Synopsis: Alerted to strange happenings in Clayton Falls, Colorado, Bobby sends the boys to check it out. A speeding car with no driver, a homeless man pursued by a massive Gila monster, a little boy chased by uprooted trees it all sounds like the stuff of nightmares. The boys fight to survive a series of terrifying night times, realizing that sometimes the nightmares don't go away even when you're awake...
(Synopsis has been corrected...there were a few grammar mistakes on Amazon.)
Oh, John.
Darling John Passarella.
When it comes to the Supernatural novels...you are quickly becoming one of my favourite authors along with Keith R.A.Decandido.
With your grammar also being a vast improvement on some of the previous novels too, the three that shall not be mentioned against, you are like an angel brought down from book heaven to bestow upon us this wonderful novel.
I guess what I'm trying to say is:
We're cool man.
This novel, along with Rite of Passage, is one of the best novels in this series.
This is the same author who has just brought out the latest book (as of writing this) Cold Fire, which I am yet to read. Coming this month is another book in the series by Tim Waggoner who is also great at writing Supernatural books and he's writing Mythmaker, but more about him next week.
For now it's about John Passarella and his nightmare fuel.
Literally.
So lets begin!
Straight off the bat I can say that the brother's are back together in this one!
Winchester hugs for all!
With Soulless Sam out of the picture the Winchester bond is back in business and John is yet another author who catches their relationship perfectly.
There's not much more to say on that, Sam and Dean are back on track and it makes for some great reading in Passarella's capable hands.
Thankfully in this book there aren't any other primary characters that take attention away from the pinnacle twosome that you're there for and boy does that make a difference.
The story doesn't feel over packed and weak because it's just the boys on another case.
We don't have to sit through the ridiculously played out introductions of characters who will never appear again and have them take up more time that ultimately ends up being wasted.
Can't say the same about characters overstaying their welcome in the show, but I digress.
The case is one that I thoroughly enjoyed and knew I would straight from the get go. I admit that I was slightly hesitant when I found out another one was coming out, after the last three travesties I was worried what this novel would bring.
The synopsis did give me more hope and the fact it was a completely different author sold me on the idea.
I love things about nightmares becoming a reality, it's one of those subjects where someone could tell me a movie involving it is horrible and I'll still want to watch it.
I guess I like delving into the psyche of people and find out their inner workings, I suppose it appeases the part of me that's more 'stalk and mentally torment your victims'.
And boy, are some of these nightmares understandable, especially the spiders.
Man, I freakin' hate spiders.
Having common yet understandable nightmares coming to life definitely helped you feel for the characters, something many of the past cases and kind of struggled to do.
You know as a fellow human being that you should feel compassion for these people and yet half the time I just never really cared, but the thought of someone struggling with a massive spider sent a cold shiver down my spine.
I'm bad enough with small spiders that are barely the size of my fingertip, let alone one the size of a car.
Now whilst I enjoyed the whole nightmare aspect, I do wish we had spent more time on Sam and Dean's fears.
Bit of a spoiler here.
But you seem one of them face off against the nightmare ejected Soulless Sam and it just didn't last long enough for my personal preference, it was only about a page and a half long and I think it would have been wonderful if that had been explored a little longer or even been a main part of the story honestly.
I mean with Sam being fragile as it is and having to be careful of the wall and all that literal hell, it'd have been interesting to see how he and Dean would react to odd goings on involving the younger Winchester, but I guess you have to be careful with the original show storyline.
Other than I have no complaints.
It's a great novel that was enjoyable to read and had I not had to keep pausing between reads I'd have shot through it within a few hours, there were some nights where I was meant to be sleeping for work the next day and was instead led in bed reading by torchlight.
I'd blame this book for my terrible sleeping pattern, but I know that started a while before it.
Overall, it's a solid book and definitely worth a read for any fan of Supernatural.
Also, there's my original review again!
