1 out of 4 stars
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ELVIS BLUE
Lee Roberts, published by Clean Reads,
ISBN 978-1-62135-770-4.
Elvis Blue turns sixteen years old and realizes that he's now a man. Looking at his reflection, he feels the opposite especially because to him, he lacks the manly feature. Apart from this insecurity, he has developed feelings for the girl next door but shuns from relationships because of his parent's marriage which seems to be on the rocks, caused by his drunkard dad.
He decides that he wants to be a ghost hunter and chooses the Old Simmons house, a mansion that has been vacant for four decades and is rumored haunted, as his first site. He embarks on this journey together with his friends Maria, Monk and his dog Sherlock, a birthday gift from his dad. They however are not the only ones interested in the house and they soon find themselves in the middle of gruesome murders.
Elvis Blue by Lee Roberts is a book about a young man who has insecurities as he turns a year older and unsure of what to do with his life especially now that he has started familiarizing with love for the first time. He decides to become a ghost hunter and together with his friends visit an old haunted house as their first hunting site. What next when they realize that they aren't the only ones sneaking into the mansion? What happens when a series of murders start happening and are all connected to the late Josiah Simmons, who killed many people four decades ago in the same mansion they are interested in? Who is this new killer and why is he/she killing?
These are the questions that come to mind as you read the book. The author had a brilliant idea that he decided to turn into a story. The book is interesting especially when it brings out the aspect of teenagers and how their life is somehow complicated. How finding love for the first time can be challenging and the insecurity that comes with adolescence. I love the way he brings out the theme of parenting; how kids should have a relationship with their parents and how parents should be careful what they do and say around their kids.
The book is also funny where Manny gets irritated when he's trying to reason with the kids but they keep drifting away from the main topic. Also Isaac, Derek and Amber tend to bring out humor with their obvious foolishness and naiveness; the only positive aspects of the book.
I rate Elvis Blue 1 out of 4 star. I feel like the author had a beautiful idea of what his story should be but he rushed it such that so many aspects in the story are misplaced. To begin with, the murder scenes are poorly described with little to no evidence that would trill the readers into doing the detective work themselves. We are only told of the shape in which the victims are in and thats all. Then, I don't know how some of the things mentioned in the story really relate to it: the Mike Marchetti Pizza coupon, the Ruth Simmons' picture which should have been used as evidence during investigation but is ignored till we are finally told that she's the woman in the picture, Annie Verguenza's business card is mentioned irrelevantly in the book; I was expecting Maria to call her and maybe establish some kind of relationship with her before unmasking her, my opinion though.
Then, the story flows well till ghosts start turning flashlights on and off in the name of communication and for for a second I felt like shutting the book and forgetting about it completely. I know this book is about ghost hunting but the paranormal scenarios in it are brought out in a comic manner rather than thrilling. Again, we are not told why Josiah Simmons committed the murders 40 years ago neither are we told how the current three murders are connected; just a quick mention of the victims being interested in the late Josiah's property.
Why is Detective Palmero in the story anyway? He is supposed to investigate but all we see is his curiosity and that's where it ends; no deep detective job involved, maybe some undercover job and trespassing or law breaking and annoying the big boss, none. Then the way Annie takes credit for all the murders, its more of funny than thrilling, I just laughed to tears. Don't get me started on how the kids speak to people who are older than them; yes, teenagers can be quite stubborn, but the kind of parent-child conflict demonstrated by this book is extreme. Eg. The scene where Elvis and his dad are arguing over the Van at the garage and Mr. Gary Blue insults Maria and Elvis raises his hand against him, then Derek intervenes in a rude manner. Finally, there are countless grammatical errors. This book is readable but does not answer most of the questions that pop up in the readers minds as they continue reading.
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Elvis Blue
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