Book Review: Desert Son by Glenn Maynard

 

Book: Desert Son

Author: Glenn Maynard

No. of Pages: 185

Genre: Fiction - Paranormal, Out-of-Body experiences, reincarnation 

Publisher: Black Rose Writing

 

The author wrote to me with a book review request via LinkedIn introducing his yet to be released book. It was a rare opportunity for me to read an ARC … reading a book before anyone else, before it came out in the market for sale.

Desert Son turned out to be a very interesting ‘out-of-body reading’ experience :)  

The book starts out with an out-of-body experience and ends with the revelations of reincarnation of people revealing the past and present connections. The build-up of suspense is interesting.

The book begins with an accident which kills the protagonist and his parents resulting in an out-of-body experience of our protagonist. He goes through the mythical ‘tunnel of light’ to meet long deceased people. The description is eerie, scary and relaxing at the same time. He later comes back from the dead since a lady in the ‘heaven’ informs/directs him to discover his true identity … sending him back to complete unfinished business.

The book kind of gets a slow start - a significant portion in the beginning describing the out-of-body experience and the return (although some readers may indeed enjoy the descriptive heavenly journey)

The story soon catches pace as a few more characters are introduced and in the end the secrets are revealed and the dots are connected for the reader's. The plot is interesting and the author attempts to captivate the reader with the out-of-body experience as well as the reincarnation plot twists and the inter-connected relationships between the different characters.

The characters are interesting and you can feel the inner turmoil of the protagonist and the girl who joins his journey of self-discovery. You keep wondering why the girl is so interested and involved. It sort of never becomes clear as to why she got interested in something that she was running from, although she becomes an integral part of the story in the end.

The cover design is good although for a book with out-of-body experience and reincarnation at its core, the book cover could have been better. Now it seems like a love story in the desert.

Although there were times in the first half when I I found it too slow but once you hold on to it and read further, you are rewarded with an interesting climax.

Although a pretty interesting read ... I would still wish the first half was squeezed into just fewer pages and the book was no more than 125-150 pages long.

 

Ratings on Book Review Parameters:

Cover Design: 1.5 / 5

Writing Style: 2.5 / 5

Characters:     3.0 / 5

Story / Plot:     3.0 / 5

Climax:            4.0 / 5

Overall:           3.0 / 5