Review by alley_cat96 -- Beyond the Higher Ground

[alley_cat96]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Beyond the Higher Ground" by Thomas A. Brigger.]

---

2 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

"Beyond the Higher Ground" by Thomas A. Brigger; a seemingly straightforward tale of mystery, suspense, and loss, quickly gained within a style of categorical horror; all of which seemed to be crammed into the ending three or four chapters, then magically withdrawn in the final chapter to make way for an unnecessary and blatantly last-minute plot point.

Tucker Mason's story is quite intriguing in regards to his dealings with loss, panic, fear, and love; and the connections he makes to the people of Low Creek and and the surrounding Bright's Mountain area are endearing. What is not appreciated, is Tucker saying how everyone felt the same for Sally, and then several chapters later - after hardly any interaction between the two - Tucker suddenly has partially strong feelings for her, and thus decides to try and stay away from her; which ends up with random interspersing of Sally's entire character in the rest of the book until the last few chapters.

Another issue within the book is that there are a multitude of descriptions that ramble throughout paragraphs; causing one to want to skip over a few paragraphs at a time. Thankfully, there are no spelling or inherent sentencing mistakes, and it was well edited; other than within the chapter where Zach and his brother are introduced to Tucker, and one and a half paragraphs later, Mr. Briggs has written Zach's name as Jake. And yet another confusing aspect of the story is that most characters are referred to by their first name, and Tucker is introduced in the sentence, 'She's gone.... Tuck", and then introduces his name as Tucker Mason; yet through ninety-seven percent of the book, his character is referred to as Mason, and there are only one or two other characters who go by their last names - with their first names never being mentioned.

The original plot line that the book started with was wonderful, albeit with unnecessary swearing throughout all points, but once the drug cartel was introduced, the tale lost its initial focus and made the book rather confusing to follow. The drug cartel insertion also led to needless violence and shameless, gory death in the latter pages. In all actuality, those specific scenes could make a reader feel rather ill if not accustomed to such point blank annihilation.

Rather sad, but well written, was the portrayal of the effects drugs can have on people, and their towns; and how controlling and abusive people can easily alter the mental abilities of those they so choose to get involved with. The dereliction of Low Creek and Kingsport and Bright's Mountain leads to a sense of lost hope and despair within the townspeople, which welcomingly ties in with the state of affairs within the drug cartel storyline.

All in all, I give "Beyond the Higher Ground" a rating of 2 out of 4. It didn't receive a 1, because there were several parts of the original story points that were extremely enjoyable and riveting to read. It didn't receive a 3 because of the many unnecessary descriptions, violence, and swearing which were prevalent throughout the lion's share of the book. Overall a decent story, but not one that I would be likely to recommend to a friend.

******
Beyond the Higher Ground
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes