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NOTE: Reviews are the opinions of the individual reviewers and not necessarily those of The Chiaroscuro as an entity unto itself.
| by William D. Gagliani
Email: tarkusp@execpc.com Shapeshifter
Sometimes you want to sink your teeth into an old-fashioned, escapist adventure and never mind the frills. Sometimes you want to read for thrills and the sheer enjoyment of riding the wave of an exciting story. Escapism for its own sake is a noble enterprise - it's what most of us want at the movies, and in our pleasure reading. J.F. Gonzalez knows that, and here delivers a quick but nevertheless satisfying reading experience. SHAPESHIFTER is as lean as a starved wolf - a novel in which Mark Wiseman, a young man cursed by lycanthropy, is blackmailed by his boss, Bernard Roberts, CEO of a huge insurance company, into murdering board members who support a merger which will expose Bernard's embezzling ways. Caught shapeshifting into a werewolf on a security videotape, Mark has little recourse - especially since Bernard can tie Mark into his own parents' murder. But Bernard doesn't foresee one development, Mark's sudden romance with the CEO's executive secretary. Threads ravel and unravel, as Mark uses his beast side reluctantly to work for Bernard's numerous evil intentions - until a hit goes badly awry. Uncluttered prose propels the plot along at breakneck speed, and there are no side roads or detours on this slick highway. Sometimes more like an outline of a novel than a novel, SHAPESHIFTER does barrel along in fine pulp-fiction, b-movie fashion, never letting its basic style get in the way of the action. Indeed, Gonzalez (co-author of CLICKERS, from DarkTales Press) is at his best when describing gory action. Though mostly of the stock variety, the characters go through the paces with appropriate panache. The downbeat ending runs at you like a careening truck, and an unexpected epilogue ties everything neatly together. While not as ambitious in scope as it could be, SHAPESHIFTER nevertheless delivers a good horror punch right between the eyes. Don't blame the author, but one gripe may be leveled at many e-books,
including this one. E-book publishers have simply not learned to edit,
proofread, or indent paragraphs properly. Until they do, e-books will not
earn the respect they deserve, and that's a shame.
Note: A version of this review was previously published at BookPage.com. This version appears here by permission of ProMotion, Inc. |
