Mr Joannes Rhino
Forfatter af The Unseen Face
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Medlemmer
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Statistikker
- Værker
- 2
- Medlemmer
- 14
- Popularitet
- #739,559
- Vurdering
- 4.3
- Anmeldelser
- 1
- ISBN
- 5
The Unseen Face has the plot of a taut, psychological thriller. James Maddox is slowly self-destructing, as his nights are plagued by a recurring, horrifying nightmare. Only his two friends, Richard and Jennifer, seem to stand between him and complete withdrawal, depression, and perhaps, insanity. The author builds the tension immediately in chapter one by presenting a scene that logically falls near the end of the story. Use of the technique is fortunate, however, as the following chapters, which represent a prolonged flashback, move somewhat slowly. As they unfold, we see James as immature, self-centered, and self-destructive. He is not easy to like, but then, the main character of a psychological thriller will seldom be ‘the life of the party.’ Unfortunately, much of James’ histrionics extend to Jennifer and Richard, so that many of the dialogs in these chapters deteriorate into shouting matches. The ending involves a plot twist, with the story now moving at a better pace. But the final outcome seems predictable at this point, in all but the details.
In general, the plot falls short of its full potential due to a host of flaws in its telling. The dark mood of the initial scenes is reinforced by a series of violent rainstorms, and James seems to be always caught in them...on his bike. An hour riding a bike in New York City in pouring rain in December sounds like the recipe for pneumonia, but this is just one of many suggestions that the author may not be completely familiar with the setting he selected for his tale. As another example, James mentioned being disciplined in high school by getting his hands slapped with a “rattan.” That sounds like grounds for a lawsuit, rather than typical discipline in a NYC high school in the 2010-2012 timeframe. At another point, James mentioned being as forgotten as Neil Armstrong was after his historic walk on the moon, but Armstrong was in fact a very private person and even fought a couple of legal battles to maintain some distance between himself and an admiring public.
Many of the difficulties James faced and solutions he found seemed too convenient. Although now 27, he was still living in his boyhood home, and yet, had so little continuity in his friends and family that no one seemed to know what had happened to him just five years earlier. Additionally, the possibility he was investigating was so heinous that it would have been in the media; I am not sure why he never checked. I found the scenes with the psychiatrist somewhat troubling as well. His counsel had a ‘fortune cookie’ feel to it – too quick, too pat, too generic. He wanted to take objects in James’ dream and give them what might be considered a literary interpretation. An antique chandelier meant that James was looking into the past. Presumably, if it was an ultra-modern lighting fixture, the dream was about looking into the future. The misperceptions of the American legal system, however, were probably the most serious.
Overall, the storyline had great potential that was only partially realized. I came away wondering why the author had chosen NYC as the setting, when the situation James faced and his response could have be found anywhere in the world. For me, it reinforced the old adage, an author should write about what he/she knows.
I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.… (mere)