Stan’s insatiable quest to explore extreme hypotheses and to prove the unproven were matched only by his neurotic lust to peel back the mysterious layers of time and space to expose the hidden secrets of the universe. Determined to continue his work at all costs, he uproots the life he once knew, liquidates his assets and builds his own lab on a desolate twenty-four-acre rural property in Devil’s Gulch, Utah, no longer bound by government regulation or the prying eyes of small-minded administrators.
Whether born from his profound love for science, or his enormous ego, Stan unintentionally unleashes something sinister in Devil’s Gulch—something that was never meant to walk this Earth.
Title: Devil's Gulch
Authors: R.E. Sargent, Steven Pajak, Claire Brown, Matthew A. Clarke, T. M. Morgan, Chris Wilkerson, Chisto Healy, Kayla Krantz, Jon Miller, T. M. Brown, Mark Young, Bridgett Nelson
Publisher: Sinister Smile Press
Publication date: November 16, 2020
REVIEW
RATING: ⭐⭐⭐
I've always thought that writing a book between two authors must be a terribly hard task. Well, "Devil's Gulch" is a twelve authors collaboration. Imagine that!
This kind of story is so out of my comfort zone. I tend to like my monsters in human form, but one those twelve authors is my friend Bridgett, so of course I was reading this book even though is not my usual cup of tea.
There were some good things and some not so good, hence the 3 stars. On the good side it is to be applauded the fact that although twelve different authors wrote this, the writing flowed nicely and, minus some small details, the style was similar enough to make it look as if one person wrote it all. The editing process must have been quite an ordeal!
Also on the good side, and this is just my personal taste, I'm thankful that, although it was a sci-fi/horror story, there was not much talk of the science behind how the monster got to Earth, where it came from and so on. It read more like an action movie with monster (think Godzilla).
On the not so good side, I was expecting more of a plot throughout the different chapters. They read more like short stories of how several inhabitants of Devil's Gulch dealt with the monster. Think about it like this: in a movie you would expect to have a big final confrontation with the monster right at the end, wouldn't you? Well, here there was one of those at the end of each chapter, so it felt a bit repetitive.
Also, the fact that there was such a huge amount of characters made it nearly impossible to root for them, as it soon becomes clear you won't probably see them or learn about their fate again, Each chapter had its set of characters, with no appearances from previous characters till the last chapter. In my opinion, it would have worked better with a smaller cast of characters and more plot continuity. That would have delivered a more cohesive story, but I understand that this would have made the collaborative writing even harder.
There were several similarities between some chapters, with quite similar descriptions of the monster and nearly identical lines of dialogue (each time a kid needed to be saved or taken care of).
Special mention to my friend Bridgett, who was in charge of tying everything up in the last chapter. This chapter was my favorite one and not only because she wrote it, but because the chapter's structure (recurring characters, alternating POVs and actions that moved forward the plot) was what I was hoping to find all throughout the book.
While I thought my main issue coming into this would be the theme, it was the execution itself that let me down (the execution as a whole, cause I couldn't find fault in the different chapters by themselves). Anyway, kudos to the authors for undertaking such a big project.
Thanks to Bridgett Nelson and Sinister Smile Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Love you! Thanks for your honest review...and for the kudos for my chapter. I kind of loved James. ;)
ReplyDeleteI loved James too! Can't wait to read your next story!
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