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A review by ponch22
A Life of Death by Weston Kincade
4.0
Full disclosure—I received a free copy of this ebook for an honest review.
[a:Weston Kincade|4729210|Weston Kincade|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1423169429p2/4729210.jpg] reached out and gave a pretty good sell for his book, [b:A Life of Death|35163016|A Life of Death (A Thrilling Supernatural Detective Series full of Suspense, Book 1) (A Life of Death Trilogy)|Weston Kincade|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1495071052s/35163016.jpg|16754023], & asked if I'd like to read and review it. I've had mixed results on these independent authors, but you never know who might have written something great, and at only 160 pages, how could I really say no?
The story sounded intriguing—Alex, a teenager who lost his father to a drunk driver, is able to relive the final moments of anyone's life if he touches an object they held while dying. It felt like a cross between Medium and iZombie (and was 160 pages of YA lit)!
The story did turn out to be pretty interesting—the novel ends with three chapters of Book Two, and I'm somewhat intrigued for its new turn. Seems the next part of the story is more of a detective novel.
Kincade's prose is excellent & the characters are well-formed. I did have trouble with some of the dialogue scenes, though—some of the conversations between Alex and his mother or Alex and his girl friend/girlfriend were tough to get through. As an actor, I can't help but read dialogue while trying to find the motivation behind the words. There were several times here when someone said something that felt against character or out of place (considering the events and relationships).
Also, I felt like the story was rushed—I think (minus the bookend chapters set 15 years after the main story takes place), everything happens in about two weeks? It feels a little too convenient that this supernatural power would manifest itself all of a sudden when everything else in his broken home comes crashing down too. I don't know if it would have worked if the story was longer or the events took place over a whole school year instead of two weeks, but when the climactic school presentation and a certain funeral took place on the same day, it felt a little too rushed.
Oh, and one last thing: those school reports—they were for history class right? The two we get to "hear" have their own merits for each character and his story arc, but they didn't seem to be very good history reports. They showed very little in the way of research and were more about self growth than anything. Alex's felt like it could have fit better as a graduation speech than history project—maybe another way this could have spread the story out over a longer period of time.
In the end, the book was a quick read and has an interesting hook. Curious how he uses this power in Book Two to catch a serial killer & may pick it up eventually to read. Hoping the next novel has some better pacing and dialogue (although the preview chapters don't give me much hope in regard to the latter).
[a:Weston Kincade|4729210|Weston Kincade|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1423169429p2/4729210.jpg] reached out and gave a pretty good sell for his book, [b:A Life of Death|35163016|A Life of Death (A Thrilling Supernatural Detective Series full of Suspense, Book 1) (A Life of Death Trilogy)|Weston Kincade|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1495071052s/35163016.jpg|16754023], & asked if I'd like to read and review it. I've had mixed results on these independent authors, but you never know who might have written something great, and at only 160 pages, how could I really say no?
The story sounded intriguing—Alex, a teenager who lost his father to a drunk driver, is able to relive the final moments of anyone's life if he touches an object they held while dying. It felt like a cross between Medium and iZombie (and was 160 pages of YA lit)!
The story did turn out to be pretty interesting—the novel ends with three chapters of Book Two, and I'm somewhat intrigued for its new turn. Seems the next part of the story is more of a detective novel.
Kincade's prose is excellent & the characters are well-formed. I did have trouble with some of the dialogue scenes, though—some of the conversations between Alex and his mother or Alex and his girl friend/girlfriend were tough to get through. As an actor, I can't help but read dialogue while trying to find the motivation behind the words. There were several times here when someone said something that felt against character or out of place (considering the events and relationships).
Also, I felt like the story was rushed—I think (minus the bookend chapters set 15 years after the main story takes place), everything happens in about two weeks? It feels a little too convenient that this supernatural power would manifest itself all of a sudden when everything else in his broken home comes crashing down too. I don't know if it would have worked if the story was longer or the events took place over a whole school year instead of two weeks, but when the climactic school presentation and a certain funeral took place on the same day, it felt a little too rushed.
Oh, and one last thing: those school reports—they were for history class right? The two we get to "hear" have their own merits for each character and his story arc, but they didn't seem to be very good history reports. They showed very little in the way of research and were more about self growth than anything. Alex's felt like it could have fit better as a graduation speech than history project—maybe another way this could have spread the story out over a longer period of time.
In the end, the book was a quick read and has an interesting hook. Curious how he uses this power in Book Two to catch a serial killer & may pick it up eventually to read. Hoping the next novel has some better pacing and dialogue (although the preview chapters don't give me much hope in regard to the latter).