Review by L.B. Goddard
If you've ever been worried that the American news media has spiraled out of control. If you've ever had to change the channel to keep from shaking your head... and not at a tragic event, but at America's hunger for tragedy. If you agree that misfit teenagers would stop shooting their schoolmates, if only we would stop plastering their faces and “secret journals” on every newspaper front page...
Syndrome is the story for you.
This action-packed novella, from the sick mind of James Riser, offers its readers only brief moments of solace, barely long enough to bite your lower lip, and brace for the next gore-fest.
A deep connection and understanding of the main characters is cast aside, playing second fiddle to an imaginative plot. Yes: we get to know each and every player, but this is not a character-driven story. It won't be the tormented past of aging cop, George Guerrero, or illegal alien, Sandra Gonzalez that pulls you in.
What will make you keep reading, made ME keep reading, is the same thing that keeps us glued to our TV sets in times of tragedy. You have to know every twisted detail. Why are these people being murdered? How much pain did they feel? Were they violated? Beaten? Stabbed? You'll keep reading because you're part of the Dread Syndrome--as scumbag character, Fred Peters, likes to call it:
“If the killer became lucky, Hollywood would rear its ugly head and green light a film based on his spree, so he could be immortalized as the kid who got fucked in the ass by his dad, grew up pissed off, and decided to kill a bunch of people. But no, that didn't entertain today's jaded movie goers enough. He did drugs, too, and cut himself and worshipped the devil and raped dead animals in front of his mother while she shot up Black Tar heroin in a bathtub full of goat's blood.
Fred suspected everyone saw murders not as a tragedy, but a cash cow that would have to be quickly milked for all its worth. Detectives got paid, caskets got sold, and reporters got great airtime to add to their portfolios. Serial killers became heroes. The whole country watched the stories unfold—from Manson and Ramirez, to Son of Sam and the Zodiac.”
Fred Peters is a crime scene photographer. The first thing I remember reading about this sick fuck was the crotch of his pants getting tighter, his manhood swelling, while taking pictures of a dead man--beaten and bound to a shit-covered chair. Yeah. I took that as some major foreshadowing. It won't take much for old Fred to snap, I thought.
Enter a dark force from another world. A force created by, and fueled by, mankind's fascination with death. A force incapable of being handcuffed or shackled, intangible until it takes solid form.
Who can stop this madness, and put an end to the murdering spree?
The only hero we're given is a self-mutilating young man, who can barely handle his own problems. A lost soul named Cid, who is plagued by a sudden onslaught of bloody, terrible visions. Can he rise to the challenge and stop the madness before more innocent lives are taken?
There's one thing he won't stop. The Dread Syndrome.
My overall opinion of this e-book: I loved it.
It's $3.25, for god's sake. Go get it!
www.wildchildpublishing.com
Okay, I wouldn't go so far as to say I like everything I read. No! Not in the least! But I think I am easier to please than others. A good plot, a little gore... that's all I need.
So, in case you want a second opinion, here's what TMND author Les Welch had to say:
“Syndrome” by James Patrick Riser is 41 pages of blood. If one likes gore as much as myself than it is worth trudging through the slow beginning. The characters are dark, yet a hidden light hides beneath their brooding exteriors. Their separate stories form a twisting ride of mayhem that takes you to an unexpected, but lackluster ending. A few loose threads could have been tied up or explained better, and the ending could have been a little more explosive, but all in all I liked the story.
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