Sarah's Library

5/3 - I have no idea how Adam connects with Darren or what on Earth is going on with all the weirdness. Is Adam the lost child of the 'Nocturnals' and in their attempts to reclaim him they're murdering anyone who gets in their way. The description of the 'Nocturnals'' faces kind of reminds me Michael Myers' chalk white plaster mask. Who called Raya and caused the mystery bike wheels to spin? Was it the 'Nocturnals'? Some kind of astral projection of Adam? A ghostly version of Darren from the past? And what about Darren's inferno dream? Did it nearly happen and it's a memory? Is it a warning from the past or a threat from the 'Nocturnals'? There are so many possibilities that my mind is gong round and round trying to figure it out before Ransom 'tells' us. My favourite of the three 'horror' books from the library. To be continued...

A little while later - What the hell was going on in Chapter 12 with Sheila? There is so much weird stuff going on it's hard to keep track of it all. When I read the blurb this book sounded like it was going to be about an evil boy taken in by the Lynwoods who then begin to experience Amityville-like goings-on, eventually leading to the boy's, or the family's deaths. I did not expect Adam to be what seems like, at the moment, some kind of pawn. The appearance of the 'Nocturnals' was even more surprising (I thought Adam was imagining things to begin with), as they make me think of some kind of alien who're trying, unsuccessfully, to assimilate into the human population by making themselves look human, but can't get it right, and so end up looking more like nightmarish monsters than humans, which is thwarting their plans for...whatever it is they're planning. To be continued...

6/3 - On page 151 the way Adam is describing the fact that things seem different, especially the cars and self-checkout at the supermarket might be a clue that he's from the past. He doesn't believe he could possibly be in the future because whenever that happens in the movies people are always dressed in tin foil clothes and driving flying cars. Those kind of movies sound like the stuff of the 60s, like Flash Gordon or Lost in Space, around the time when Darren would have been young. Was that a clue that Adam is Darren, somehow transported to the future for, as yet unknown reasons?

A few hours later - Okay, so not a past version of Darren, but a 'friend' of Darren's who he treated dreadfully in some way or other. Adam's memories of movies set in the future with flying cars and tin foil clothes may still mean that he's somehow been transported from Darren's childhood. The fact that he's a ghostly apparition who was treated badly (translated: tormented and possibly even murdered) reminds of an episode of Supernatural. Hell, I've seen so many horror/supernatural shows that everything reminds me of something else. There are no new plots, just different ways of telling them. To be continued...

7/3 - Where'd Thursday go? Oh, that's right I spent most of it on a plane, crossing the date line. So, here we are on Friday with another update on Christopher Ransom's The Orphan. Currently of the opinion that Adam is a vengeful spirit who's not that vengeful, yet, because he doesn't know he's dead and has been for about 30 years. Not clear on who killed Adam - abusive father or stupid kids taking bullying to the next level, but when Adam works it out I think the vengefulness will become apparent. Still no idea of how the 'Nocturnals' fit into the whole story. I'm still asking myself "why are they chasing Adam"? Is that really who's driving the brown van? Is Sheila a 'Nocturnal'? And when she talks about her brother being the reason for her current situation does she mean Adam or Darren? To be continued...

13/3 - After finishing The Orphan I came to see if my opinion followed the general GR consensus - it seems it does not. I'm one of the few writing a positive review. Many of the things other reviewers found detrimental to the story I didn't mind or found natural to the mysterious and confusing flow of a horror story. Obviously I had it completely wrong, but at the same time I picked up on some of the clues Ransom gave us to who Adam really was. The reader was told that the book was a certain type of book with a certain type of plot and so that's what I was expecting, looking for as I read, but then it turned out to something quite different and I was completely shocked when the true story was revealed. The ending was really good, although my brain started hurting when Adam met the man from the bike auction and I really had to concentrate my thoughts in order to untangle the wool ball of a puzzle that happened with who was who and when they were who they were. I am definitely going to continue reading Ransom's books.