My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.”
----Friedrich Nietzsche
John Hennessy (my friend), an English writer, pens a bone-chilling as well as inspiring and quite thrilling tale about marriage, Clara's Song that is the second book in the Haunted Minds series. Now as the title of the series says, Haunted Minds, the book in the series actually keeps haunting our minds not only while reading but also long after we have finished reading the book.
Synopsis:
Be careful what you wish for.
Clara Bayliss dreams of escaping her boring marriage. When her car fails to start after a freakish accident, her fantasy has every chance of becoming the reality.
Rescued by the very man she thought had been killed, she takes a ride into the unknown with him, and has no intention of returning home.
Her husband isn’t pleased about being dumped. Especially when he finds out the news she’s been keeping from him.
And then, there’s a song, the one that Clara would play whenever she needed freeing from a world full of despair.
Clara’s Song.
It would make her feel good. Strong. Independent. Fearless.
Only…her rescuer knows the song too, and for him, it means something else entirely…
A dark, psychotic mystery thriller, full of suspense, lost dreams and total paranoia from which there is no escape. A place where marriage really can be murder....
The author have written 9 books till date- all belonging to YA Fantasy-Paranormal/Horror genre and I can't argue that he is a genius when it comes to ghosts, vampires, witches, aliens and all those things which are spooky. It's like he can turn light into something dark and sinister with the wave of his magic wand- which are his words! Clara's Song is the only book which stands out from the rest, genre-wise, as this book is under psychological thriller genre but not specifically since as we delved deeper into the story, it became clear that the author didn't want his story to be an emotional ride with revelations and enlightenment, rather he layered his story with evil, darkness and violence (which might be too much for the weak hearts!!) thus producing a horrific as well as stirring story about an English married couple.
Peter Bayliss is a hardworking middle-aged married man who has went so deep into the crisis of his mid-life period that he forgot to take a clear look or rather say forgot how to love his beautiful and dreamy wife, Clara who has dreams of her own where she and her husband Peter having a successful marriage, unfortunately Peter's boredom forced her into the same track, but she never stopped wanting for a little bit of more happiness in her already dull marital life. Amy is Clara's friend who have been living with the Bayliss' at their home after her divorce, but she had some other intentions to live under the same roof with Peter and Clara.
From the above synopsis, we get a crystal clear picture of the storyline, unfortunately there's more to it and for that we must read this book. And I won't say anything more what happens next when Clara meets the man of her dream after dumping her husband!! Creepy road to happiness and finally turning it into Clara's personal hell.
The writing style is undoubtedly the best and polished and the pacing is really fast with lots of mystery as well as suspense hiding at every turn of the page, that are bound to throw us off our edges. The narratives is kept mysterious and engaging and with vivid descriptions of each and every scenes, it gets a little too difficult to visualize them. The author has an eye for detail that is keen and neatly depicted into the storyline, thus making the story more richer and deeper.
The characters are all drawn by bringing out their strong and dark as well as the raw honest side in the story. Moreover, each character comes with a thorough back story that lets us comprehend with their wishes and their demeanor towards one another. Clara is a bored housewife, who is trying to find bliss for which she is ready to go at any lengths. Her childhood as well as how she met her husband Peter are strikingly portrayed. Clara thinks less and jumps into conclusion, so I did not feel any sympathy towards her character, moreover, I did not like her selfish attitude.
Peter is trying hard to earn a decent living and in that process he has forgot to show any kind of affection towards his wife. And Peter is the one who shows that marriage not only takes a toll on two lonely human beings but it also demands hard work from each of the better half to keep it in working condition.
The villain and the evil characters are John's trademark style that is mixed with lots of danger and sinister demeanor with a twisted mind that can go at any lengths to harm an individual and I do not why I always happen to fall in love with John's evil characters, maybe because of their electrifying aura that overshadows the presence of any kind of light so dangerously that at times it feels beautiful.
The theme of the book is magnificent and the way the author tries to send us a message through this story is amazing. Marriage turns out to be fatal for two individuals where one is so lost with the pieces of the LEGO toys that he has no idea what to build with those pieces, and the other is so adamant in finding happiness and taking revenge that she tries to build her own LEGO home without her husband. There are lost of twists and turns and every turn of event kept me engrossed till the very end.
PS: Now I'm scared to get married!!!
Read the review of the first book, The Ghost of Normandy Road
Verdict: Must read for all psycho horror lovers.
Courtesy: Thanks John for the special preview version of this book.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author Info:
Visit him here
Book Purchase Links:
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your feedback!