Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales
Quick & Dirty: A suspenseful thriller filled with wonderful writing, only to leave you wide awake at night and unable to sleep.
Opening Sentence: I walk through walls.
The Review:
The infamous Daniel Waters has written another paranormal masterpiece. Break My Heart 1,000 Times is filled with thrills, chills, and a large paranormal presence, that it will leave readers transfixed. Seeing the dead is a part of life, and since the "Event," the aftermath has continued. Ghosts were not an abnormal part of life anymore, it was now a part of the norm. Even in Veronica's household, her father's ghost is a constant reminder of how life was now. Sickness and lingering death, environmental damage, and chaos were the result of the horrific "Event."
Mr. Bittner, one of Veronica's high school teachers had lost his daughter, Eva. A ghost named Mary Greer, a remembrance of Bittner's daughter, was killed in February, eight years ago. Mary had been one of the first ghosts to make regular appearances, immediately after the "Event." Mary had appeared to Mr. Bittner before her death, and led to allegations of her murder. Every teen at Montcrief high school had accused Mr. Bittner as Mary's killer, and only a poem that someone mysteriously left on his desk, was the proof of his innocence. Veronica and Kirk take it upon themselves to investigate, and in doing so has uncovered an unimaginably dark and dire plot.
Ever since the "Event," Veronica Calder stopped fearing ghosts. For Veronica, the ghosts were irritating results of the "Event." The most disturbing thing for Veronica was knowing that like her father, people she knew were gone, and they were not. Everything that has been thrown Veronica's way adds to her character, her personality, and her strength.
Kirk Lane is haunted by many things. For forgetting the anniversary of the "Event," for not telling Veronica that he likes her, and for wanting to push all ghost-related things out of his life. Kirk represented a certain type of strength, of acceptance, and of a person who wanted to move on, past the "Event." Mr. Bittner, to me represented the sorrow in the world. To me, he was the percentage of the population that couldn't accept and move on. He was stuck, with his nagging wife, searching for his daughter, and constantly seeing reminders of who was missing. Janine represented the other percentage of the population that just couldn't accept, period. Fear ruled her life, as well as never allowing herself any strength.
Waters world is amazing. From the "Event" to the ghosts, he spares no expense at the detail of this world. The history of how it all came about was interesting, to say the least. I feared for my dreams each time a ghost would appear in the story. There were definitely goose bumps that crawled up my skin, and I loved every minute of it.
Like Waters' previous works, his writing is superb. There is a shift in tone when the point of view moves from character to character. Each voice has a definitive personality, reflective of the characters' persona. Even when talking about a ghost, there's a definite chill factor that I experienced, and as a reader, that is wonderful writing skills. Break My Heart 1,000 Times has a perfect pacing to match the theme and tone of the story, slowing down when need be, but always and consistently moving at a constant pace.
Break My Heart 1,000 Times is a great paranormal story, with many promises of psych serial thrills. Throw out your expectations, and live in the moment. But don't wait too long to pick this up. Like Waters says, "Life is short, and death is forever."
P.S. Break My Heart 1,000 Times will be a movie. I cannot wait, especially after reading the amazing story!
FTC Advisory: Hyperion provided me with a copy of Break My Heart 1,000 Times. No goody bags, sponsorships, "material connections," or bribes were exchanged for my review.
