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A review by dembury
The Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero
3.0
Actual Rating: 3.50 / 3.75.
The first half of my review is spoiler free, but the second half (clearly labeled) contains spoilers!
So here's the thing: "The Supernatural Enhancements" is a good book. A REALLY good book, in fact. I picked this up looking for something spooky, autumnal, and fresh, and this book provided all of that! The characters are quirky and interesting; the plot grabbed (and held) my attention thoroughly; the format is super cool- the story is told through audio recording transcripts, a diary, book excerpts, and more. There's even some "X-Files" references (did you hear that? That's the sound of me falling in love with Edgar Cantero).
The thing that really made me feel not-good thoughts about "The Supernatural Enhancements" was actually two things:
One- The ENDING?? I'm still a bit confused. I'm going to detail this confusion a bit more at the end of this review in a "spoilers" paragraph, but right now I'll just say that about the last 50 pages or so really starting spiraling out of my reading grasp a bit. I understand about 75% of what happened...but...that last 25% made me go, "HUH?!?" Also, I think the ghost part of the book was a bit lost in the fray. I wanted more closure with that.
Two- The book excerpts/ciphers. Okay, actually, the excerpts/ciphers were pretty cool... in MODERATION. This book contains excerpts from other "books" (all fictional books, I believe) that are part of the main character's research. But some of the excerpts were (s0rry!) boring. With a capital "B". It was mostly the ones later in the novel, but I felt like Cantero was replacing too much actual dialouge and characters interaction with these excerpts. Then there was the cipher. Oh my gosh, was it COOL...but it was again, difficult to follow at times! When A is cracking the main cipher, I really tried to learn along with him, but I felt as if I needed to take notes to even grasp it! I think this aspect would have been better executed if Cantero had used more "laymans" terms, or used a different way to explain how to crack the code.
So overall, it was a good book, and I think I'd even read this one again. I really enjoyed the mix of supernatual, cult, and Scooby-Doo-ish themes!
I'd highly recommend this as a Halloween read, too.
SPOILERS BELOW!!!
The ending: Okay. Wait. Who exactly is Betty?? Their aunt?? How old is she? What is Betty's connection to the Juggernaut again? Is Aunt Liza ANOTHER cult leader? Wait, she's connected to the Eye, too?!? WHAT? Can someone please explain the whole Betty thing to me??
This part confused me, and I feel a bit cheated. Like there was a cipher right in front of me, but Cantero refused to give me any bit of clues to work on decoding it!
Also, the murders that happen the night of the 21st and the ensuing chaos was, well, chaotic! I had some real difficulty following what was happening.
Lastly, I think there were FAR too many names to remember! There are 20 Eye members (and their respective code names!), the neighboors, the townsfolk, the lawyer, the psychatrist, the snowplow driver, the butler, and ALL THE PEOPLE IN THE DREAMS (granted, the latter didn't actually have names, but there were SO many of them!).
I kept confusing Caleb and Curtis. I didn't remember who the butler was until someone said their name AND the word "butler". I also forgot who the lawyer was when he showed up at the end and had to flip back in the book to find his name again.
The first half of my review is spoiler free, but the second half (clearly labeled) contains spoilers!
So here's the thing: "The Supernatural Enhancements" is a good book. A REALLY good book, in fact. I picked this up looking for something spooky, autumnal, and fresh, and this book provided all of that! The characters are quirky and interesting; the plot grabbed (and held) my attention thoroughly; the format is super cool- the story is told through audio recording transcripts, a diary, book excerpts, and more. There's even some "X-Files" references (did you hear that? That's the sound of me falling in love with Edgar Cantero).
The thing that really made me feel not-good thoughts about "The Supernatural Enhancements" was actually two things:
One- The ENDING?? I'm still a bit confused. I'm going to detail this confusion a bit more at the end of this review in a "spoilers" paragraph, but right now I'll just say that about the last 50 pages or so really starting spiraling out of my reading grasp a bit. I understand about 75% of what happened...but...that last 25% made me go, "HUH?!?" Also, I think the ghost part of the book was a bit lost in the fray. I wanted more closure with that.
Two- The book excerpts/ciphers. Okay, actually, the excerpts/ciphers were pretty cool... in MODERATION. This book contains excerpts from other "books" (all fictional books, I believe) that are part of the main character's research. But some of the excerpts were (s0rry!) boring. With a capital "B". It was mostly the ones later in the novel, but I felt like Cantero was replacing too much actual dialouge and characters interaction with these excerpts. Then there was the cipher. Oh my gosh, was it COOL...but it was again, difficult to follow at times! When A is cracking the main cipher, I really tried to learn along with him, but I felt as if I needed to take notes to even grasp it! I think this aspect would have been better executed if Cantero had used more "laymans" terms, or used a different way to explain how to crack the code.
So overall, it was a good book, and I think I'd even read this one again. I really enjoyed the mix of supernatual, cult, and Scooby-Doo-ish themes!
I'd highly recommend this as a Halloween read, too.
SPOILERS BELOW!!!
The ending: Okay. Wait. Who exactly is Betty?? Their aunt?? How old is she? What is Betty's connection to the Juggernaut again? Is Aunt Liza ANOTHER cult leader? Wait, she's connected to the Eye, too?!? WHAT? Can someone please explain the whole Betty thing to me??
This part confused me, and I feel a bit cheated. Like there was a cipher right in front of me, but Cantero refused to give me any bit of clues to work on decoding it!
Also, the murders that happen the night of the 21st and the ensuing chaos was, well, chaotic! I had some real difficulty following what was happening.
Lastly, I think there were FAR too many names to remember! There are 20 Eye members (and their respective code names!), the neighboors, the townsfolk, the lawyer, the psychatrist, the snowplow driver, the butler, and ALL THE PEOPLE IN THE DREAMS (granted, the latter didn't actually have names, but there were SO many of them!).
I kept confusing Caleb and Curtis. I didn't remember who the butler was until someone said their name AND the word "butler". I also forgot who the lawyer was when he showed up at the end and had to flip back in the book to find his name again.