Official Review: Journey to Mystic Island
10 posts
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Journey to Mystic Island" by Susan Smith Davis.]
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Journey to Mystic Island is Susan Smith Davis’s true account of moving to the waterfront community in New Jersey and the strange events that followed. While it was interesting to learn how she and her husband came to purchase the house, the long renovation process strayed a little too far from what I had expected as I had only hoped for a short true ghost story. In this respect, the book description could have done better to provide a full and accurate overview of the memoir.
While the book can get incredibly suspenseful during the ghosts' visits, those moments are regrettably short-lived. A good portion of the book is composed of the author’s dragged monologues, still confused about what was going on. The story itself is very difficult to follow due to random timeline jumps. For example, it starts with an event years after the Davises had moved into their new home, then goes back to the moving day and how they first came up with the idea, switches to the present, and finally goes back to that first week after moving.
Besides the much-needed restructuring, there is also a litany of grammar and editing errors that needs attention. Other than that, sentences that begin with redundant filler words like “oh,” “well,” and “yes” make me wonder if the author was aiming for a more casual tone. Davis also uses scare quotes around many words and phrases to indicate that they are being used in special senses. Unfortunately, their meanings are most often unclear and confusing. Consider this sentence about her mystical experiences as a child for example: “Now these are not important events, not necessarily worth sharing but if you compare it by the nature of the age of experience, it was important to me ‘then’” (p. 4). When is “then”?
This book is an unusual memoir filled with strange events that happened to the author during her years of living in Mystic Island. Hers is a fascinating story, but the execution is regretfully disappointing. The story feels diluted, and it needs major restructuring and professional editing to improve the reading flow. For these reasons, I can only give Journey to Mystic Island1 out of 4 stars. I think people who enjoy paranormal reality shows like Ghost Hunters would definitely be interested in this memoir. Fans of mystery, thriller, and horror may find it boring since the book isn’t exactly petrifying.
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Journey to Mystic Island
View: on Bookshelves |
Journey to Mystic Island is Susan Smith Davis’s true account of moving to the waterfront community in New Jersey and the strange events that followed. While it was interesting to learn how she and her husband came to purchase the house, the long renovation process strayed a little too far from what I had expected as I had only hoped for a short true ghost story. In this respect, the book description could have done better to provide a full and accurate overview of the memoir.
While the book can get incredibly suspenseful during the ghosts' visits, those moments are regrettably short-lived. A good portion of the book is composed of the author’s dragged monologues, still confused about what was going on. The story itself is very difficult to follow due to random timeline jumps. For example, it starts with an event years after the Davises had moved into their new home, then goes back to the moving day and how they first came up with the idea, switches to the present, and finally goes back to that first week after moving.
Besides the much-needed restructuring, there is also a litany of grammar and editing errors that needs attention. Other than that, sentences that begin with redundant filler words like “oh,” “well,” and “yes” make me wonder if the author was aiming for a more casual tone. Davis also uses scare quotes around many words and phrases to indicate that they are being used in special senses. Unfortunately, their meanings are most often unclear and confusing. Consider this sentence about her mystical experiences as a child for example: “Now these are not important events, not necessarily worth sharing but if you compare it by the nature of the age of experience, it was important to me ‘then’” (p. 4). When is “then”?
This book is an unusual memoir filled with strange events that happened to the author during her years of living in Mystic Island. Hers is a fascinating story, but the execution is regretfully disappointing. The story feels diluted, and it needs major restructuring and professional editing to improve the reading flow. For these reasons, I can only give Journey to Mystic Island1 out of 4 stars. I think people who enjoy paranormal reality shows like Ghost Hunters would definitely be interested in this memoir. Fans of mystery, thriller, and horror may find it boring since the book isn’t exactly petrifying.
******
Journey to Mystic Island
View: on Bookshelves |
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