Reviewed by Dan

TITLE:     Xperiment

AUTHOR:     Dan Skinner

PUBLISHER:     Self-Published

LENGTH:     686 Pages

RELEASE DATE:    January 01, 2016

BLURB:

Monsters aren’t born… they’re engineered.

For nineteen-year-old, socially awkward Geoff Markham, the promise of a miracle pill to make him into the person he’d always wanted to be was everything he could have hoped for.

At first, the experiment delivered on that promise. Geoff began to change, becoming more confident, stronger, even fearless. People began to admire him and find him attractive.

As with every new drug, there came side effects: the agitation, sleeplessness, the bad temper. When the strange dreams began, the ones that couldn’t possibly be his own, he realized something else was happening to him. As he continued to change, he was becoming something much more than what had been promised… something far less human. Something unimaginable, unrecognizable.

Increasingly strange and violent things begin to happen around him. Is he the hunted or the hunter?

REVIEW:

Holy F-ing WOW, did I love this book!!!  Yes, that is the correct page count.  No, I’m not exaggerating!  And yes, this is probably one of the best Self-Published books that I’ve ever read!  I was a little nervous starting a book with 686 pages.  I shouldn’t have been.  This book read like a book half its length.  I couldn’t put it down, although I had to a couple times because it was too long for one sitting.

When you meet Geoff Markham and hear his story in the beginning of the book, I dare you to not be moved by the crap this kid has gone through in his past.  If you have ever been marginalized for anything, I think you will instantly feel for this character.  Spending my whole school life being the last kid picked during team picks on the playground, I think I was Geoff.  When he answered the ad for the miracle pill that was going to butch him up, I was reminded of the old Charles Atlas ads and how many skinny little geeks like me sent for their info!  (Really. Blushes.)  What we all wouldn’t have given for a pill like this one!  Heck, I’d take it now!  One minor warning, there is some past history of sexual abuse, which might be a trigger for some, but it is off screen and in the past, so shouldn’t be an issue for most.

Mr. Skinner has done a superb job with this book.  It is probably science fiction, or speculative fiction, or something, but it also reads like today’s headlines.  There is a huge amount of social commentary in this book, which is very pertinent to our current political climate; to gun control; to race relations; to homophobia; to homelessness; to those “churches” that persecute; in fact to just about any social problem you can think of in the United States today.  I found myself feeling like I was reading a book about something that might actually be taking place right now.  It was very up to date and pertinent, and as I read further it really made me think about how many of the things in this book could very easily take place in our near distant future.

I don’t want to give any storyline or character spoilers, so I’m not going to talk more about those aspects other than to say that the characters, the storyline and the execution of it all blew me away.  This will go instantly onto my Best of 2016 list without a doubt.  My only problem, what do I read next?  Anything else is going to pale by comparison!

I extremely highly recommend you read this book.  I loved it.  I’m a sci-fi/fantasy/spec fic fan, but I don’t think you have to be to read this one.  Take my advice, one click it now.  Again I want to stress that this is one of the best Self-Published books I ever remember reading.  It reminded me of books like The Stand by Stephen King because of its complexity and level of writing.  I can’t rate the book higher than 5.0, but I would if I could.

RATING: (shhh, don’t tell Dani!)  

BUY LINK: 

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