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Saturday, November 30, 2013

THE LIST OF FIVE by J. SCOTT SHARP

Author's Creative Brand:  "The List of Five"
Genre:  YA Horror / Fantasy
Length:  125 pages
Self-published

My 9 Reader Hot-Button Considerations:

1.  World's Immersion:

We take a seat at the table of J.Scott Sharp's role-playing game of imaginative youth.  Awkward geek socialization finds safe haven in acceptance and juvenile hierarchy.  This table of clattering dice and characterization, with inference to meaningful quests brought to mundane Life, becomes the preamble bubble about-to-burst.

Arizona is a blazing hot place, both in environment, as well as in the trials of tweens growing up in a harsh world.  Parents can die on you early, cult predators can swoop in to prey on developing minds, and friends can hide intimate wounds one only notices when looking a little closer than expected.

Playing at being heroic shifts with the unraveling of a recurring dream that assaults Richie Lyons' senses, forcing the young protagonist to examine messages bombarding his brain beyond an imagination game. Heroism becomes the shouldering of psychic burdens alone, as in the silence of youth grappling with issues beyond maturing capability; finally, pain transforms into action, heading off one damning prophecy of fire...