My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“There are moments when even to the sober eye of reason, the world of our sad humanity may assume the semblance of Hell. ”
----Edgar Allan Poe
Keith Donohue, an American best-selling novelist, spun a remarkable story called,
The Boy Who Drew Monsters that our sane minds will dare to read it.
Synopsis:
Ever since he nearly drowned in the ocean three years earlier, ten-year-old Jack Peter Keenan has been deathly afraid to venture outdoors. Refusing to leave his home in a small coastal town in Maine, Jack Peter spends his time drawing monsters. When those drawings take on a life of their own, no one is safe from the terror they inspire. His mother, Holly, begins to hear strange sounds in the night coming from the ocean, and she seeks answers from the local Catholic priest and his Japanese housekeeper, who fill her head with stories of shipwrecks and ghosts. His father, Tim, wanders the beach, frantically searching for a strange apparition-running wild in the dunes. In addition, the boy’s only friend, Nick, becomes helplessly entangled in the eerie power of the drawings. While those around Jack Peter are haunted by what they think they see, only he knows the truth behind the frightful occurrences as the outside world encroaches upon them all.
Jack Peter Keenan, a 10-year-old Asperger disorder boy, loves to draw, trapped inside his own mind. Three years ago, Jack and his best friend, Nick, nearly drowned and from that time, Jack has become unsocial and never goes out of his house. However, surprisingly, now it seems his drawings are coming to life, especially monsters, and haunting his parents to death. Only Jack holds the key to this strange mystery.
This story is not only about fear and about monsters, but it also focuses on infidelity, trust, relationships, parenthood, sanity and superstitions. I felt mesmerized by Donohue's elegant use of the retrospective voice, which is always questioning its own accuracy, exploring the nature of memory, of the narratives we tell ourselves about ourselves, and others. Well unfortunately, the first part of the story progressed bit slowly, where we get to see Jack's parents getting accustomed with the essence of supernatural around them. This is where we also see how the author developed his characters with depth. Jack's father's issues- his weakness towards Nick's mother, displayed quite sharply, whereas Jack's mother is still in doubt with her mother hood and being a good mother to Jack. The second part moved with great pace and this where the story gathered momentum and I felt myself rooted to the very core of the story. Another disappointment would be the author could not lay out his scary scenes intricately/strikingly. The monster running through the hills or around Jack's house compound did not scare me at all.
The characters were though fictional but sounded very realistic to me, moreover, Donohue has a deep psychological grip on his characters, portraying them as multifaceted, flawed and sympathetic human beings, all achingly vulnerable, wracked by fear, need and guilt. The background that the author painted in his story was completely apt with the mood of the environment. Yes, this is where the author managed to win over my heart. The mood that he set in with his dark narrative style will completely fill your hearts with fear and chill.
The author took us on an imaginative wild ride filled with fear, horror and terror. Since, I do not read much Horror books, I felt Keith Donohue's book to be quite intriguing, scary and edgy.
Verdict: Horror fans do not give it a miss.
Courtesy: I'd like to thank the author, Keith Donohue, for providing me with an ARC of his book.
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Author Info:
Keith Donohue is an American novelist. His acclaimed 2006 novel The Stolen Child,
about a changeling, was inspired by the Yeats poem of the same name.
His second novel, Angels of Destruction, was published in March 2009.
Born
and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he earned his B.A. and M.A.
from Duquesne University and his Ph.D. in English from The Catholic
University of America.
Currently he is Director of Communications
for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the
grant-making arm of the U. S. National Archives in Washington, DC. Until
1998 he worked at the National Endowment for the Arts and wrote
speeches for chairmen John Frohnmayer and Jane Alexander, and has
written articles for the New York Times, Washington Post, Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, and other newspapers.
Visit him here
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