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A review by enchantedfiction
The Dark Missions of Edgar Brim by Shane Peacock
3.0
This was more of a 2.5 star for me, but since that's not an option I'll give it 3.
The Dark Missions of Edgar Brim by Shane Peacock is about Edgar (of course) and his unusual night terrors. He has experienced them throughout his childhood, and when his father dies and he must move in with a family friend, he is sent to a school for boys out in Scotland. Here he meets his best friend Tiger, and a professor named Lear who drags him into a society that believes that monsters and villains from literature are, indeed, real. From here they are on the pursuit of a specific monster that has caused a death or two at the college and are well aware that this creature is after them, to silence them.
Okay, so this sounded like it would be a super awesome story. I was excited to read it during October with Halloween and all, since it felt like it had those spooky elements that are fun during this time of year. But I was a bit disappointed. There were definitely times that I was sucked into the story and wanted to know what happened next, but there were other times that I was ready for the story to move at a faster pace. The first chapter pulled me in, and I wanted to know what was going to happen next. But the first sentence of the next chapter brought me back to sixteen years before this particular instance happened, and I had to wait until a good portion into the book to get back to that particular instance. I think it would have been stronger if the first chapter had been put into chronological order and the story should have started when Edgar was a child. It just felt like it took an absurdly long time to get back to where the story had initially started, and I found it a little difficult to get through to the more interesting parts of the story.
There were also things that irritated me about the story itself. The fact that they believed everyone was the creature they were on the lookout for and every time they were wrong. I understand that if you were put into a real situation like this everyone would seem suspicious, but the way they were just waving their guns around in people's faces that they thought was the creature was a little uncalled for. I also wanted more explanation for things that never happened. I didn't really see a connection with the hag to what was going on in the rest of the story. She seemed so important in the first half of the story, then kind of fell off the face of the earth, only to come back during the play when Edgar found out who the vampire was. But they didn't really talk about her besides the fact that since Edgar saw her sometimes, he was meant to be part of the society that Lear brought him to.
I also wish that something had happened to one of them before the last chapter of the book. That sounds dark, but it would have made the whole thing more realistic. They all felt like they were part of it because Lear had confessed to them specifically about killing Grendel, but Lear was the only one who really understood what was at stake. I wish that something had happened to him earlier to make the others realize that it was totally real and there were consequences to their mission. It was hard to believe that they were all that invested when it was never really proven to them besides Lear's word.
I also felt like the story the vampire gave, which we never found out who he actually was, was pieced together and wasn't very believable. He never explained how he knew Grendel, it just said that he had heard about it and then found it on the moors, which seemed unlikely. Then he went on to say the reason he was on the British Isles was because he was trying to find Lear, which also didn't make sense because how did he find out that it was Lear who had killed him? I guess because he had already been trading places with Driver? It just didn't seem plausible to me.
I personally will not be continuing with this series as I found it to be pretty mediocre and boring at times. The continual jump to conclusions of who was the creature was and continually being wrong, as well as seemingly bringing this character of the vampire out of nowhere just didn't sit well with me and make me want to know what happens next.
The Dark Missions of Edgar Brim by Shane Peacock is about Edgar (of course) and his unusual night terrors. He has experienced them throughout his childhood, and when his father dies and he must move in with a family friend, he is sent to a school for boys out in Scotland. Here he meets his best friend Tiger, and a professor named Lear who drags him into a society that believes that monsters and villains from literature are, indeed, real. From here they are on the pursuit of a specific monster that has caused a death or two at the college and are well aware that this creature is after them, to silence them.
Okay, so this sounded like it would be a super awesome story. I was excited to read it during October with Halloween and all, since it felt like it had those spooky elements that are fun during this time of year. But I was a bit disappointed. There were definitely times that I was sucked into the story and wanted to know what happened next, but there were other times that I was ready for the story to move at a faster pace. The first chapter pulled me in, and I wanted to know what was going to happen next. But the first sentence of the next chapter brought me back to sixteen years before this particular instance happened, and I had to wait until a good portion into the book to get back to that particular instance. I think it would have been stronger if the first chapter had been put into chronological order and the story should have started when Edgar was a child. It just felt like it took an absurdly long time to get back to where the story had initially started, and I found it a little difficult to get through to the more interesting parts of the story.
There were also things that irritated me about the story itself. The fact that they believed everyone was the creature they were on the lookout for and every time they were wrong. I understand that if you were put into a real situation like this everyone would seem suspicious, but the way they were just waving their guns around in people's faces that they thought was the creature was a little uncalled for. I also wanted more explanation for things that never happened. I didn't really see a connection with the hag to what was going on in the rest of the story. She seemed so important in the first half of the story, then kind of fell off the face of the earth, only to come back during the play when Edgar found out who the vampire was. But they didn't really talk about her besides the fact that since Edgar saw her sometimes, he was meant to be part of the society that Lear brought him to.
I also wish that something had happened to one of them before the last chapter of the book. That sounds dark, but it would have made the whole thing more realistic. They all felt like they were part of it because Lear had confessed to them specifically about killing Grendel, but Lear was the only one who really understood what was at stake. I wish that something had happened to him earlier to make the others realize that it was totally real and there were consequences to their mission. It was hard to believe that they were all that invested when it was never really proven to them besides Lear's word.
I also felt like the story the vampire gave, which we never found out who he actually was, was pieced together and wasn't very believable. He never explained how he knew Grendel, it just said that he had heard about it and then found it on the moors, which seemed unlikely. Then he went on to say the reason he was on the British Isles was because he was trying to find Lear, which also didn't make sense because how did he find out that it was Lear who had killed him? I guess because he had already been trading places with Driver? It just didn't seem plausible to me.
I personally will not be continuing with this series as I found it to be pretty mediocre and boring at times. The continual jump to conclusions of who was the creature was and continually being wrong, as well as seemingly bringing this character of the vampire out of nowhere just didn't sit well with me and make me want to know what happens next.