4 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
The Disembodied by Anthony Hains is a psychological thriller of just over 300 pages. The book is free to read with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. It is available to buy as either a paperback book or an e-book with a price of $14.99 and $3.49 respectively.
Griffin suffers from something his psychologist calls depersonalization disorder. Sometimes he feels like he's floating above himself even while brushing his teeth or sitting on the beach. Lately, he's even taken to seeing a red-headed boy named Simon. His Aunt Veronica thinks that he's under attack from an evil spirit; she even wants to have her pastor perform an exorcism on him. His mother, however, puts a little more faith in the psychological than the religious. Still, Griffin seems to be getting worse. Other than his psychologist, the only people that he can confide in are his grandfather (Soren) and his cousin (Tanner.)
The plot of this book is quite fascinating and kept me guessing throughout. With a book like this, I can't summarize too much without giving the whole novel away. Therefore, you are going to have to trust me when I say that there are twists and turns you won't see coming. There have been quite a few endeavors by authors into the psychological genre; some successful, while others not so much. Mr. Hains, being a psychologist himself, very successfully delves into the mysteries of the mind.
This book is mainly told from the third person point of view. However, there is a chapter that begins each of the three sections in this book in first person point of view. These chapters are from the perspective of Soren given in a narrator fashion. It's very easy to follow along with which character is talking which makes the book accessible to most readers.
The characters were very realistic. I found myself disliking the bad guys while empathizing with Griffin in what he suffers. Since the story is mainly focused around Griffin, he was my favorite character. The secondary characters didn't come into play much, other than his cousin Tanner; yet, since this is more a story of the mind, this didn't present a problem.
I have only two small possibly negative items that I would like to point out about this book. First, the first forty percent or so of the book almost comes across as simply one boy's struggles with his life. I see no way around this with a plot line of this nature, and I was still interested in finding out what was going to happen. Yet, I was starting to think that this was simply another coming of age story when the tide turned. Second, there are some very graphic elements to this book in the nature of violence and abuse. I believe that Mr. Hains told the story with due delicacy, but this might be too much for those with a weak stomach.
Overall, I very much enjoyed this book. I rate The Disembodied 4 out of 4 stars. There were very few errors, the plot kept me guessing and invested in the book and the characters practically leaped off the page. I would highly recommend this story to those that enjoy the psychological thriller genre.
******
The Disembodied
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like kandscreeley's review? Post a comment saying so!
