by Jason Joyner | Apr 18, 2009 | Biblical worldview, Blog, BoneMan's Daughters, books, reviews, Ted Dekker
BoneMan’s Daughters.
Ted Dekker.
For readers of CBA fiction, the name of the book coupled with the name of the author will not be a surprise. However, this book is considered Dekker’s first “mass market” novel. It is released by Center Street, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group. This book is getting huge promotion, is a Barnes and Noble “Pick of the Week,” and in just a few days is number 53 on the whole site.
Synopsis:
A Texas serial killer called BoneMan is looking for the perfect daughter. Seven young women were apparently unable to meet his standards, and were found with their bones broken, but no open wounds. Two years ago a man was tried and convicted as BoneMan, but a problem with evidence is setting him free.
Ryan Evans is a Navy intelligent officer returning from a tour in Iraq. Traumatized by capture, he realizes he had let down his wife and daughter, and only wants to return and atone for his mistakes.
Only BoneMan is back, and has found a new daughter: Bethany Evans.
Ryan is desperate to rescue his daughter and engages BoneMan directly, even as the FBI wonders about his background and the suspicious timing of the kidnapping. Are Ryan and BoneMan one in the same?
BoneMan’s Daughters is unmistakably Dekker: suspenseful, intense, with puzzles and twists to keep you guessing until the end. Is Ryan BoneMan? Will Bethany survive? As a page-turner, Dekker doesn’t disappoint.
I was disappointed to a degree with the characterization though. In a Youtube interview, Dekker says that the primary character is meant to be an “everyman.” This makes sense, as I didn’t know much about Ryan. I cared about the plight of Bethany, but Ryan seemed pretty one-dimensional: a distraught father who acknowledges his previous failure. Bethany is a more compelling character, with a background and a lot of internal conflict as she stives to survive.
BoneMan is successful as a twisted outcast of a man, with unique traits that set him apart from the standard “psycho serial killer.” His allusions from the book of Proverbs were an interesting literary touch. Still, Dekker did a better job with his characters in Thr3e.
Overall, Dekker writes with a message. There’s always wrestling with truth in the context of the battle of good and evil. Questions of war, love, evil are all present. There are some touching themes that deserve deeper thought. I don’t want to prejudice, so see what you come up with on your own.
BoneMan’s Daughters is another solid suspense from the mind of Dekker, but I didn’t feel it was his best outing. It should please his longtime fans and win him new ones. If this is his major market splash, it definitely beats junk like James Patterson.
If you would like to read the first chapter of BoneMan’s Daughters, go HERE.
To win one of three free copies, leave a comment by 4/23, using the name of a Dekker novel creatively in a sentence. Good luck!
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by Jason Joyner | Apr 16, 2009 | Blog, blogging, giveaway, reading, reviews
OK gang, the next week should see a flurry of posts. This weekend is the blog tour for BoneMan’s Daughters, the latest book from Ted Dekker. On Friday, 4/17 I’ll start my giveaway, and I’ve got 3 of this book available for the lucky winners.
April 20 starts the next CSFF tour, so we’ll have some special features then, if this blog doesn’t get pirated…
The end of next week will require more “boning” up, as I’ll bring you a blog tour for new author Don Hoesel’s first book, Elisha’s Bones.
Sheesh, what’s up with all the bones?
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by Jason Joyner | Apr 16, 2009 | Blog, blogging, giveaway, reading, reviews
OK gang, the next week should see a flurry of posts. This weekend is the blog tour for BoneMan’s Daughters, the latest book from Ted Dekker. On Friday, 4/17 I’ll start my giveaway, and I’ve got 3 of this book available for the lucky winners.
April 20 starts the next CSFF tour, so we’ll have some special features then, if this blog doesn’t get pirated…
The end of next week will require more “boning” up, as I’ll bring you a blog tour for new author Don Hoesel’s first book, Elisha’s Bones.
Sheesh, what’s up with all the bones?
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by Jason Joyner | Feb 27, 2009 | Blog, CFBA, fiction, reviews
To end the week, I’m featuring Daisy Chain, the latest book by Mary DeMuth. I reviewed her parenting book, Authenitic Parenting in a Postmodern World, last year. When I saw this book on our review list for the CFBA, I was eager to read it. I appreciated her insights into parenting, so I wanted to see what her fiction was like.
The book is the start of a three book trilogy set in Defiance, Texas in 1977. Fourteen year old Jed Pepper is best friends with a vivacious young girl, Daisy Marie Chance. When she goes missing one summer night, he is convinced that it is his fault. He deals with his thoughts tormenting him on what he could have done differently, even as he battles personal demons that threaten his own family.
The book is labeled a “coming-of-age” story, and that description works for Daisy Chain. It has an authentic feel of a small Texas town. The reader feels the hot, sticky heat, can almost taste Hixon Jones’ fresh lemonade, and lives the trials that Jed wrestles with throughout the book.
The book is deeper, with more to the story than a little synopsis like the one above can provide. I also don’t like giving away too much of a story in a review. The book raises some challenges to the reader regarding family secrets and small town life. Just when you are convinced who the “villain” of the story is, Mary takes that character and shows a human side to them.
Sometimes the book was a little frustrating, because there are different plot threads that are introduced at various points of the book, and I didn’t feel enough resolution at the end of the book. I understand that it is a trilogy, and some threads are being introduced to carry through the whole project, but to me there should have been a little more closure, or some points perhaps introduced in book 2 rather than here. I came away a little disappointed in the way the book ended. I had too much emotional investment to be satisfied. I know a good suspense series should leave one hanging, waiting for the next book, but I didn’t feel a good enough set-up for book 2. The ending came rather abruptly, I guess.
I think Mary has created some very interesting characters, with flaws and a definite unique touch to each of them. No one is the stereotype here. Sometimes the viewpoint gets a little confusing, but otherwise I enjoyed most of the people we meet in Defiance (except for the ones you root against-you’ll see soon enough).
Daisy Chain is not the typical book I would pick up at the bookstore. It is not my favorite book, but Mary DeMuth is a talented author, and I enjoyed much of her writing. If you like the psychological drama or a Southern-tinged coming of age story, then this should be a book that is well worth your time.
If you would like to read the first chapter of Daisy Chain, go HERE
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by Jason Joyner | Feb 27, 2009 | Blog, CFBA, fiction, reviews
To end the week, I’m featuring Daisy Chain, the latest book by Mary DeMuth. I reviewed her parenting book, Authenitic Parenting in a Postmodern World, last year. When I saw this book on our review list for the CFBA, I was eager to read it. I appreciated her insights into parenting, so I wanted to see what her fiction was like.
The book is the start of a three book trilogy set in Defiance, Texas in 1977. Fourteen year old Jed Pepper is best friends with a vivacious young girl, Daisy Marie Chance. When she goes missing one summer night, he is convinced that it is his fault. He deals with his thoughts tormenting him on what he could have done differently, even as he battles personal demons that threaten his own family.
The book is labeled a “coming-of-age” story, and that description works for Daisy Chain. It has an authentic feel of a small Texas town. The reader feels the hot, sticky heat, can almost taste Hixon Jones’ fresh lemonade, and lives the trials that Jed wrestles with throughout the book.
The book is deeper, with more to the story than a little synopsis like the one above can provide. I also don’t like giving away too much of a story in a review. The book raises some challenges to the reader regarding family secrets and small town life. Just when you are convinced who the “villain” of the story is, Mary takes that character and shows a human side to them.
Sometimes the book was a little frustrating, because there are different plot threads that are introduced at various points of the book, and I didn’t feel enough resolution at the end of the book. I understand that it is a trilogy, and some threads are being introduced to carry through the whole project, but to me there should have been a little more closure, or some points perhaps introduced in book 2 rather than here. I came away a little disappointed in the way the book ended. I had too much emotional investment to be satisfied. I know a good suspense series should leave one hanging, waiting for the next book, but I didn’t feel a good enough set-up for book 2. The ending came rather abruptly, I guess.
I think Mary has created some very interesting characters, with flaws and a definite unique touch to each of them. No one is the stereotype here. Sometimes the viewpoint gets a little confusing, but otherwise I enjoyed most of the people we meet in Defiance (except for the ones you root against-you’ll see soon enough).
Daisy Chain is not the typical book I would pick up at the bookstore. It is not my favorite book, but Mary DeMuth is a talented author, and I enjoyed much of her writing. If you like the psychological drama or a Southern-tinged coming of age story, then this should be a book that is well worth your time.
If you would like to read the first chapter of Daisy Chain, go HERE
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by Jason Joyner | Feb 18, 2009 | Blog, CSFF, Cyndere's Midnight, Jeffrey Overstreet, reviews, speculative fiction
A Tale of Nobility and Savagery
This is the 3rd day of the CSFF tour for Cyndere’s Midnight by Jeffrey Overstreet. See Monday for my overview of it and the first book in the series, Auralia’s Colors, and yesterday for an interview with Jeffrey.
Cyndere’s Midnight is a swirling tale of noble and base elements, of a kingdom trying to find something they lost, and another kingdom in danger of losing what they have, and individual choices to embrace light over darkness.
If you picked up Cyndere without reading Auralia, you would understand the plot for the most part. As with most sequels, it is a deeper experience if you read the whole series. Jeffrey planted seeds for Cyndere in the first one, so there are nice connections to be made.
Jeffrey mentioned in his interview that he is trying to write a beautiful story with language that will stand the test of time. I don’t know if will rise to such a lofty standard, but it is not typical fantasy fare, or Christian fare for that matter. He takes great care in describing the details of the Expanse. His prose continues to be quite poetic, though I felt it wasn’t quite as poetic as Auralia. The subject matter could definitely be part of that, as the character Auralia was the center of the poetry last time. He doesn’t repeat words or phrases repetitively. It is apparent he is using language precisely.
The story is sweeping in its scope, and he keeps the suspense moving along. The confused beastman Jordam becomes the heart of the book as he struggles with the curse on his people. They are driven to drink a substance called Essence for their strength, but could it be corrupting them? Jordam sees hints of something greater in the colors Auralia has created, and a new nobility rises in him as he stumbles into Cyndere’s path.
Other characters are carefully constructed and there are only a couple of very minor characters that seem like throw-away “placeholder” characters. The contrasts in character development is very intriguing.
I really enjoyed Cyndere’s Midnight. In some ways I enjoyed it more than Auralia’s Colors, but other ways I didn’t. Both books are poetic, but I think the language in the first book was a little more lyrical. However, I connected more with Jordam than I did anyone in the first book.
Jeffrey’s writing is dense, and it won’t stand for a quick perusal of a page. You are forced to take it in and chew on it a little. This is mostly very good, but on occasion there are points where a reader can get confused. Also, there were many characters and sub-plots going on, so there were some times when I lost track of what was happening with them.
I mentioned with my review of Auralia’s Colors that I believed it to be a very important book for Christian fiction. Cyndere’s Midnight continues that legacy. In his interview yesterday, Jeffrey said,
Unfortunately, very little that is published in the CBA market stands up to that kind of test. “Christian fiction” is usually notable because of the “message.” It is very rarely written with the kind of artistry that will stand up to critique. I don’t want to write stuff that will only be read by people who believe what I believe. I want it to be read by people who love imaginative storytelling… and I want them to still be reading it a hundred years from now.
His answers inspired me to take a second look on what I’m writing and how I do it. I think he is taking a bold step, writing a different kind of book that can’t be categorized within the bounds of CBA fiction. I applaud him for setting a lofty goal for himself in his own creativity. I don’t think he fully realizes the potential, as I think the plot can be clarified a little more, but it is clearly an artistic work that is unique among other fantasy books.
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