How will Ry and his mom and sister escape this madman? This isn’t a chess game, but the tension of waiting for that one moment when you might make a try for that gun, when he might be distracted… Is it worth the risk? Remember what he did to the man who delivered the car parts? Methane is released from the celestial object and gives everyone headaches, making it impossible to think clearly. Impact? Talk about deus ex machina: meteors hit, one, the local prison, releasing the terror upon the Burke family, and two, the farm. The old man drops a portentous bomb, then leaves –quickly, when he realizes who’s house he accidentally arrived at. Hitchcock said, “There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.” Tick-tock. To add to the thrill and intensity, the first half of the book has chapters that count down the time until impact. I question the Young Adult classification, it’s more of an ‘R’, but then, YA books always deal with the tough stuff, the challenges in life that have to be overcome in order to become a fully realized adult. Jason, Michael, and Freddy have nothing on Marvin Burke. When I reached the second part, I broke out in a cold sweat and found my hands shaking. You won’t ever be able to forget this story. A cathartic trip through Hell, this is the most visceral sort of horror. It’s not a “fun read”– it’s an experience, for sure. This is the most terrifying book I think I’ve read. “Aggressive?” Marvin’s face was not easy to read beneath the beard and glasses and blood and grime, but the muscles appeared to rigidify into a pattern of disbelief. But he’s got the drop on you and there are no neighbors for miles. What would you do if you were the nineteen year-old who called him your father, and he had done terrible things to your mother and threatened even worse things for you, and then he showed up at your door one morning, freshly escaped from jail, with a loaded shotgun? Imagine your little sister and mom are downstairs. Marvin Burke is, like Lecter or Jigsaw, a planner sharp-witted and capable of savagery of the highest caliber. Auguste Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, Solar Pons… The Saw movies, Hannibal Lecter… any story about a master chess game on a real life scale.
I love books about genius and puzzle solving.
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