House of Dead Trees — By Rod Redux
For those of you who have read my previous entry about Mr. Redux, this review really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. But, just in case you missed it (or just don’t want to click the link above and read it now) it is this readers opinion that Mr. Redux is going to be the next Stephen King.
First, for all of you King fans out there know this: I love Stephen King. I always hesitate to say that I’m his Number One Fan for (hopefully) obvious reasons, but damn if it hasn’t felt that way for a very long time. In fact, I can say with all honesty (and experience) that he is the only “star” I would ever probably get arrested over if I saw him in real life. His writing, even the books I didn’t like (and yes, there were a few) took me to places and fired up my imagination in ways I will never be able to fully express to someone else — or for that matter, repay Mr. King.
Second, I am NOT writing this review in a positive light just because Mr. Redux commented on my review of the movie The Thing. Although I do freely admit to a moment of childish glee and indecision as to how to react (including whether I should even mention it here), I would never write a review that wasn’t true to my feelings about the subject matter.
Okay, so now that that is out of the way, on to the review…
The story centers around a group of paranormal investigators who get the chance of their lives (for their TV show “Ghost Scouts”) to investigate one the country’s most haunted houses — The Forester House. Now, if you are anything like me, the idea of investigating a haunted house sounds fabulous, but when work, family life and geography get in the way, a show or book about someone else doing it will do just fine. Such is the case with House of Dead Trees.
However, what this book does in addition to a haunted house tale, is give the book a backstory that in itself could be published as a short story or small novella. In fact, since the book starts out with the backstory, I was so enthralled with it that I didn’t want that part to end. Obviously it did, and we are then led into an entirely different story, with the backstory interwoven into it. That, my reading friends, is what I call a great book.
The biggest thing I fear whenever I write a review that is so glowing that you are let down once you crack the pages or press play. Although I went in expecting a lot from Mr. Redux , I was not disappointed one iota. But as you know, all stories, movies, and tall tales affect each of us differently. So please go in simply with the idea that this is supposed to be a pretty darn good book, and let your imagination do the rest.
PS — I do apologize for not updating here more regularly, but alas, real life does occasionally interfere and such is the case with yours truly. My promise to you is that I will update as often as possible and as long as my fingers still remember asdfjkl;.
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