Bellmere Common There nothing common about Bellmere eBook Mark Steen
Download As PDF : Bellmere Common There nothing common about Bellmere eBook Mark Steen 
New edition published 02-09-2015
Extreme violence, swearing, and explicit scenes.
Patrick never knew he had an aunt until he was told she was dead. No one had ever mentioned her. He organises a family trip to sort out the house she has left him. Everything starts off well, but it isn't long before an old sinister family secret rears its demonic head, and his wife’s recurring nightmares turn out to be visions. There is death and destruction all around them. Who can they trust? Will they survive?
Review Excerpt's
E. Kerry (.co.uk) - "I really enjoyed this book.
I read a lot and enjoy thriller and horror novels, this was a really good example of the genre. Plenty of bits that made me nervous to be alone in the dark, some really good twists (which I love trying to see coming nice and early to 'beat' the author to it when I can - I failed here!) and a shocking and dramatic ending.
Great debut novel and an author I will be watching out for in future!"
S. Pearson () - "I enjoyed this story very much and found it to be engrossing and exciting."
Extreme violence, swearing, and explicit scenes.
New low price for limited time only due to debut author.
75,000 word length Supernatural Horror novel.
Book re-edited and republished.
Bellmere Common There nothing common about Bellmere eBook Mark Steen
This is my first two-star review...and I hesitate to even write this, but this book needs a lot of work.1. Editing. I've stated in several other reviews that this is a pet peeve of mine. This book is riddled with errors--grammar, punctuation, and overall sloppy writing. There are several instances where words are repeated or missing altogether, and places where things are rendered nonsensical because of it.
2. Pacing. This book starts out very slow and then just kind of rams through everything at breakneck speeds without any real indication of what's going on. The time jumps at the beginnings of the chapters don't really redeem this factor in the least, because I'm left wondering what point a lot of these instances serve. We're given ALL of the backstory very early on, removing all but the most basic of plot twists (honestly, they were very obvious and I saw them coming).
3. Plot Arc. Tying into the plot twists and suspense being removed, in all, the plot arc of the story left me scratching my head. The layout of this book could have used a serious tweak to move a lot of this information where it would have garnered better insights and actually served a purpose in the revelations. Case in point: Edward's chapters from the 50s when Ruth is kidnapped and killed. These removed so much of the suspense merely because of their placement.
More importantly, there are so many plot holes and unfulfilled subplots that it made me irate upon reaching the conclusion. First, we have the demon/Edward itself. It's referred to in several places as "the demon" or "the Master" by one of its servants...yet Edward's ghost CLEARLY says he's harvesting souls FOR the master...so which is it? We'll never know. Second, Julie's prophetic dreams. We never have a clear indication of what they mean, why she has them, or what purpose they serve. By the time we GET to the big bad fight where the whole family must face down the demon, those revelations have already been given to us, so Julie's insights and dreams are rendered completely meaningless. Not to mention--SPOILER ALERT--she dies at the end. Why did she kill herself in the first place? It served no purpose. The demon revealed its weakness, giving the family everything they needed to kill it, and Liam had already set fire to the bone collection. She literally slit her throat for NOTHING.
4. Overall. This may just be a personal preference of mine, but if this is supposed to be marketed as horror/suspense, I feel like it should offer something more than JUST the shock factor seen in every B horror film on the market. We have ghosts, demons, blood/guts/gore, and random sexual encounters. But what does it all mean when it's set together? Every chapter should move this book toward an ultimate goal. In the end, it just seemed like a lot of nonsensical stories tied together by the vaguest of connective tissues. Everybody mentioned somehow ends up back in Bellmere, and most of these random side characters are eventually killed or maimed by the demon. Added to the obvious plot holes and editing flubs, it just wasn't up to par.
I hope these points are taken into account for the author's next revisions and further writing endeavors. I sense a keen desire to write without the technical expertise backing it. That being said, all of this can be learned. I hope to see more of this author in the future, but hopefully a more polished effort all around.
Product details
|
Tags : Amazon.com: Bellmere Common: There's nothing common about Bellmere eBook: Mark Steen: Kindle Store,ebook,Mark Steen,Bellmere Common: There's nothing common about Bellmere,Fiction Ghost,Fiction Horror
People also read other books :
- Alternative Capital Raising Business Funding in the New Capital Markets eBook Ariane Richter David Rose
- Morning Letters Mary Messages of Hope and Love Jennifer D Coombs 9780997626902 Books
- Erotica Taboo Friends Share Everything Taboo Erotica Collection Erotica short stories Taboo bundles edition by Jennifer McMillan Taboo Erotica Collection Erotica Short Stories Literature Fiction eBooks
- SEO For 2010 Search Engine Optimization Secrets Sean Odom 9780557161331 Books
- Melissa Wish List edition by Ron Rosewood Iryna Spica Shirley Skidmore Literature Fiction eBooks
Bellmere Common There nothing common about Bellmere eBook Mark Steen Reviews
As a draft, this book has a lot of promise. As a final copy, it leaves much to be desired.
1. Grammar and syntax. I did not notice blatant spelling errors, but there were many grammatical ones. In particular, sentences contained random commas, and there were entire paragraphs that were a bit confusing to read.
2. Dialogue. The dialogue seemed stilted and contrived. There was also an overuse of "pet names" when characters addressed each other.
3. Plot. The story moved quickly but was not always paced well. While I found the story to be engaging, it could have been laid out better. There was too much information given away in the first half of the book that there were very few plot twists or surprises in the second half. The ending was very abrupt and anticlimactic. There were quite a few plot holes left open.
4. Horror. Despite the warning in the description, this book was not all that scary. There was violence, but no more than one would expect in a horror novel. There were two chapters of gratuitous, violent sex and drug use that did absolutely nothing to further the plot. In general, no warning was required, and I think it was included only to get potential readers' attention and interest.
5. Characters. I enjoyed reading about the characters, but they were quite one-dimensional.
Despite its flaws, I do think this author shows a lot of promise. Most authors don't produce best-sellers at the very beginning of their careers. I would consider reading more of his works in the future.
The plot is familiar. A big spooky house in a small town with history, left to an unsuspecting relative, who didn’t know he had a relative, suspicious local town-folk, and scandalous gossip. All the ingredients one needs for the perfect scare yourself to death horror story. It takes a great storyteller to make those ingredients into something original. Mark Steen would be that kind of storyteller.
Bellmere Common follows Patrick, his wife Julie and their kids as they come into Bellmere to inspect their unexpected inheritance of his aunt’s home. Upon arriving in town they find his aunt had been a recluse after she was forced to kill her husband, who had been an extremely violent man and it turns out that the locals may know a bit more than they are letting on.
Not long after they arrive strange thing begin happening. Their daughter develops an imaginary friend that her parents find just a little too realistic. Local teens find their game of ouija to be just a little too intense and a pair of ruffians end up dead by the hand of man that witnesses swear is already dead himself.
The story is told in two sections, both the modern day setting dealing with the protagonists of the story and a flashback set in 1950 providing a well fleshed out back story, that still leaves the reader guessing all the way to the end. The characters are striking. I particularly enjoyed the character of Seth. If you had asked me at the beginning, I wouldn’t have believed that he would have been as capable as he was. All the characters were well developed as the story progressed proving initial impressions to be lacking. It was quite an enjoyable read, much to my family’s dismay as their attempts to engage me in conversation, while my nose was buried in my (that just doesn’t sound as cool as buried in a book, does it?), were met with some serious annoyance.
About the only sore spot for me was the sex scenes (The warning label for graphic sex doesn't usually prove a deterrent for me). Though appropriate and great seasoning for the exposition of the story, the explicit language and descriptions felt out of place. I feel certain that the author is more than capable of keeping the intensity of those portions that drove the story so well without the common language that made those scenes feel more contrived than exposition. While this book could and should appeal to a wide audience, it could and should appeal to much wider audience in my opinion.
This is my first two-star review...and I hesitate to even write this, but this book needs a lot of work.
1. Editing. I've stated in several other reviews that this is a pet peeve of mine. This book is riddled with errors--grammar, punctuation, and overall sloppy writing. There are several instances where words are repeated or missing altogether, and places where things are rendered nonsensical because of it.
2. Pacing. This book starts out very slow and then just kind of rams through everything at breakneck speeds without any real indication of what's going on. The time jumps at the beginnings of the chapters don't really redeem this factor in the least, because I'm left wondering what point a lot of these instances serve. We're given ALL of the backstory very early on, removing all but the most basic of plot twists (honestly, they were very obvious and I saw them coming).
3. Plot Arc. Tying into the plot twists and suspense being removed, in all, the plot arc of the story left me scratching my head. The layout of this book could have used a serious tweak to move a lot of this information where it would have garnered better insights and actually served a purpose in the revelations. Case in point Edward's chapters from the 50s when Ruth is kidnapped and killed. These removed so much of the suspense merely because of their placement.
More importantly, there are so many plot holes and unfulfilled subplots that it made me irate upon reaching the conclusion. First, we have the demon/Edward itself. It's referred to in several places as "the demon" or "the Master" by one of its servants...yet Edward's ghost CLEARLY says he's harvesting souls FOR the master...so which is it? We'll never know. Second, Julie's prophetic dreams. We never have a clear indication of what they mean, why she has them, or what purpose they serve. By the time we GET to the big bad fight where the whole family must face down the demon, those revelations have already been given to us, so Julie's insights and dreams are rendered completely meaningless. Not to mention--SPOILER ALERT--she dies at the end. Why did she kill herself in the first place? It served no purpose. The demon revealed its weakness, giving the family everything they needed to kill it, and Liam had already set fire to the bone collection. She literally slit her throat for NOTHING.
4. Overall. This may just be a personal preference of mine, but if this is supposed to be marketed as horror/suspense, I feel like it should offer something more than JUST the shock factor seen in every B horror film on the market. We have ghosts, demons, blood/guts/gore, and random sexual encounters. But what does it all mean when it's set together? Every chapter should move this book toward an ultimate goal. In the end, it just seemed like a lot of nonsensical stories tied together by the vaguest of connective tissues. Everybody mentioned somehow ends up back in Bellmere, and most of these random side characters are eventually killed or maimed by the demon. Added to the obvious plot holes and editing flubs, it just wasn't up to par.
I hope these points are taken into account for the author's next revisions and further writing endeavors. I sense a keen desire to write without the technical expertise backing it. That being said, all of this can be learned. I hope to see more of this author in the future, but hopefully a more polished effort all around.
0 Response to "[PSH]≫ Libro Bellmere Common There nothing common about Bellmere eBook Mark Steen"
Post a Comment