which is pretty much a King tradition.

I probably wouldn’t recommend reading this unless you’re already a King fan, but if you are a King fan then go ahead when you get round to it. Look on the bright side. At least it isn’t From a Buick 8. And it also has a little excerpt of Bag of Bones in the back of it, if that’s of interest.

 

Stephen King Quote
Stephen King Quote

 

Click here to buy Revival.