The Heavens Rise is one of those books that I am never quite sure how to review. On one hand, I loved the atmospheric setting; it was dark and eerie with a touch of macabre. Yet on the other hand, I found that the tone of the book could have been fleshed out a bit more. It was as though the author was teetering between gothic, paranormal, and horror never focusing on one element but mixing the three tones together. Right when a gothic tone was starting to be set, the author switched into a paranormal tone, leaving the reader to feel a little let down with the suspense that was being built.
Four people are telling the story: Marshal, Ben, Anthem, and Nikki. And while Nikki is the key player in the game, the one whose truths and actions need to be told for readers to understand the story, she is rarely heard from, and when she is it’s weak at best. The strongest interactions/characters in the book are Ben and his boss and that deviates into a different plot that could have been in an entirely different book.
While I wasn’t over the moon about the crossover tones, or the weak, sometimes transparent characters, the book wasn’t entirely a let down and I finished it in one day. I wished the author would have taken the time to flesh out the characters, establish a firm plotline, and settle on the tone. Although there was something about this book—possibly the mystery of the parasites in the pond, Marshal’s creepiness, or Anthem’s likeability—that had me reading until the last page was read.
Overall, The Heavens Rise was a standard weekend read that was slightly disappointing but highly addictive. It has me wondering if his other books are written in the same vein.