Book Review: Apparition – Author Michaelbrent Collings

APPARITION
By Michaelbrent Collings

The Wills family has a new lease on life. Having sustained certain trauma and tragedy that would surely devour most people they move from the scene of their terror into a cozy, rustic rural home. Father Shane with 13 year old daughter Ella and 6 year old Matthew struggle with pick up the pieces of their shattered lives after wife and mother Kari attempts to murder the children, turn to suicide and is ultimately institutionalized.

Before the weary and despaired family get a chance to settle in little subtleties and nuances begin to unveil in the form of the paranormal and the macabre. Will the Wills family be strong enough to rise above the forces of darkness or will they succumb to the relentless evil unleashed from Apparition?

At first glance I was suspect this was going to be yet just another ghost story with a slightly different angle that’s been told again, again and again. The further I delved into Collings’ work the more enthralled and addicted I was. The author takes a very bold and most definitely original approach in drafting a tale on Filicide. This dreadful phenomenon is the act in which parents murder their own children. Each of the novel’s chapters commence with a bone chilling, harrowing journal depiction of one’s undisclosed observations of the ruthless, diabolical intent.

I must also commend the author for taking the approach of third person perspective. Yet at the same time the story is frequently told in Omni-persona point of view. We get a glimpse into the characters raw emotions from father Shane to Ella and even young, innocent Matthew. It’s brilliant in appeasing the readers’ sense of empathy, engaging and forever endearing us to find out what happens next to the seemingly doomed Wills family. It isn’t often a third person perspective can so eloquently illustrate the story. More often than not the opposite is achieved producing a very rigid, reporting like fashion that is completely void of any emotion or involvement.

There is some fine genre mashing of suspense, action, drama and of course paranormal horror. The author has keen sense of rising tension and delivering in all of the right places. I particularly enjoy Collings style as he combines a certain sense of simplistic prose to appease the mass market while at the same time tossing in the occasional zinger with eclectic vocabulary. It’s stimulation at its finest, most definitely making a fan of this critic. I’ve been fortunate enough to read another of this best selling story teller’s works titled The Haunted which is delightfully spooky in its own right.

The contrast between statistics and historical elements relating to Filicide in the journal entries and the fiction that lies beyond creates a gripping, pulse hammering journey that refuses to relent until the very final act. The conclusion that unfolds may cause you to sleep with the lights on for a spell or perhaps compel you to issue professional therapy invoice to one Michaelbrent Collings.

The epilogue that follows, unveiling some of the author’s inspiration for the story is undoubtedly touching

Definitely cut from an original cloth, if you’re interested in checking out something new that was perhaps bypassed on prior occasion, do yourself a favor and pick up Apparition. Yet be forewarned perhaps it is best reserved for day time reading.

Book Review: Apparition – Author Michaelbrent Collings