Review of Before I Wake
4 posts
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Before I Wake" by Cotton Mathers.]
Cotton Mathers’s Before I Wake is an atmospheric alien abduction story.
Asher has been plagued by a sleep disorder his entire life. As a child, crippling sleep paralysis left him terrified. Vague memories of shadowy figures are buried in his subconscious. As he grows up, he is unsure whether he saw the strange figures or if it was a figment of his imagination. Throughout his life, he is revisited by the same paralysis and the same creatures. As he gets older, he recognizes it for what it really is: alien abduction. Giving it a name does not make it any easier to understand. He is helpless to stop the abductions, and his sanity is barely intact.
This book is an interesting take on alien abduction. The aliens are neither the enemy nor an ally. They are portrayed as a more evolved lifeform that depends on humanity for its own survival. They see us the same way that we see animals, although not as a food source. While the aliens are unsettling, they are not terrifying. The elements of sci-fi are present enough to be interesting, but not so full of scientific jargon that it is difficult to understand. The character’s mental instability as he comes to terms with what is happening to him was very well done.
I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars. It is a very interesting alien story. The lack of elements of horror was refreshing in an abduction story, taking the aliens from something to be feared to just another lifeform trying to survive. I deducted one star because a lot of the story happened off-screen. We are told what happened after it happened, rather than getting to see it play out. I would have liked to see the abductions happen on page, rather than see the characters recall memories of them.
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Before I Wake
View: on Bookshelves |
Cotton Mathers’s Before I Wake is an atmospheric alien abduction story.
Asher has been plagued by a sleep disorder his entire life. As a child, crippling sleep paralysis left him terrified. Vague memories of shadowy figures are buried in his subconscious. As he grows up, he is unsure whether he saw the strange figures or if it was a figment of his imagination. Throughout his life, he is revisited by the same paralysis and the same creatures. As he gets older, he recognizes it for what it really is: alien abduction. Giving it a name does not make it any easier to understand. He is helpless to stop the abductions, and his sanity is barely intact.
This book is an interesting take on alien abduction. The aliens are neither the enemy nor an ally. They are portrayed as a more evolved lifeform that depends on humanity for its own survival. They see us the same way that we see animals, although not as a food source. While the aliens are unsettling, they are not terrifying. The elements of sci-fi are present enough to be interesting, but not so full of scientific jargon that it is difficult to understand. The character’s mental instability as he comes to terms with what is happening to him was very well done.
I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars. It is a very interesting alien story. The lack of elements of horror was refreshing in an abduction story, taking the aliens from something to be feared to just another lifeform trying to survive. I deducted one star because a lot of the story happened off-screen. We are told what happened after it happened, rather than getting to see it play out. I would have liked to see the abductions happen on page, rather than see the characters recall memories of them.
******
Before I Wake
View: on Bookshelves |
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