Reviews

The Variant by Justin M. Woodward

jaymebeetus's review

3.0

This novel had a great concept and the plot was well done. I would have liked for it to have had a bit of a slower pace as it was so action-packed that it lacked a lot of small details. It was almost like reading the cliff notes for the story. I felt the last 50 pages were the best. I absolutely loved the humor in this book. It had lots of good one-liners.

solshines68's review

5.0

Justin M Woodward's writing reminds me of Joe Hill's attention to detail, suspense and character development with touches of humor. I hope he keeps writing and publishing! I also hope he keeps using Ryan Drean for his narrator. Drean's voice really brings the story to life and he is excellent at portraying the different characters.

This story kept me on the edge of my seat anxious for the next twist and nervous for Tyler and the predicaments he kept stumbling into. This was a fun, unexpected and nail biter of a book.

olewis01's review

4.0

Great Read

Tyler is a flawed man who has a big secret. The secret has haunted him all his life and cost him his wife and son. I LOVED the plot twist and the ending. I wish the author would have pushed the story further - gone there, but the story is solid and I can't wait to read the next in the series!

jeanne25's review

5.0

I really wanted to like this book. I had read a few of his others and enjoyed them quite a bit. My first thought of The Variant was that the story was intriguing and the writing was good. There wasn’t a lot of needless descriptive passages that tend to drive me insane. I generally prefer this “common man” style of writing. While I was enjoying the story, the problem I had was connecting with the characters. To really love a story, it needs to elicit some sort of emotional response from me. That emotion fell flat this time. I kept trying to figure out why. But, as said, I was still enjoying the story so I kept on. The Variant is a fast-paced novel and at about 65% in, the whole dynamics changed as it picked up even more momentum. I don’t want to give anything away but I feel very comfortable saying that I went from having no emotional investment in the story to being 100% immersed. I now cared about Tyler and wanted him to be victorious. Those things that felt flat the first half of the book now made sense. Where I had decided to give the book a solid (enjoyed it) 3 star rating, I now wavered between 4-5 stars. I only give 5 stars to the few books I will reread and I needed time to think about that ending and the twists. I tossed and turned all night after finishing, I just couldn’t stop thinking about it. If a book can get into my subconscious like that, I can’t ignore it. So … damn you Justin because I am tired as hell this morning but let’s do it again soon.