Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Ghostwriter by Travis Thrasher

In Ghostwriter, Dennis Shore makes his living scaring people with his horror novels. He is very successful. However, after his wife dies and his daughter goes off to college, he develops severe writer's block. With a deadline looming, he becomes desperate and submits another person's manuscript as his own work. After receiving praise for his new work, the real author tracks him down and starts making Shore's life a living hell. He's about to lose it all. "The horror he's spent years writing about has arrived on his doorstep, and Dennis has nowhere to run".

I enjoy reading this novel. I especially liked the whole "turning the tides on the horror writer" side of it. Once I started reading it, I didn't want to put it down. The book is nicely laid out with flashbacks to give some background information. I admit I got confused and lost a few times with the jumping back and forth and at one point I couldn't figure out which book they were talking about. However, I found my way again after rereading a few sections. I liked the characters that Thrasher created for this novel, but Cillian, the other author, gave me the creeps. I kept wishing he'd go away. It wouldn't have been much of a story then, would it?

I didn't really like the whole supernatural aspect of the book. That just not something I'm interested in. However, it didn't stop me from enjoying the book. Also, the Pink Floyd references were lost on me. I hope I didn't miss anything.

Until I visited Travis's website, I didn't know that he was a Christian writer. [I'm not familiar with the "FaithWords" imprint. That should have been a clue. Duh!] I thought the inclusion of the church marquee messages were a little odd for this type of book, however, I really enjoyed them. We had a church near us that put up similar messages and they were a hoot to read. Here's are a few of the ones from the book: "We are not Dairy Queen, but we have great Sundays", "Have you read my #1 bestseller? There will be a test, God", "GOD is like ALLSTATE...You're in good hands with Him."

This edition included a short interview with the author. It's very informative and worth the read.

I haven't read any other books by Thrasher. While I really enjoyed this one, I'm not sure I'll be reading any others. The supernatural and love stories are not my favourites.

For more information about the author, please visit Travis Thrasher's website. There's tons of cool information there. For more information about the book, visit Hachette Book Group's website.

Recommended for Thrasher's fans and those interested in the supernatural.

1 comment:

  1. I went to one of Travis Thrasher's book signings yesterday and got him to autograph a copy of this for me. He is very nice and down to earth.

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