Traumatized and Dark Souls: An Overview

Author: Alexander S. Brown.

Traumatized is a book by Alexander S. Brown that was released in October of 2008. The novel is a collection of over a dozen tales that explore voodoo, witchcraft, and the lives of serial killers. The terse writing is flawed by the lack of development in characters and plots as the stories "Bloodlines," "The End of Summer," and "Althea's Last Dance" struggle to form a social message.

"Bloodlines" is the best of the three short stories reviewed here as four distant cousins search greedily for long lost treasure. Enter character Draven the secretive antagonist who has pulled each of the three characters together for a midnight romp through a haunted mansion. Cue one whiny character named Dustin, some detective work, and "Bloodlines" unravels succinctly with some initial slow pacing creating minor stumbling blocks in the first few pages.

Writing/story/development: 8.
Characters/believability: 7.5.
Denouement/unravelling/message: 7.

Overall: 7.5.

Continues...

"The End of Summer" is a shorty story of thirty-one pages that involves voodoo, infidelity, and murder. The southern flavour comes through stronger in this story, but the sparseness of pages means that lovers Summer and Eddie are not fleshed out fully. The character shift of Eddie from loving boyfriend to cold-blooded killer is too quick, which leaves the ending more shocking than truly horrifying.

Writing/story/development: 6.5.
Characters/believability: 7.
Denouement/unravelling/message: 5.5.

Overall: 6.5.

The poorest of the three short stories reviewed here was "Althea's Last Dance." This brief look at the life of serial killer, who is identified as Mr. Henry Grievel, does not create enough substance in character or plot as one murderer is killed with no chance of redemption or understanding. The ending is like meeting a brick wall at 80 km/hr that appears out of nowhere.

Writing/story/development: 6.
Characters/believability: 6.
Denouement/unravelling/message: 5.

Overall: 5.6.

Traumatized, despite a few poorly structured stories, is an easy recommend for two reasons. Firstly, all the writing from Alexander S. Brown is concise with each word serving a purpose. For seconds, if a reader does not like one story then there are fourteen more to choose from. Available now for purchase through Barnes and Noble or Amazon.ca, Traumatized is a good book to sit down to when time is limited and one has a desire for the darker side of life.

Have a look at a Book trailer for Traumatized here:



Have a look at the official Traumatized website:

Traumatized Souls

Or at Alexander S. Brown's website:

Alexander at Damned Souls

And then purchase for yourself:



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Posted in: 2008,book,book review,crime drama,drama,horror,review,thriller