Book Review: Dead Reflections – Author Carol Weekes

DEAD REFLECTIONS
By: Carol Weekes
Journalstone Publishing
256 Pages

Journalstone Publishing continues to be your link to artistic talent, this time around showcasing the works of author Carol Weekes. Dead Reflections is a collection of diverse format and subject matter, yet each excerpt remains the same in ghoulishly delightfully dark tales of the unexplained. One novel, five short stories and two poems cap off this delectable ensemble. It’s refreshing to see an author illustrate a number of varying situations each as spell binding and twisted as the next.

Dead Reflections: Our opening novella is a tale of beyond after a family purchases their countryside dream home only to realize a mirror from within has the capability of luring and entrapping your very soul for eternity.

Autopsy: A creepy, graphic poem not for the faint of heart would make Clive Barker proud.

Smoke and Leaves: A father and husband battles wills and wit with a maniacal carnival concession holder.

Weather System: As a tornado wreaks havoc over the great lakes a family man resides to a premonition his wife and daughter may not make it home.

Cadaver Extremis: A brutally vivid poem for fans of the zombie genre.

Black Limousine: When a mysterious vehicle rolls into town it’s residents ponder over the connection between its arrival and the sudden body count steadily rising.

The Wishing Well: There may very well be only one way to appease the creatures from down below.

The Umbrella Man: A sinister stranger comes looking for its lost living talisman.

One indication an enthusiastic reader has stumbled across something very special is when we’re able to detect the author in question is also a fan of the genre. Far too often a writer (either veteran or novice) gets into a specific genre based solely on advice or where they see the most profitable market. It’s indicative in the final product. Needless to state its crucial to be passionate about your chosen project as it is so clearly the case in Dead Reflections. Something about Weekes writing is reflective that the lady is not entirely right. I mean this in the most complimentary way of course. Being of a bizarre nature or way of thinking is most definitely an attribute in our chosen genre as opposed to a determent.

Perhaps what I enjoyed most about Dead Reflections is the variety styled format. It’s not precisely an anthology so to speak. The themes between the pages range from spirits from the beyond to unexplained creatures and natural phenomenon. Her poetry evokes a captivating spirit, emotion that is borderline shameful in intensity and illicit depiction. Each of the short stories are as compelling as the next. The characters are composed from a vast background both male and female.

Author Carol Weekes seems to have a firm grasp upon the concept of leaving just a hint of imagination to the reader. Many writers fall into the pitfall of spelling the exposition, dialogue and action out for the readership. This style or prose is fine in some cases but a truly talented writer delivers the goods in such manner the reader is just as much a part of the story as the characters within and of course its creator. Weekes leads us along each journey of the twisted and macabre with consistent rising tension forever feeding fuel to our ravenous appetite for carnage and mayhem.

Her descriptions are borderline perverse in description, painting a kaleidoscope of imagery within the audience’s minds. Quite often our sense of sound, taste, touch and smell is provoked reflection of a tale much larger than life and realistic than one can fathom. The afterword found at the back of Dead Reflections provides some most intriguing answers about inspiration and some of the chilling experiences this author endured as form of inspiration. I for one am thrilled at the notion of embarking upon any future adventures if lead by one Carol Weekes.

Book Review: Dead Reflections – Author Carol Weekes