A review by ashleyjapan
The Dead Path by Stephen M. Irwin
2.0
When reading this book, I found myself feeling more and more disappointed as I went along. While the story was interesting, it was not the eerie ghost story that I had been hoping for. Instead of the paranormal, I got black magic. So my review is a little biased in that we were not off to a good start.
I found the writing to be quite evocative without being wordy, but I felt like the book started off really slow. The promising aspects of haunting and ghosts became increasingly incidental to the plot, and I thought that the story would have been better if it had left that out completely and focused on the antagonistic presence of the woods to begin with. Similarly, I didn't get why it was so important to focus on the Samhain/Beltane aspect of things, when we don't have any other Irish connections for 90% of the book. I guess a lot of the things that happen seemed contrived, and just got put in for the scare factor. Unfortunately, it wasn't scary. Gross yes, but scary, no.
On the other hand, the story does roll well enough along. It was interesting enough, and once I realized what I was reading I got on board and went along for the ride. However, this book didn't really satisfy what I was looking for, so I can only give it the "it was ok" rating of two stars.
I would recommend this book for people interested in stories about dark magic and familiars, not for those looking for a creepy ghost story like I was!
I found the writing to be quite evocative without being wordy, but I felt like the book started off really slow. The promising aspects of haunting and ghosts became increasingly incidental to the plot, and I thought that the story would have been better if it had left that out completely and focused on the antagonistic presence of the woods to begin with. Similarly, I didn't get why it was so important to focus on the Samhain/Beltane aspect of things, when we don't have any other Irish connections for 90% of the book. I guess a lot of the things that happen seemed contrived, and just got put in for the scare factor. Unfortunately, it wasn't scary. Gross yes, but scary, no.
On the other hand, the story does roll well enough along. It was interesting enough, and once I realized what I was reading I got on board and went along for the ride. However, this book didn't really satisfy what I was looking for, so I can only give it the "it was ok" rating of two stars.
I would recommend this book for people interested in stories about dark magic and familiars, not for those looking for a creepy ghost story like I was!