Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Review: Eerie by Blake & Jordan Crouch

John Ward, whom I follow on Google+ recommended this book on July 2nd. I got it on the 2nd and read it on the 4th.  Here's my review.


I read Eerie in two sittings on the same day. It was a page-turner. (Will we continue to use that phrase as e-readers become more & more the norm? I read it on the kindle.)

The book opens with a car accident and we meet the protagonist of the story when he's 10 years old in the back seat of the car as it is crashed. He and his sister are orphans within five pages. Then we faster forward like 31 years to when he's an adult, a stereotypical borderline alcoholic detective, let me say right here all the characters in the book are pretty cardboard cut-out. There's not a lot of depth to them, but in the words of Stephen King, "the story is the thing." And the story here is gripping. 

It's like an episode of Cheers or Barney Miller (if you're that old) in that it's got one setting for most of the book, all inside the house, and that setting, that small setting, that claustrophobic setting gave this mystery/ghost-story a creepier feeling. It lent an air of trapped to it that was part of why I couldn't put it down.

As I approached the end of the book I tweeted that "It occurs to me as the sun begins to set that reading a book about a haunted house when I'm alone tonight was stupid." And it was that kind of book. I wasn't too keen on going into the basement to get my laundry moved into the dryer. I wasn't at all crazy about sleeping here tonight by myself listening to the house creak after reading this book. It was that kind of creepy/scary. 

I really enjoyed it. I'm not going to give anything away and no spoilers. I recommend you get it and make sure you have a good solid block of time to read it because the story is really good. It's named Eerie, and that's as apt a name as I can think of.

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