In a world where vampires and humans coexist, Detectives Aiden Lawson and Robert Garrison are after a vampire wanted for murder. This accused vampire is also hunted by the murder victim's brother, an assassin gone rogue from his clandestine agency. What these men will learn, is that this vampire has a secret - a secret that very powerful men and vampire alike will go to great lengths to acquire. The story follows the paths of these individuals as they uncover the truth. THE SPIRIT AND THE SHADOW is a mash-up of conspiracy and paranormal genres with suspense, vengeance, and BLOOD!
I received this book for free from Blog Tour in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Beware: This is not your typical turn the page and read book. There is conversation, there is pictures, and there is some gory pictures. Okay now that you have been warned.
I really liked this book/graphic novel/play almost. Here is the deal, it is written almost like a play with each character having their name preceding what they say. The only thing missing is the “exit stage right” although this could be a really good play. It is designed like a graphic novel in that it has images but the words go around the images not on them like most graphic novels. It is like a book, but there are a lot of pictures and fore-mentioned method of conversation.
This is the first book of a series and I would enjoy reading the rest, I mean the first page was kinda blah, but once you get into the story it is good. The graphics are cartoonish versus super realistic in facial reactions and eye color of the vampires. Although knowing that they have red eyes makes it a lot easier to discern who is a vamp and who isn’t.
The story moves, and I really like that about this book, I mean there isn’t any wasted space, every sentence, page, and graphic is telling the story at breakneck speed. Even though this is 179 pages long, it reads honestly like it is 50. Seriously I read it in like 40 minutes. and yes I could take a test on it. It is one of those books that you don’t want to put down, and I didn’t, even though it was 11 pm and I should have been asleep.
If you like stories about good vampires, bad vampires, scared vampires, and super humans this is a book for you. Yes you will giggle at the illustrations a little, but overall I predict that you will really like this bookish graphic novelish story by Thomas Lavalle.
The reason I am giving it a 4.5 is that the solid pages of images broke up the story too much. If there had been conversation on every page or conversation and 1 page of images and then back to conversation it would be nice, however there are some places were it is multiple pages of images, and honestly I started to forget where the story was going.
About Thomas Lavalle
I have been advised against announcing that I am a first-time author – that it is basically asking a reader to take a chance in my book even though I have no track record. I have no history in fiction writing, never won any awards, and never took a literature or writing class (outside of basic 101 level college courses). While not advised, it is the truth, and as honest as this bio is, so is my writing. My name is Thomas Lavalle. I am a first time writer. I also surf, read comics, and I’m a dedicated father and husband. If you’re interested in paranormal suspense - take a chance and check out my book!
