Lives-Perception Is Reality by JJ McMoon

  The Pagan & The Pen Reviews

Title:  Lives-Perception Is Reality
Author:  JJ McMoon 

Author Site

Buy Link
Publisher: Virtual Everything Press

Genre: Thriller/Paranormal/Suspense

Length: 323 pgs.

Other: M/F

Reviewed by: Keri Stratton Alley

About The Book: A prom queen turned lot lizard. A floundering jock. A devil-worshipping rock star. An assassin and the FBI agent tracking him. A jilted girlfriend and a telepathic psychopath. Coincidence is bringing them all together, but for what purpose? Hailed as “Stand by Me” for the new millennium, “Lives” will leave you questioning your own coincidences for a long time to come.

The Review: If we were old friends, I could simply tell you, “I never even suspected the ending!” and you’d immediately know how highly I thought of this book. I love reading mysteries, thrillers, suspense novels—and I frequently figure out who-dunnit before the answer is revealed. If it’s a well-written book, I don’t mind—watching the characters figure out the answer is enough entertainment to warrant continuing. “Lives” blew me away. The final chapter was such a fascinating, creative, bizarre twist to a story of strung-together coincidences that I was floored. I immediately re-read the entire book, just to pick up the clues that I only realized were clues after the big reveal. And I enjoyed it just as much, if not more, the second time through.

Each chapter of Lives is told from a different character’s perspective, making a chain of individual stories that connect through a seemingly random series of coincidences. For example, in chapter one we hear about a major life changing event from one character, who interacts with a second character towards the end of the chapter. Chapter two is from the perspective of the second character, who interacts with a third character. Chapter three is from the perspective of the third character, and so on. Typically in a style such as this, the writer’s voice is still dominant even though the character perspective has changed. However, Mr. McMoon does an astounding job of portraying entirely separate, distinctly different characters that each have their own voice, thought patterns, and unique, disturbingly haunting, stories. Though his writing style remains similar throughout the novel, each chapter might as well have been written by a different person.

My ONLY complaint about this book was the Readers Guide and Questions for Discussion at the end. If I was actually part of a discussion group I would love to have access to these questions. However, I felt that including them in every publication of the book was a bit pretentious.

But I whole-heartedly agree with the long list of positive reviews included at the outset of the book and listed on the website. Lives is the kind of vivid story that sticks with you, even after you finish reading. I couldn’t put it down, and when I was forced to stop for incidental things like going to the bathroom, eating, and sleeping, I couldn’t stop thinking about the characters and their stories. I read it twice within 72 hours, and thoroughly enjoyed both reads.

Pagan Elements: None

Cover (Rated 1-10): 6-The cover of the book didn’t grab me as much as the introductory blurb.

_______________________________________________________________________

Disclaimer: Due to FTC regulations, any book reviewed on this site was sent for free by the author to The Pagan & The Pen. We are not paid to give reviews by Author or Publisher. Once review has been made, said books are deleted.