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Saturday, December 1, 2012

The Pentacle Pendant by Stephen M. DeBock


★★

Two stars.

I received this book through Goodreads First Reads.

We all know the expression "Don't judge a book by its cover." Unfortunately, this book is an exception to the rule.

The lead female, Claire, is changed into a "werewolf" by her boyfriend, thinking that when he had told her of his furry little problem, he wasn't serious. They are not the only supernatural beings in this world, and there is another female named Daciana who would like nothing more than to kill Claire. But, that's far too simple of a plan. Instead she chooses to harm everyone else around Claire, trying to ultimately get her way.

This book had the potential to be good- a unique spin on the plot, the paranormal, promises of murder. But at the end of this novel, I felt very little besides disappointment. Upon reading the back description, I did not expect it to be a horror novel. Maybe I would have liked it better, were it clearly advertised as being a darker themed book.

At the beginning, we're introduced to Claire, and her beau Lukas. The start seems rushed, in no time they've met, dated, and transformed. I didn't really get to know them. Claire is a grammar expert, and is constantly correcting her peers. I found that this made her rude and cold (not to mention ironic, seeing as there's a few errors in this book), and it turned me off of her. I didn't really care what happened to her boyfriend, or really to her for that matter. I found even the dialog between most characters forced. The girls all came across as slutty, and most men seemed to be generically written.

The perpetual use of *** in place of transitions gave the book a choppy, all over the place type feel. I felt as though I never had complete focus on the plot at hand.

I've labeled this work as horror, but I'm not quite sure what genre it was supposed to be. There's unneeded sex scenes between humans (and a few between wolves), the slaughtering of infants, and puns. I felt that they didn't really flow together to make one cohesive novel.

I did, despite my dislikes, give this two stars. DeBock's murder scenes are very well written. They're gory, painful, and detailed. They made me squirm, which is a good thing in my opinion (even if it was the characters I actually liked getting killed). I wish it would have focused more on the murder/horror aspect of the plot. Were that the case, this review would have been a lot different.

If you don't mind gore, unimaginative sex scenes, or the lack of a strong male character (for most of the book), you might enjoy it.

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