Review: Overall: 3 out 5 Cover: 1 out of 5 Empty Eyes follows the story of Ian, a boy who suffers constant bullying by the same group of boys. One night, at a carnival, he finds himself driven into an extremely spooky house where he meets two children with black eyes. They give Ian what they call "a gift" which slowly begins to change Ian into something he usually wouldn't be. This is the second title I've reviewed by this author and I must say, while I am once again not given the feeling of horror I would like to feel, I found it a great improvement over The FireFly. The monsters had the creep factor similar to something one might see in R.L. Stein's Goosebumps. Middle grade is not something I usually read. I didn't care for any of the characters nor the world. Both were incredibly flat and not very identifiable. Now, I feel I need to point out, while bullying is a very real problem, I'm getting rather agitated that this part of the story seems to be given more care and development than the horror itself. If as much detail is given to developing the actual plot than the bullying, the stories might benefit. As it stands right now, I nearly DNF'd both novellas because of the overall premise given to the bullying. I don't feel such details are necessary for the story itself. For the love of everything decent, please get a better cover artist. This looks like a child's drawing rushed and pinned to the front of a novel. I realize book covers can get expensive but Fiverr has some awesome artists who charge as low as 10$ for exceptional covers. A novel's cover can make or break the novel and with repeated lack of care, I can't say I'll be returning to the next titles.
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AuthorMy name is Iona Caldwell. I'm the author of the British Occult Fiction, Beneath London's Fog set to be published by FyreSyde Publishing October 2019. When I'm not busy weaving worlds of the arcane and dark, I'm spending time out in nature. I love books. My biggest inspirations are H.P Lovecraft, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman and Edgar Allen Poe. I blog about many things but mostly everything bookish. Archives
August 2019
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