Tom Clearlake

The basic premise of this book is a good one -- five children disappear from a small Pennsylvania town and the FBI comes to investigate. Soon the case morphs from a criminal investigation to something straight out of the X-files....there is something very, very wrong happening in St. Marys.

I have to be completely honest in my review....as I am with every book I review. I had a hard time getting through this book. It was translated to English from the original French....I'm not sure if it lost something in translation, but the story just fell a bit flat for me. Some of the horror scenes were bloodcurdling-ly awesome. But those scenes just aren't enough to carry the entire book. The writing style, slow plot, over-explanation, and thin characterizations pretty much threw off my enjoyment of this horror novel. The dialogue seems stilted in places because of word choices that people just wouldn't use in conversation, especially during an investigation. I never connected with the characters...they seemed like caricatures to me. The main character is described over and over again as a sexy, virile man that women love but he doesn't realize how awesome he is. And the details about his sexual encounters just seemed unnecessary. After awhile, I found him boring and pretty much unlikable.

Not every story is for every reader. And this one was not for me.

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Moonlight. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**… (más)