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dantastic's review against another edition
4.0
Recovering from the death of his wife, Officer Henry Stapleton is on a downward spiral of booze. His wife's killer winds up dead, or does he? Henry visits a New Age healing center and starts experimenting with lucid dreaming. But what will he do when he discovers the machinations of a man who may not exist?
I follow Patrick Lacey on Twitter and I was all over this one as soon as I saw the cover.
The story feels more like a detective story than anything else a lot of the time. Henry Stapleton, benched after the death of his wife, tries to piece together the identity of Paul White, a guy buying up more and more of town and the mastermind behind Crystal Dreams, a New Age healing center that has opened up.
The book starts simply enough but escalates once Henry begins studying lucid dreaming. From there, it reminds me of the crazy ass second half of [b:Keeper of the Children|1858166|Keeper of the Children|William H. Hallahan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1271791234s/1858166.jpg|1858794], with lots of crazy shit happening in dreams.
There was a few editing bumps, par for the course for small press horror. The writing was seamless, meaning I couldn't ever tell more than one person wrote it. Even half asleep on a plane to Las Vegas, I couldn't set the book aside. Four out of five stars.
I follow Patrick Lacey on Twitter and I was all over this one as soon as I saw the cover.
The story feels more like a detective story than anything else a lot of the time. Henry Stapleton, benched after the death of his wife, tries to piece together the identity of Paul White, a guy buying up more and more of town and the mastermind behind Crystal Dreams, a New Age healing center that has opened up.
The book starts simply enough but escalates once Henry begins studying lucid dreaming. From there, it reminds me of the crazy ass second half of [b:Keeper of the Children|1858166|Keeper of the Children|William H. Hallahan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1271791234s/1858166.jpg|1858794], with lots of crazy shit happening in dreams.
There was a few editing bumps, par for the course for small press horror. The writing was seamless, meaning I couldn't ever tell more than one person wrote it. Even half asleep on a plane to Las Vegas, I couldn't set the book aside. Four out of five stars.
theliteraryhooker's review
3.0
Really more of a 2.5 star read for me...
I had really high hopes for this one. I'd heard tons of great things, the cover was GORGEOUS (I know, I know, I shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but I do!), and the premise definitely sounded like it would be up my alley. Unfortunately despite the interesting premise, a lot of things in this novel fell flat for me.
Henry is a career cop, the widower of his town's first murder victim in decades. After shooting his wife's killer, he begins having delusions...or so he thinks. As his dreams lead him further into the mystery of his wife's murder, he begins to realize that maybe his delusions aren't so delusional after all.
Again, the concept for this book was fantastic. There are some really excellent parts in the middle of the book where Henry is really experimenting with the dream world that I really loved. The dream world aspect and lucid dreaming were fascinating to me, and definitely something I wish more horror novels explored. But things went a bit too off the rails for me. There was a lot going on here, and given the short length of the novel, many of the elements don't get fully explored. I wanted more info on the interactions between the two realities, more background on Julia's murder...and I didn't get it because the novel wasn't long enough to really refine some of the things it explores. I found the timeline a bit complicated to follow at times, but I think that may have been intentional so I can forgive that. Really my biggest problem was how cliched the ending felt. It took on this odd cop/military drama feel that didn't fit with the rest of the story. It just wasn't my bag.
I'm definitely interested in checking out more works by both of these authors, even if this one didn't quite work for me. I thought the idea was interesting despite the issues I had with its execution, and I do want to see what else the authors come out with for sure.
I had really high hopes for this one. I'd heard tons of great things, the cover was GORGEOUS (I know, I know, I shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but I do!), and the premise definitely sounded like it would be up my alley. Unfortunately despite the interesting premise, a lot of things in this novel fell flat for me.
Henry is a career cop, the widower of his town's first murder victim in decades. After shooting his wife's killer, he begins having delusions...or so he thinks. As his dreams lead him further into the mystery of his wife's murder, he begins to realize that maybe his delusions aren't so delusional after all.
Again, the concept for this book was fantastic. There are some really excellent parts in the middle of the book where Henry is really experimenting with the dream world that I really loved. The dream world aspect and lucid dreaming were fascinating to me, and definitely something I wish more horror novels explored. But things went a bit too off the rails for me. There was a lot going on here, and given the short length of the novel, many of the elements don't get fully explored. I wanted more info on the interactions between the two realities, more background on Julia's murder...and I didn't get it because the novel wasn't long enough to really refine some of the things it explores. I found the timeline a bit complicated to follow at times, but I think that may have been intentional so I can forgive that. Really my biggest problem was how cliched the ending felt. It took on this odd cop/military drama feel that didn't fit with the rest of the story. It just wasn't my bag.
I'm definitely interested in checking out more works by both of these authors, even if this one didn't quite work for me. I thought the idea was interesting despite the issues I had with its execution, and I do want to see what else the authors come out with for sure.
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