Into the Fire

The first book I read by Travis Thrasher was Isolation reviewed here for the CFBA Tour. From what I understand Isolation was Travis’s first attempt at horror. Ghostwriter follows in the same genre and I’d say Travis has found his niche. I have one of his earlier novels in my TBR pile.

Ghostwriter is written in every point of view known to authors, and may I say it is done well. While editors can be sticklers about kinds of and shifting POVs and where they’re used, Travis ignores the rules and plugs in different characters’ thoughts within and without chapters, and I guarantee his readers will raptly follow along deciphering who’s who and trying to unravel this horrific tale of plagiarism, serial murder, manifestations of an angry young man who is supposed to be dead, and a widowed author of horror novels who suffers from sorrow and severe writer’s block.

I must admit I kept thinking of two things as I read this book: David Ryan Long’s (Bethany House editor) first novel Ezekiel’s Shadow about a horror writer and the film adaptation of a Stephen King short story “Secret Window” about a writer who slips into a delusional state while in the middle of divorce and writer’s block. There are a few similarities to both. The protagonist of Ghostwriter, Dennis Shore, is lost without his wife who has been gone almost a year when he reluctantly sends their only daughter away to college. Soon afterward the nightmarish visions-slash-delusions begin with a zombie-esque young woman at his door who warns him not to allow his newest novel to be released as scheduled. This is only the beginning of the ghostly encounters he faces reminiscent of scenes in each of his novels. The final episode from this newest book which is at the crux of these terrifying visits, telephone calls, texts, and emails from a young man named Cillian Reed, who seems able to read his mind, involves his daughter and finds Dennis at the end of his ability to seek a plausible solution to an irrational set of frightening circumstances.

Travis did a worthy job of capturing the explicitness of repressed grief, the dire need for controlling life issues after losing the love of one’s life, and the anger and stunted abilities associated with an unbeliever who has lost the sole person he associates with his inspiration and reason to write, to live, to enjoy anything. Dennis’s love for his wife and daughter is palpable. In spite of the protagonist’s bitterness and rage at a God he insists isn’t there, even though his wife and daughter are believers, Travis has made Dennis an empathetic character precisely because of his depth of love.

There is a lot of bona fide horror going on in this novel, so if your heart grows weak at the hint of brutality, I wouldn’t recommend this book for you. However, if you enjoy a novel where you’re kept guessing at reality and are under a constant barrage of intense psychological mystery, Ghostwriter is just the book for you.

(Noting my copy is an ARC [Advanced Reader Copy], there were several typos and wrong words which started as early as Page 17. Hoping these were corrected in the final copies.)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0446505587

Father, you designed Travis Thrasher and you know his heart for you. Please continue to watch over him and his family and lead him in all of his writing endeavors, blessing his efforts to glorify you. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.