Thursday 21 June 2012

Dreadful Beginnings - Book Review

Dreadful Beginnings
by Marty Shaw

ebook, novella

What is it about:
When you think of home, you probably think of chilling out in front of the TV or hanging with friends on the latest social media hotspot. What you probably don’t think about are killer hairdryers and murderous stuffed bunnies that want to make sure you don’t wake up from your blissful slumber. These are the kinds of things that might happen when you accidentally release a demon while playing witch. Hey! Don’t look at me that way. My friend was doing the spellcasting. I was just there.

Demon-killing isn’t something I considered as an actual profession until a guy named Doctor Horror showed up and asked for my help in dealing with this supernatural pest. Once I got over his strange name, it seemed like a pretty good deal. Killing demons definitely sounded better than telemarketing. Ugh! More importantly, this thing was trying to kill me and my friends… and that just doesn’t work for me.

Now, armed with Doc’s little suitcase of goodies and a special bracelet that has a mind of its own, I’m going to show this demon why he would’ve been better off staying in Hell.


What did I think of it:
Shaw's earlier stories turned out to be wildly entertaining and full of action, so when asked if I wanted to read and review this novella I jumped at the chance.

And Dreadful Beginnings doesn't disappoint.

Lead character Penny is a likeable teenager who's confronted with a demon and has to fight for her life and the lives of those close to her. Luckily she gets help from the totally cool and mysterious Doctor Horror.

I very much enjoyed the action and Penny's interactions with Doctor Horror. I liked how there were a couple of hints about who and what Doctor Horror is, adding more mystery to the man. I would have liked to see a bit more interaction between Penny and her friends though, it felt as if Shaw cut some corners on the friendship front to get to the good stuff: Doctor Horror and the demon fighting action.

All in all I very much enjoyed Dreadful Beginnings and I hope Shaw will write more stories about Penny and Doctor Horror. I certainly wouldn't mind if those were novel sized instead of novella sized either.

Why should you read it:
Murderous stuffed bunnies!!


Buy this ebook here

4 comments:

M.A.D. said...

That title alone is enough for me lol
;D

Melissa (My World...in words and pages) said...

I've heard of this one, but only once or twice. It does sound like a great read, and I do love my action. :) Thank you!

Aurian said...

Great review, and this sounds like fun! I just wish it was adult in stead of YA.

Sullivan McPig said...

@M.A.D: I know! I love the title as well.
@Aurian: It's not a typical YA. No love triangles and teenage angsting