YA, Paranormal & Historical.
The St. Augustine Trilogy: Book I
A review placed on Goodreads and Amazon by
Sarah Frost from Australia
“Before I comment on the story, I want to compliment whoever was in charge of the choice of paper used in the creation of the book. The pages have a wonderful, satiny feeling and are nicely heavy, giving the impression of a lot of thought and care going into the choosing of the paper (it almost feels like what I would imagine vellum feels like).
“Very impressed with the quality of the book itself (you can’t get that with a kindle copy) and the cover art is great. It looks just like what is described in the story and what I would have imagined if I hadn’t had a picture to see.
“Now, onto the story…I am really enjoying Jeff’s voice. Although at the start he says that he is going to tell us what happened, it feels more like a series of diary entries, with Jeff telling the story in an unedited kind of way. It doesn’t feel like an adult wrote it, it feels like Jeff wrote it, sort of as a stream-of-consciousness.
“Sometimes he goes off on a tangent and talks about unrelated or mostly unimportant topics, just like a teenager who’s telling a rambling, complicated story would. I have read a lot of fantasy/sci-fi books and often when I’m reading a new one, I can see what’s going to happen next, but not with Sliding Beneath the Surface. It … kept me guessing through all of part one. I have no idea how it might end.
“Sometimes when you read a book it is unclear, just from the writing, who is telling the story. The voice of the book is bland and nondescript, without the narrator telling you who they are you can’t tell man, woman, girl, boy. Not so with Jeff Golden’s voice in Sliding Beneath the Surface. Jeff is so clearly a teenage boy that if I didn’t know better I would think that Doug Dillon had only recently left his teenage years behind.
“While I’m reading, especially the dialogue, I see a shaggy-haired, not particularly neatly dressed, lanky teenage boy who has trouble believing in the supernatural, despite all the evidence dumped in front of him. I couldn’t put the book down last night, or at least not until I nodded off in bed and lost my page, after I found my page I decided it was definitely time to go to sleep.
“Now, I’m wondering about what the sequel’s going to be about, will it be more supernatural problems in St. Augustine for Jeff, Carla and Lobo; or will it be Lobo helping out a different couple/group of teens with their supernatural worries; or maybe Jeff and Carla will have gotten a few years older and will have to deal with the supernatural on their own this time. Whatever the plot is, I am really looking forward to reading it.”
To see Sarah’s full review on Amazon.com, click here.
Add Your Comment