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A review by aperfectmjk
Forsaken by J.D. Barker
5.0
“Sometimes the most frightening of thoughts can be found hiding among the shadows of our own minds.”
This quote has appealed to me long before I opened the pages of this fantastic novel. This is such an ominous, but powerful statement. The majority of us living inside our own minds, the truly sick and demented trapped by their thoughts like a prison. The mind is something that for centuries that we have longed to understand, to understand behaviors and predict patterns of psychotic behavior, but deception of one's thoughts is far greater than imagined.
To be fair, this novel is about witches, and not the mind... at least that's what you're thinking right? Yes, it is, and it's by far the best novel I have read involving witchcraft. I have to be honest though, J.D. Barker may have set out to write a horror novel involving witchcraft, but this novel delivers so much more, which is why for a debut novel it's no wonder it's set him apart as an author. There is a psychological aspect at play here. J.D. Barker takes a story... a seemingly unrealistic story of witchcraft, and makes it credible. How does he do this you ask? Through the emotional undoing of his characters, it's their distress and psychological state that pulls you in. This is what sets it apart from fantasy, to what could be a truly horrific reality.
I have to say, that J.D. Barker's ability to intermix the telling of the past while simultaneously telling the present is unlike no other. I've read multiple novels from other authors, who shall remain nameless, where they've tried to do this, and have failed. Somehow always falling short and losing the reader in the process, never quite making the connection, and just creating more confusion rather than adding to the suspense intended. This has become a signature of his writing now, I saw this with [b:The Fourth Monkey|31125554|The Fourth Monkey (4MK Thriller, #1)|J.D. Barker|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1474820373s/31125554.jpg|51739338] , and now with Forsaken. The way he tells the story of Her, the witch, through Thad's novel, intermixing chapters with the present creates the perfect story.
The influences for J.D. Barker is clear in his writing, we can see this by his paying homage to Stephen King's [b:Needful Things|107291|Needful Things|Stephen King|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1315767817s/107291.jpg|1812101]. It's common for many authors of the horror genre to look up to the greats such as Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and John Saul, but it's another thing for them to come close to following in their footsteps. I for one have to say that J.D. Barker is well on his way to being one of the next "GREAT" horror writers.
This quote has appealed to me long before I opened the pages of this fantastic novel. This is such an ominous, but powerful statement. The majority of us living inside our own minds, the truly sick and demented trapped by their thoughts like a prison. The mind is something that for centuries that we have longed to understand, to understand behaviors and predict patterns of psychotic behavior, but deception of one's thoughts is far greater than imagined.
To be fair, this novel is about witches, and not the mind... at least that's what you're thinking right? Yes, it is, and it's by far the best novel I have read involving witchcraft. I have to be honest though, J.D. Barker may have set out to write a horror novel involving witchcraft, but this novel delivers so much more, which is why for a debut novel it's no wonder it's set him apart as an author. There is a psychological aspect at play here. J.D. Barker takes a story... a seemingly unrealistic story of witchcraft, and makes it credible. How does he do this you ask? Through the emotional undoing of his characters, it's their distress and psychological state that pulls you in. This is what sets it apart from fantasy, to what could be a truly horrific reality.
I have to say, that J.D. Barker's ability to intermix the telling of the past while simultaneously telling the present is unlike no other. I've read multiple novels from other authors, who shall remain nameless, where they've tried to do this, and have failed. Somehow always falling short and losing the reader in the process, never quite making the connection, and just creating more confusion rather than adding to the suspense intended. This has become a signature of his writing now, I saw this with [b:The Fourth Monkey|31125554|The Fourth Monkey (4MK Thriller, #1)|J.D. Barker|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1474820373s/31125554.jpg|51739338] , and now with Forsaken. The way he tells the story of Her, the witch, through Thad's novel, intermixing chapters with the present creates the perfect story.
The influences for J.D. Barker is clear in his writing, we can see this by his paying homage to Stephen King's [b:Needful Things|107291|Needful Things|Stephen King|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1315767817s/107291.jpg|1812101]. It's common for many authors of the horror genre to look up to the greats such as Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and John Saul, but it's another thing for them to come close to following in their footsteps. I for one have to say that J.D. Barker is well on his way to being one of the next "GREAT" horror writers.