Reviewed by Vicki

TITLE: Double Hue

AUTHOR: Briana Lawrence

PUBLISHER: Eternal Press

LENGTH: 80,813 words

BLURB: When there’s red, close your eyes and try again.

“Maybe he’s right. Maybe I am the cause of this. Maybe you were normal before meeting me.”

When something tragic happens, you want nothing more than to close your eyes and make all of the pain go away. For Gable Peterson it’s a little more complicated than that. When detective Maurice Ashford shows up at his door with news that his boyfriend, Avery Blair, has been found dead, Gable is left devastated. Seeking some sort of comfort, Gable closes his eyes and imagines a world where none of this happened.

Only, when Gable wakes up, he’s surprised to see that Avery is still alive.

REVIEW:

What an interesting version of Groundhogs Day, the movie. I don’t think I’m giving anything away to say that Gable is living a very bad week over and over again, learning as he goes, hoping to save Avery, his boyfriend. That’s the basic set up of this book. It sounds like it could be cheesy, like the movie, but it really isn’t at all. It’s a wonderful, complex book, fantastical, yet modern.

Gable is a solid character, going for a business degree, stable, and calm. Mostly. Avery is the actor, the performer, fun and charismatic. In the first half of the book we only have glimpses of them together, as Gable is fighting to work through this very odd week in his life. The additional characters all add to the story as well, the cop, the roommate, the parents, and the annoying woman at the police station. Sometimes extra characters are fluff, not the case here at all.

I don’t understand the technical side of writing, or in this case reading, the whole narrative perspective thing. This writing style of this book seemed odd to me, at first, I don’t know exactly why. For example “Gable looks up from his computer, when he hears the loud cry.” I didn’t like it initially, but the farther I got in to the book, the more it worked. I found myself reading faster, I almost felt like I was observing this story, watching a TV show or movie. As poor Gable starts the next cycle, I started hearing blah, blah, police station, blah blah, 48 hours, blah, blah, he’s dead. Wanting to hurry up and get through the parts we’ve seen before and get to the solution. But each time through something new comes up. It’s reminds me of watching my daughter play a video game over and over, her character dying, getting another life, and trying again.

It’s a fascinating story, bizarre and wonderful! Strong characters, great plot, creepy bad guy, violence, some sex (although not a lot), love, and wonderful writing. It was disturbing at times, and made me uncomfortable. Which is good actually. Then there is the payoff, the excellent ending. This is another new to me author, I have to admit I wasn’t sure about the book at first, but wow… What a great book! Not a traditional romance novel by any means, this is a creepy story, about a very bad man. And two boys, Avery and Gable, that get caught up in a very Twilight Zone nightmare. Well worth reading, I’d give it five stars easily!

RATING: 

BUY LINKS: Eternal  ::  Amazon  ::  Are