Sunday 3 July 2016

Anomaly by Caitlin Lynagh - Book Review

Anomaly
The Soul Prophecies
By:  Caitlin Lynagh
Publish Date:  January 27, 2016
by Troubador
Genre:  Paranormal Fantasy, Romance, Mystical, Science Fiction
Pages:  264 PDF
Source:  Bostick Communications/Author Publicist

After Kyle loses his childhood sweetheart, Alice Lynam, he spends two years trying to bury his past and move on with his life.

On his twenty-first birthday, he receives Alice's notebook and discovers that two pages are missing. Kyle is forced to revisit his past and realises that perhaps his life isn’t as coincidental as it seems.
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I was drawn to Anomaly because of the everything-is-connected theme portrayed through Kyle’s attachment to his sweetheart, Alice, even after her death, and the hint that there is something bigger at play here. Out of the box ideas always get my mind churning.

Right away we meet Kyle, Alice, Sophia, Ahrl of the Thirteen, and Kyle’s sister, Hailey, the main characters, some of whom are from different dimensions but are interconnected so the reader needs to pay attention. Sophia acts as a sort of living connector between alien watcher, Ahrl of the Thirteen, the deceased Alice, and living Kyle. Much of the time we are with Kyle as he very slowly works his way through his deeply heartfelt loss of Alice.

The time/space themes presented are intriguing. One such is that even after death, we are all still connected in some way that the living don’t comprehend. I liked reading Alice’s POV as she hovered around Kyle from the afterlife. It seemed too bad that he wasn’t aware of her at the beginning. The novel also suggests that there are non-earth beings involved in these processes.

Another interesting concept (pg 163) is that something which is not possible to a person at this present moment (because of current conditions) may become possible at a future time. Also, the concept is presented that there are physical possibilities available right now (one could leave their house and go to the grocery store), but there are also imaginary possibilities (teleport to Paris). All these possibilities are interconnected and affected by decisions made by us every moment of every day. It made me wonder if we could somehow access all of these possibilities from the now.

While the novel presents many interesting ideas, I found elements of the story too slow to unfold. I was frustrated that Kyle took so long to get into Alice’s journal, and to start getting to know Sophia. As well, the story is very evenly paced with too much ‘telling’ and daily routine stuff that makes it somewhat banal reading. Bringing in more of both Arhl and Sophia would have helped perk things along, as well as more varied sentence length, etc.

Fav quote pg 25:
“Hailey shrugged. She wanted to be a writer and the best way she could learn to write was by reading other authors’ books and to practise. Tank smiled and massaged his right shin.”

4.0 stars for interesting space/time concepts and overall well put together story for a debut effort. I feel the writing just needs tweaking to keep the reader avidly engaged throughout.

My thanks to author, Caitlin, for a reading copy via Bostick Communications for the purpose of an unbiased review. You will find her at these internet links:

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