fair to say that this book is full of mystery amp magic from the very start.
The biggest mystery as how this can only be the author's second book His technique amp style is so polished, you'd think he'd been doing it for years!
The magic first comes in the evocative setting highly reminiscent of my own childhood growing up in that era, the halcyon days of running around in fields amp seeking adventure without/media warning us of "the dangers out there".
The characters are instantly identifiable with, kids you might have known from school, just known much about.
The other magic is the pure depth of the narrative, how someone of a young age deals with grief, the experience of the heart's first flutter, the fear of bullying amp nonconformity subject matters that we can perhaps all associate with from that time of life.
The supernatural element is sublime, purely because it's not over the top, This isn't another write by formula solution where said protagonist has to save the world, it's the wistfulness of wanting those epic, timeless films amp their to have kept going beyond their recognised body of work.
It's a joy to read and took me less than a week from ecover to cover, I highly recommend this to anyone at all, as I feel everyone can get something they'll appreciate from this.
Watch out for Andrew Barker, this man is going to go far! What a performance!
I totally loved this book.
I'm a film buff and I loved all of the references to old and 'not so old' films.
The idea behind the book is interesting and original and kept my attention all the way through.
There is lots of variety with the developing relationships between the main protagonists and I thought they were sensitively and realistically portrayed.
The narrator,Nigel Peever, is an actor and it really shows, His narration is superb. The sound effects/music really added to the overall effect,
Miss this one and you'll miss out on a real treat! A gently nostalgic ghost story set in thes, with three teenagers discovering an abandoned cinema that screens films made by ghosts, starring ghosts, for ghosts.
The lore behind the abandoned Electric is fantastic I loved everything about the cinema and its eerie denizens.
Barker clearly has an knack for imagined media: the fictitious, haunted films depicted here are spellbinding, even on the page.
But I longed for a mainstreampublisher version of this book, one that would have been more thoroughly edited.
As it is, The Electric is hampered by repetition, unconvincing dialogue and a laboured comingofage subplot.
Though I will say that the protagonists grief for his late father, and how he finds his way out of it, is beautifully drawn.
I still might read more by the author, as the underlying story is solid and filled with the kind of uncanny details I find fascinating.
sitelinkTinyLetter sitelinkLinktree After Sam inadvertently comes across a ruined old cinema called The Electric on the edge of town, he finds himself along with his friends, Emma and David drawn in a world where the likes of Humphrey Bogart and Lon Chaney are still making films, while Karloff and Lugosi appear in feature written by Edgar Allan Poe.
As the summer holidays wind down in, he comes to learn the mystery of the Electric cinema and his part to play in its long and strange history.
This is, simply put, a quite beautiful novel about love, friendships, movies, ghosts and loss, all wrapped up in a comingofage tale set in.
I loved it. Sam is a fantastic narrator and we quickly get his sense of loss I read it close to the first year anniversary of my dad passing away and it struck a lot of chords with me, as well as his attempts to understand a world beyond his own teenaged worries.
Emma is the perfect foil for him and I loved her feisty character though I do feel she gets a little shortchanged by the end of the story youll understand why when you read it, but no spoilers from me.
With a great sense of time and place, a deep love for films and their place in our hearts and an aching sense of loss that bleeds through every page, this is a terrific novel and I would very much recommend it.
The audible version provides not just a good story but an amazing
production, The story itself was unique but the narration and sound effects added by the narrator made this such an experience.
It reminded me of the radio shows my grandparents spoke of, but I never had the opportunity to listen to.
I have not listened to a book before with added effects, but I will certainly seek them out in the future.
Once I got used to listening with the sound effects, you came to expect them, and I was never disappointed.
Every time I thought something should be there, it was, The narrator does an excellent job voicing the characters not only do they each have their own voice, but also their own inflections and attitude.
For once, I was able to tell who was speaking and often how they felt long before the dialogue tag.
While I really liked the story, I am so very glad I did not read this as a book, because so much more is added by the narrator.
I recommend giving this book and certainly this narrator a try,
I was provided with a free copy of this audiobook for my honest review, The views expressed here are entirely my own, Andrew David Barkers novel The Electric isnt really a horror story, It has ghosts, to be sure, but if youre looking for creepy, chilling frights, look elsewherebut only after youve read The Electric.
This is an extraordinary book, a beautiful tale of loss, of teenage alienation and filmmaking and what it means to not just create art, but to want to create art.
An urge that sets the drawing hand to shaking and lights the imagination on fire,
As enjoyable as it is, The Electric doesnt lack flaws, Awkward phrasing and runon sentences created some stumbling blocks at times, I found myself having to reread certain passages to divine their meaning.
My other concern was the complete lack of an antagonist, Whenever one threatens to thwart protagonist Sam Crowhurst, it fades away quickly as a nonevent, This presented a feeling of safety in the text, an assurance of inevitability that everything would indeed play out as required, and hence eliminated the necessary dramatic element of tension.
Despite this, the novel is a book to be drawn into, one that keeps you turning the pages.
The love triangle of Emma, Sam, and David was realistically drawn with the ins and outs of young teenage infatuation.
Sams loss of his father and subsequent alienation from his mother in the wake of terrible grief also strikes home, very keenly.
These are real people, all of them, including Mean Stare Mandrake,
Barkers love of celluloid animates the text, giving what might have been a hohum haunting element true depth and character.
His knowledge of Bogies films, of Jean Harlow and Peter Lorre and other classic film greats is breathtaking in that he doesnt just describe how they were, but shows you what they might be and do and think after theyve gone.
Emotional without being maudlin, The Electric gives us glimpses of the world beyond death, and some of deaths landscape is quite disturbing.
Some spirits rest and some dont, and the ones who dont might show up in a dilapidated cinema one day.
If youre not lucky enough to stumble upon one in your daily travels, read The Electric instead.
Youll be glad you did,
originally published at Ginger Nuts of Horror: sitelink compost/ .