Rainer Maria Rilke

"Live a while in these books, learn from them what seems to you worth learning, but above all love them. This love will be repaid you a thousand and a thousand times, and however your life may turn,-it will, I am certain of it, run through the fabric of your growth as one of the most important threads among all the threads of your experiences, disappointments, and joys."--Rainer Maia Rilke


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Saturday, October 27, 2012

Perfect Title for a Great Story

Primal by D.A. Serra

Adult Thriller

Alison is so normal so practically oozes Betty Crocker and plaid skirts.  She's a teacher with a small son, married to a man she loves.  When the family vacation at a fishing camp goes wrong, she suddenly turns into someone even she doesn't recognize.  Her husband and son are taken hostage and Alison realizes it is up to her to save them.  She goes to every length possible-physical and emotional-to save the ones she loves.  No one believes her when she says the evil isn't over yet.  She, and the reader along with everyone in the story, begins to question her only sanity and rationale.

This is such a good story and so scary.  But, not in a typical horror-story kind of way.  It's a thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat from the very beginning and doesn't let you go until you exhale in relief at the very end.  The title is perfect!  Primal is exactly the level Alison goes to-raw, urgent, fixated on survival!  You only usually see this level or raw emotion in male characters so seeing this level of physical and calculating engagement in a female character was so different.  The angst of the main character is so primal, so visceral--great stories don't need 'special effects'; the artwork of writing and crafting a good yarn is in perfect example here. 

At the end of the story, you're left with the question....What would anyone do in this situation?  What would I do?  It will leave you puzzling for awhile.

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