Breath of fresh air at first,.... yes... but that was then
351109
I give it four stars because it isn't perfect in my book. When I first heard this band back in 2003, I was like,,, wow,, something new with a good sound and great lyrics. I will give Amy that, really knows how to write lyrics from the soul. Her vocals on the album,, great. Vocals in a live show,, not as perfect, but hey,, she runs around and exhausts herself, so what can you expect? With Ben Moody no longer in the line up and writing with Evanescence, I'm not sure they will survive to be honest. Between Ben and Amy they created the Evanescence sound and style. Lets see what this new character has. For now he is nothing more than Ben's puppet really. I can sit and play all the songs off this album, so if I can be turned into a trained monkey to play them, pretty much any guitarist can. For the bands sake, he had better hope that he can write or will they call up Ben and say, hey write for us... LMAO. My guess about their future,, well it doesnt look good from here, but then again, he may just suprise us with his talents, one never knows. Now as far as the comments made about they are pop and not really goth. NO THEY ARE NOT GOTH by any means. They were origianlly signed to a christian lable. Ben has done work on the sounds for Passion of the Christ and the ex-keyboardist which I cannot remember his name at the moment is a Grammy winner pianist/vocalist doing Christian music. As far as the poppy sound, yeppers its there, but with Ben's guitar riffs they make it not as poppy as it would have been if he wouldnt have made them as hard and crunchy, not a metal or deathcore or goth guitar, but still a solid guitarist with good original style I will give Ben that. I am not here trying to put down this band, Amy, nor Ben. The album is what it is. It is well done, the production was done purposfully for the radio. If anyone out there has the origianl Origin they know that most of Fallen is nothing more the redos from Origin. So in a sense, these songs are old as dirt by now. Buy it if you wish, you will dig it, but if you are really into true metal and true Goth, you will not like it Im sure. ENOUGH SAID!
1086898
I thought this short story started out well. A haunted house is a premise thats been done before, which means originality is harder to find, yet it is also so well known that the setup is easy. This story started out feeling like one of those tall tales you might relate while sitting around a campfire late at night only with more detail and better descriptions.

The narrator (who I don't think was ever named) and his cousin, Jett, set off to explore the haunted house. The foundation was set, the tension was building, and then I started seeing holes in the story. A room was described as having thirteen walls, which set my mind off on a tangent, trying to picture how that could be and how plausible it was. One second it is so dark that Jett was groping in the dark, trying to find a candle that had gone out, and the next they're able to see the detail of the candle well enough to see that it had been stuffed out with someone or something pushing the wick into the melted wax rather than blown out. Later they sense two persons (presumably ghosts) with the slightest possible distance between them go by, yet in the next breath the beings have changed directions with the follower steadily getting closer. (I thought they were just as close together as possible.)

A ghost story, like any story containing things most of us are certain don't exist, requires a reader to suspend disbelief. Usually Im able. Here, with things I couldn't picture and what seemed like one sentence contradicting the next, I wasn't able.

The story ends with the narrator making the statement that he wonders what was reality and what was nervous delusion. Unfortunately I was wondering the same thing, only way too early.

**Originally written for "Books and Pals" book blog. May have received a free review copy. **
3969060
I was a bit taken aback.  It ended abruptly, but I can fully understand why. There is a point when enough is too much.
2328313
This started out SO well.  The plot and the events were terrifying, although I felt the writing left something to be desired.  It had a creepy Blair Witch vibe to it that really had me feeling jumpy, and I had to keep reading.  Then . . . the second half.  And while it was not terrible, it really could have been a story in itself.  The characters in the first half were real and you could relate to them.  The characters in the second half were almost caricatures. Things didn't make sense, things jumped around, and the ending was a huge let down in most respects.  On the one hand, the message was clear about how events can totally wake us up from the life we thought was making us happy and cause us some serious rethinking and re-evaluation.  But there was no actual conclusion, no resolution -- and to say more would be giving it away.
Also, as others have mentioned, some more extensive editing would have helped.  There were odd sentence constructions, and some things were so bad I had to back up and read it again to figure out what he was saying.  There was also a lot that could have been left out in the second half, and was just superfluous and tedious. In the first half of the book, it was interest that kept me reading and wouldn't let me put it down.  In the second half, I kept reading only to find out how it was going to end, not because the story was drawing me in.
338996
For the first half of the book, it was five stars all the way.  Beautiful writing, lifelike description, great sense of place, mood and character.  Excellent dialog.
The needy "friendship" of a 50-something year old man with a couple of snotty punkish louts is pretty hard to swallow, but, well, maybe if the narrator really had some huge defect in his personality; a major gap in his own maturation process...still, a stretch.
However: at least, finally, I was thinking, a book with a gay narrator that deals with more of life than just gayness.  But suddenly the book bogs down in endless, detailed description of student life with his pals; the momentum grinds to a hiccuping halt, and gayness takes center stage.  Sorry, that's just not enough, any more than romance novels are enough to hold one's interest.  From the midpoint on, it's mostly a matter of getting to the end.  Fortunately, the final pages return to the novel's early force and the net result is a good, if marred experience.
5 stars for the writing; 2 stars for the inability to maintain the larger perspective; overall effect 3.
3564935
Half the skill of a good writer is knowing what to leave out.

I was captivated by the first journal entry.  The writing was fresh and lively.  I was intrigued by the passing mention of a disappeared "Family from the North" (I haven't read the first book) and thought that the mystery of their disappearance would be a continued focus.  Then, very quickly, the enchantment dried up.  Page after page recounted pedestrian dialogue, all of it repetitive.  Every time a new hiker came on the scene, I read, "Wow - you're the Barefoot Sisters?  You guys are famous!  And crazy!"  (I remember the AT, and I'm sure this conversation really did take place eight hundred times - but just because the sisters had to endure it, is that any reason their readers must?)  Other conversations revolved mostly around food and cooking and the weather.

All other hikers in the book (as far as I read, which was about 80 pages) are described in superficial terms; I got no sense of them as people.  Who were they; why were they hiking; what did they long for; what were they escaping from?  Some descriptions were downright uncharitable.  In an early chapter, a cheerful older female hiker is described as having a "prim mouth" and "sounding like a kindergarten teacher;" the sisters seem contemptuous that she wears makeup and prefers not to hike in the rain.  Niiiice.

I skimmed ahead, and found one sister telling how she felt when she heard of the 9/11 attacks.  I was left unmoved.  The narrating sister recounts a Hallmark-trite conversation with her mother.  "Why must there be so much hate in the world?"  "Oh, honey, there's always been hate - think of Auschwitz, of Nagasaki.  Stay on the trail.  Don't let hate win."  I don't mock their feelings.  But big, complex emotions are hard to capture in writing, and the sisters just aren't up to the task.

"Walking Home" did do a decent job of taking me back to my weeks as a nobo on the AT, 25 years ago.  It's a strange little world:  there's a sense of 'instant friendship' among thru-hikers because all are sharing the same offbeat, off-the-grid, aint-we-cool existence.  Deep conversations spring up between strangers in shelters; when I was there, it was common for some of us to hitch into town together and party like we were still in college.  But is it intimacy?  For the most part, thru-hikers share no past and no future, and only stay together as long as it's convenient (that is, as long as their paces match.)  Hellos and goodbyes happen all the time, and no one cares much when a "friend" falls behind or surges ahead, never to be seen again.

The thing is, everyone who thru-hikes the AT is a thoughtful person with an interesting story of what brought them out into the woods.  I would have liked the sisters to get to know their hiking friends well enough to tell these stories.  But with 2100 miles behind them, and 2100 ahead, I can see why they didn't have the energy.
4082773
I thought it was ok at first....noticeable increase in power....then started ticking ..
1499251
Loved the beginning....then the novel took off and went in different directions. Some characters were likeable and others were not. Parts were beautifully written, and other parts lost me. All was tied up in the end, but I went from not wanting to put it down to having a hard time picking the book back up again. In the end, I liked it.
4070820
... until... wait a second... oh, yeah. That little broken charging pin. Had other problems too. Like not switching off after the other guy hangs up, you hear such a subtle static you don't notice at times, therefore dead very soon. Fixed by restart. Sometimes losing connection.
Still, it was a gift from co-workers and was pretty useful while it was alive. Comfortable and stable even without the loop.
I kinda miss it. But I'll be going stereo. And then I'll trash the corpse. And the useless charger.
2850209
The first chapter of this book, with its awfully overdone dialect, made me wonder if I should stick with it, but I did, and I was very pleasantly surprised. It wasn't long before I was completely drawn in. The characters became very solid in my mind and the plot moved along pretty decently. I wanted to spend more time with the ladies that were the focus of this novel, so I expected to give this one four stars or so by the time I was done with it.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, this book failed in the home stretch. The ending, as others have suggested, did seem a bit rushed. But, further than that, the ending made no sense to me, as I couldn't see the characters involved behaving they way they did, emotional distress or not. It was almost as if the author just gave up, wrote the quickest thing she could, and walked away.

Now, I didn't expect a happy ending from this, but I expected the ending to fit, and this one just didn't. It's too bad, too, because I very much enjoyed the rest of the book.
315796
That's it. I'm done with this series. It started with real promise and kept my interest through the first six books. But by then I had begun to suspect the unfortunate truth - that there would never be a real end to the story. This volume proves that I was right. It could have been well presented in just a couple of chapters, rather than being drawn out into a full-length book that is fundamentally boring. And at the end, we just find more questions awaiting us, no resolution. (I can't say more without spoiling things for other readers.) Too bad... I did enjoy the story for quite a while.
2368823
The initial idea was good . . . but the back and forth in time got silly and was inconsistently applied...an OK read, but one more edit would have been valuable
2936667
The beginning really grabs you, then it gets legit boring for a while, and finally it gets madd deep and a tad wackadoo. Thought-provoking indeed.
4120011
What a great starting off point - an alien innovation that isn't the usual assortment of spaceships with guns blazing and whatnot. The vision of aliens invading from afar, getting rid of the pesky humans the way you'd get rid of pests in a house before moving in is creepy and compelling. Unfortunately, after this promising start the book descends into a fairly tedious trudge through the post invasion world in which the reader has figured it all out long before the characters... with many, many pages to go. About about 2/3 the length this probably would have worked.
2823866
A mixed bag--some of the writing is pleasant and funny, then it unexpectedly turns into vulgar, hipster jargon.  Not my cup of tea.
2525134
This book started off so well. Hawley is a fine writer. Some of his metaphors blew me away ("the kids buzzed in and out of Maggie's end of the line like yellow jackets scouting a picnic.") and lines like " that dinner with Jenny's fiance's parents...It's gotta be in his calendar, probably written in red like a twice-prolonged appointment for a barium enema." made me howl and admire his skill. He pulls in pop culture and celebrity, from Jack LaLane to Bill O'Reilly. Impressive.

The book is a commentary on modern life. Obsession with wealth. Fascinated and shaped by media. The randomness that can derail lives. It's a lot to take on. Unfortunately, The story doesn't hold it together. I found it a compelling read...until the ending. That felt like the kid who's final paper is due in a few minutes so he scribbles a couple implausible paragraphs and throws in on the prof's desk. Several of the minor characters were completely unbelievable and others were annoying caricatures. Finally, the storyline wandered too far into the unbelievable.
1128126
I'm glad I wound up liking this book. Local author - check. Met the author - check. Signed copy - check. Thriller - check.

Then I started reading and felt disappointed. There was an exciting prolog, but Mr. Dugoni had already told me it was related to the story, but not the main character. So it didn't engage me. Immediate shift to a courtroom where a trial is ending. Then some setup, some new characters, more setup, some flashbacks - large and small, more characters and setup and shifting points of view, did I mention the flashbacks? I kept falling asleep after just a few pages. Not a good sign.

About a fourth of the way in, that all changed. The book became a thriller. No more flashbacks, except to 'the incident'. Few new characters. Nice crisp writing. Setups that seemed to be headed in one direction and then surprisingly, but logically, taken in another. Now I was being kept up reading way too late. I have several more of the author's novels in my reading queue and will definitely get to them. And I'm looking forward to his next book.