Genre: Horror
Publisher: DarkFuse
Publication Date: 2nd June 2015
Pages: 171
MY REVIEW:
I received an advance copy of Shadowshift from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This
is said review. This book is published by DarkFuse. Need I say anymore?
I have only ever read one other thing by Peter Giglio, Sunfall Manor. Now that I think of it, I
don’t know why I haven’t read more. I loved it. So when Shadowshift came up on NetGalley I couldn’t refuse.
I’m glad I didn’t refuse.
Chet is a shape shifter. He can change into nearly any
bug or small rodent. His weapon of choice when he is breaking into other people’s
homes is a cockroach. Easy access, steal what you want, leave. This is fine
until one of his victim’s figures out it was him and sets him up. Things go
drastically wrong for Chet from here and his life is going to get a bit boring
for a while.
Hannah is Chet’s daughter. She also has a gift. She can
manipulate things with her mind. She is only twelve so still developing her
skills.
Tina is Chet’s wife. She wishes she never had been. He
was never good to her.
When he disappears after the setup, Tina has only one
goal in life, protect Hannah. She has no idea her daughter has a gift.
What comes next is a story following two different
timelines, Chet’s life in the past and Tina and Hannah’s life in the future. No
one knows yet but both timelines are going to clash very soon, with disastrous
results.
I absolutely bloody loved this book. This is without
doubt one of the easiest reads I have had this year. By “easy” I mean to read.
From the very first page this story just flows and flows and flows. There are
twists and turns galore. Some you see coming and some you don’t. Perfect.
The end.
Nah, I’ll give you some more.
Characters – there are a few but the main people to look
out for in this are obviously Chet, Tina and Hannah. Chet is, how can I put it,
vile? Yes vile. This is a man who has been using his gift for years and
couldn’t care less who it affects or what damage he does. He’s just out for
himself. He is horrible to Tina but sweet to Hannah. The only reason for that
is because he thinks she has a gift too. Tina I could take or leave. She had a
real bad time with Chet and she does grow as the story progresses but was prone
to moments that would have driven me mad being around her. Hannah was my
favourite. Twelve years old with a maturity of a thirty year old. Aware of her
gift but still experimenting with it and to some degree scared of it.
The story sort of divides itself into two parts. It flips
between the old life when Chet and Tina were still together and Hannah was just
a young child. This section basically shows you what an ahole Chet was when he
was practising to see what he could do and treating his wife like something he
stepped on. To be fair his childhood wasn’t great but no excuse. At the same
time Tina is struggling to keep things together, blissfully unaware of what
Chet is doing and also unaware of what Hannah can do. The new life features on Tina building a new life with her
new man, Kevin, and Hannah, This is about 6 years after Chet has disappeared. As
time goes on with both parts, you can see exactly where they are going, you
just can’t tell how they are going to get there.
Now on what you have read so far you wouldn’t think this
was a horror would you? Well it bloody well is. It’s a different kind of horror
though. The type I hate writing reviews about because I can never put it into
words how it affected me. I’ll have a go though.
You have shape shifters. That’s scary like scary
monsters. You have a girl that can manipulate things with her mind. That’s
scary like paranormal scary. You have bizarre worlds were these shifters can
go. That’s scary like fantasy scary. You have a secret government organisation
who know they exist and are trying to wipe them from the face of the planet.
That’s scary like Men in Black scary. Well, maybe not but do you get what I
mean? Horror is wonderful like that at times because there are more varieties
of it than Heinz have. The thing is that you don’t often get a load of them in
one story. That’s what makes Shadowshift so interesting and so damn
entertaining.
Peter Giglio has moved himself up my list of authors to
look out for and try and grab a lot more of his back catalogue. If all his
stuff is like this then I want to read it all. His writing just flows
perfectly. Perfectly paced. Perfectly articulate. Perfect at getting you
totally absorbed in the story.
To summarise: a scary story with shape shifters and
people who do weird stuff with their minds with two converging stories that are
going to end in disaster. Secrets being kept from people. Maybe if they knew
the secrets things wouldn’t go so badly wrong.
Before I go I just remembered another thing. I got to a
point in the story where it read like it was ending. I was reading the last
paragraph thinking “please don’t be over!”….turned the page to another chapter!
This happened about three times. Talk about keeping you in suspense? Naughty Mr
Giglio!
General rating:
★★★★★ Excellent. Highly recommended.
Horror rating:
★★★ I would have liked it even more scary.
If you would like to help support Confessions of a Reviewer then please consider using the links below to buy Shadowshift or any other books from Peter or indeed anything at all from Amazon. This not only supports me but also lets me know how many people actually like to buy books after reading my reviews.
Book Synopsis:
Chet is a shape-shifter who uses his abilities to
burglarize homes…
Hannah is a young girl with strange influences over
inanimate objects…
Father and daughter, these supernatural misfits are bound
by blood, their unfolding stories separated by time. While Chet follows a grim
path, Hannah stands on the fragile precipice of hope: her mother’s faltering
happiness with a kind man…the chance at a new family and a stable household…and
the promise of freedom from the shadows cast by her father’s misdeeds.
But past and present are ready to collide, ushering hell
home.
An active member of the International Thriller Writers
and the Horror Writers Association, Peter Giglio is the author of five novels,
four novellas, and his works of short fiction can be found in a number of
notable volumes, including two comprehensive genre anthologies edited by New
York Times Bestselling author John Skipp. Peter resides on the Georgia coast
with his wife and frequent collaborator, Shannon Giglio.
And
for more about Peter, visit his site or find him on social media:
No comments:
Post a Comment