Reviver (Reviver Trilogy, #1)
by Seth Patrick
Love this book! It has paranormal aspects, touch of horror, love the plot and characters, and the total weirdness and creep factor! I got this on sale from Chirp and now I will be watching for the other books in the series to be on sale!
This has people that are able to temporarily bring recently dead people back from the dead. Mostly for finding out crime details but also families get insurance so they can say their last good byes. But a couple of times the revivers noticed a dark presence was voiced by the dead. Something they were scared of. Something dark was trying to come through.
But some companies decide to use revivers for a different reason. A reason so unheard of. This is where it gets spooky! Great story from beginning to end!
Great narration! ( )

The first half was an excellent science fictiony crime drama. Then it turned into a weird demon-infused pivot ...it felt so forced. Ugh. ( )

A thriller in the best possible sense. Whereas most thrillers and 'page-turners' nowadays seem to have strangled themselves into mediocrity in a cowed and desperate attempt to fit the mould of what they're told an audience 'expects', Seth Patrick's The Reviver seems to be one of the rare few to have faced those anodyne market forces and retained its individuality. It's a book that ticks all the modern marketing boxes – in tone, style, characterisation, plot and, most importantly, concept (it's C.S.I. meets The Sixth Sense) – and yet possesses an air of originality. It's a genuinely entertaining read.

That 'C.S.I. meets The Sixth Sense' label is useful (and accurate) shorthand, but another revealing one is given on Seth Patrick's Acknowledgements page. Here, Patrick notes the influence of Edgar Allan Poe on his concept, and The Reviver certainly drips with a hidden malevolence in its first half. Patrick goes for a workaday thriller style rather than Poe's more literary Gothic writing style, but the effect is the same: The Reviver, particularly its first half, is extremely creepy. Patrick has the mechanics of his story down pat, and we follow Jonah, our protagonist, through a tight suspense story that unfolds its unnerving mystery at a very rewarding pace. I tend to be inured to the cynically-engineered tactics of the modern-day 'page-turner', which is not my bag, but even I have to say: I was hooked. The second half saw a bit of a disappointing drop, but I should stress this was by the high standards the first half had set. The second half, through it veers more closely to standard thriller terrain, is still a cut above your standard thriller.

The concept is king here. Patrick's plotting, characterisation and dialogue are all pretty standard, though enjoyable; it is the fascination the reader quickly develops for the 'revivals', and the mystery behind them, which makes the book a winner. The plot revelations, when they come, feel earned, and while the nature of them might be polarising for readers, to me they were rewarding. We are thrilled by – and sometimes genuinely scared by – the "plunge into the dark rot" of deepest consciousness that Jonah explores (pg. 2), and the evident empathy in this protagonist's character goes a long way towards both alleviating the brutal toll of darkness and murder in the book, and to allowing us to forgive any tiny blips in the story mixture. Fast-paced, fascinating and fantastical, The Reviver has left me asking with indignation: whatever happened to the movie option? ( )

Jonah Miller is a Reviver, able to temporarily revive the dead so they can say goodbye to their loved ones — or tell the police who killed them.

Jonah works in a department of forensics created specifically for Revivers, and he’s one of the best in the business. For every high-profile corpse pushing daisies, it’s Jonah’s job to find justice for them. But while reviving the victim of a brutal murder, he encounters a terrifying presence. Something is on the other side watching. Waiting. His superiors tell him it's only in his mind, a product of stress. Jonah isn't so certain.

Then Daniel Harker, the first journalist to bring revival to public attention, is murdered. Jonah finds himself getting dragged into the hunt for answers. Working with Harker's daughter Annabel, he becomes determined to find those responsible and bring them to justice. Soon they uncover long-hidden truths that call into doubt everything Jonah stands for, and reveal a sinister force that threatens us all.

Debut novel nicely straddling the increasingly popular supernatural thriller sub-genre

The strength of the premise is compelling enough to power the story and the construction of the Reviver back story well done and the revivals themselves are superb.

Just a couple of little niggles ....as the story progressed I would have liked more supernatural less running round with guns; female characters that never really develop outside their body shape & hair colour. Finally...dear author, please never ever use Never as a character's name - brought me up short every time I read it.

First in a trilogy and a soon to be a film, I will be interested to see where this goes

Extra star for the cool interactive cover

( )

Jonah is a Reviver – someone who can revive the dead for a short period of time. In Jonah’s case, he works for a forensic team, so he revives in order to let the victim testify about the events of their death. It’s a well controlled experience, and is used as evidence in courts.

However, during one revival, Jonah experiences something which makes him question exactly what they’re doing.. another presence, which he can’t explain. He’s told it’s just an hallucination, brought about by stress, but Jonah isn’t convinced, and starts to dig deeper. He ends up involved in something much bigger than he expected.

For the majority of the book, this feels like a crime / thriller, with this very interesting twist. The whole issue of Revival is explored, including it’s uses and problems, and it’s this aspect which lifts it well above average. Some reviewers have found the book too slow, but I disagree – there’s a lot of information to give, and aspects of reviving to explore, and I enjoyed this.

Throughout there’s an uneasiness, a suggestion of a supernatural element, and towards the end this becomes more apparent, and there’s a definite switch in the book. I have to admit, this did worry me for a while, because I’ve seen similar books which started to feel.. well, silly. In my opinion though, Seth keeps a realistic tone, and it soon settles into a good ending.

Whilst it would have been possible to keep simply to the idea of forensic revival, I’m not sure how far it could have been taken in the future. I would imagine that the supernatural aspect will feature quite strongly in the next book, and I look forward to finding out where we’re taken next.