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A review by the_coycaterpillar_reads
Tome by Ross Jeffery
5.0
ome – its clarity was never more focused and established from the very first page. Dark and depraved. The story is multi-faceted as it strips the layers back of the human condition. Boy does it show the human condition for what it truly is, hungry for power and destruction. Tome is a story that examines many prejudices rife in not only America’s penial system. Racial abuse, misogyny and homophobia feature strongly, and Jeffery has tackled the sensitive themes with both class and tenderness without skipping on the reality. This novel is a highly intelligent and brutal story on multiple levels.
Jeffery has birthed a new sub-genre of horror; he mixes realism with the palpitatingly dark. The narrative doesn’t relinquish its hold on us for one moment, its spindly fingers choke the life out of you, its grip increasing under you are so far gone that you can’t help but consume its mastery.
Juniper Correctional has turned into a cess pit of suffering and delinquency. Prison life was never going to be easy, but someone for something is getting away with murder. Imagine buildings that look run down, they look haunted…haunted with the misdeeds of its prisoners, haunted with the souls that are being taken too early. There is nothing about Juniper Correctional that screams light, it is the darkness in spite of the light, only one person seems to chase that darkness away…Frank.
Frank comes in does his job like everyone else but treats the inmates like actual people, funny notion, right? He doesn’t treat them like the scum of the earth, despite the awful atrocities they have been convicted with. He shares the halo, or the island in amongst the shit prison, located within an even shittier town. The library, ah but once again the power of books and its ability to transport you away features heavily in Tome. Franks suffered plenty in this cess pit of a town, he’s experienced racial hatred for marrying a black woman. Its uncomfortable as all hell, but subjects like these HAVE to be. If its not making you cringe, then you are part of the problem. Jeffery has written a horror story with violence and gore, but he tells of the horrors that human are capable of committing, it’s a grim reality that is mortifying.
Jeffrey has created something quite unique here, he’s edgy, he’s got the biggest set of Kaunas for riding with this one, trusting his vision and pulling it off so brilliantly. The destructive nature of a supernova. The setting. The protagonist. The horror. It tallied up to an experience to say the very least. I felt the fear, I spent most of the novel feeling deeply unsettled. Time has no consequence whilst I absorbed its power. I don’t think I’ll ever read another book quite like it and that is a good thing because no-one come close. A book Stephen King wishes he wrote…It’s that damn good.
Tome is a nerve jangling read with the pace and finesse of a master storyteller. I should be kicking myself black and blue that I haven’t picked this up sooner.
Jeffery has birthed a new sub-genre of horror; he mixes realism with the palpitatingly dark. The narrative doesn’t relinquish its hold on us for one moment, its spindly fingers choke the life out of you, its grip increasing under you are so far gone that you can’t help but consume its mastery.
Juniper Correctional has turned into a cess pit of suffering and delinquency. Prison life was never going to be easy, but someone for something is getting away with murder. Imagine buildings that look run down, they look haunted…haunted with the misdeeds of its prisoners, haunted with the souls that are being taken too early. There is nothing about Juniper Correctional that screams light, it is the darkness in spite of the light, only one person seems to chase that darkness away…Frank.
Frank comes in does his job like everyone else but treats the inmates like actual people, funny notion, right? He doesn’t treat them like the scum of the earth, despite the awful atrocities they have been convicted with. He shares the halo, or the island in amongst the shit prison, located within an even shittier town. The library, ah but once again the power of books and its ability to transport you away features heavily in Tome. Franks suffered plenty in this cess pit of a town, he’s experienced racial hatred for marrying a black woman. Its uncomfortable as all hell, but subjects like these HAVE to be. If its not making you cringe, then you are part of the problem. Jeffery has written a horror story with violence and gore, but he tells of the horrors that human are capable of committing, it’s a grim reality that is mortifying.
Jeffrey has created something quite unique here, he’s edgy, he’s got the biggest set of Kaunas for riding with this one, trusting his vision and pulling it off so brilliantly. The destructive nature of a supernova. The setting. The protagonist. The horror. It tallied up to an experience to say the very least. I felt the fear, I spent most of the novel feeling deeply unsettled. Time has no consequence whilst I absorbed its power. I don’t think I’ll ever read another book quite like it and that is a good thing because no-one come close. A book Stephen King wishes he wrote…It’s that damn good.
Tome is a nerve jangling read with the pace and finesse of a master storyteller. I should be kicking myself black and blue that I haven’t picked this up sooner.