A review by givnuapeacesign
Scowler by Daniel Kraus

4.0

Terrifying...at first. Written in the true spirit of Stephen King...in fact, it seems almost as if King is a ghostwriter at the beginning of the novel. Admittedly the first half is much more gripping than the second half, as the foreshadowing was more compelling than the actual events once they arrived. The father is truly and completely abusive and cruel. Scenes as flashbacks detailling his actions absolutely shredded me. It was easy to overlook some of the cruelty which bled over to his son, Ry in the start of the novel because there were so many redeeming traits at the ready. Yet as the a stranger appears telling of a prison break and the birds screams reach fever pitch, suddenly the novel which truly had the potential to be earth-shattering starts to lose its edge. The struggle inside Ry with good and evil was not easy for me to accept. The dress in the attic seemed never to truly symbolize hope, rebellion, escape as the author implied. There just seemed to be too many loose ends that were hastily strung together. Yet the first half of the book was so well written that I had to see it to completion.