The homeless people in Isla Vista, California are disappearing. The ducks are vanishing from the park, and the rats are disappearing. The disappearance of the rat population is a welcome thing, but the ducks?
A homeless man searches through the trash for food. The piece of meat he finds isn’t exactly what he had expected to come across, especially since it costs him his life.
Meg works with the homeless population in Isla Vista, California. She comes home one day to find what I call the blob in her house. It looks like a malformed jellyfish, and it stinks. For some reason her dog and cats didn’t run it off, and her cat has disappeared. She has Nicole’s mom, a science teacher, come to look at this monstrosity in her home, but when Nicole and her mom arrive, it has disappeared, leaving behind little evidence that it had ever been there.
Nicole sneaks a sample of tabby fur from the bit of goo left behind on Meg’s floor. She sneaks and tests it to see what it is. Will anyone take her horrific findings seriously?
Nicole is one intelligent young lady, a science geek. Her dad is a scientist currently working with NASA, and her mom is a microbiologist and a teacher. With such brainy parents, I don’t see how Nicole could be any other way. But Nicole has begun seeing things in the shadows, and she has an uneasy feeling about the plastic shopping bags she sees blowing around town. The way they move just isn’t right.
Meg, full of compassion, allows a homeless man to live in her garage so that he can recover from an illness. Religious intolerance rears its ugly head, and a perverted individual comes to life.
The identity of the alien creatures in this story took me by surprise, and the thought of these everyday items being inhabited by aliens is truly terrifying. The possibility of the life being sucked out of people and their flesh consumed is enough to give someone nightmares.
In this book, the tension builds page by page until it finally explodes into an edge-of-your-seat ending packed with action in a life-threatening situation for more than one of the characters. I found myself clutching the cover of the book and holding onto so tightly that if someone wanted to take it from me, he or she would have had to pry it out of my hands.
Robin Winter has a definite gift for writing a creepy story, and it is my hope that she will write many more.
I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. If you would like to purchase your own copy, I have provided links to Amazon and Smashwords below.
Amazon link: Watch the Shadows
Smashwords Link: Watch the Shadows
Recommended Article: Inspiration, Characters, and Chilling Horror – Guest Post by Robin Winter
Favorite Sentences:
Below are four awesome sentences from this book. My absolute favorite was the very last sentence of the book, but I didn’t feel it would be fair to the author or to you who are going to read this book to share that one. Besides, if you haven’t read the book, you really wouldn’t get the significance of it.
Please note that I got the following sentences from an advance reading copy, and changes are liable to be made to them before the final version of the book is published.
It was a pulsating jelly with patches of fur, tabby fur, big glazing eye of blue staring back at her from the center.
The grass sent out what appeared to be little flat tendrils, waving like eager tentacles of a sea creature.
The freezing contact hurt, the pain radiating up along his arm where his fingers had hooked into the gelid form.
“Let’s not do that stupid movie thing where each person thinks of something he or she has got to do and wanders off to be axe-murdered.”
The new words learned from reading this book and their definitions are after the author’s bio. There are a lot of words, so I placed them at the end of this review.
About the Author:
Robin Winter first wrote and illustrated a manuscript on “Chickens and their Diseases” in second grade, continuing to both write and draw, ever since. Born in Nebraska, she’s lived in a variety of places: Nigeria, New Hampshire, upper New York state and now, California. She pursues a career in oil painting under the name of Robin Gowen, specializing in landscape. Her work can be viewed at Sullivan Goss Gallery in Santa Barbara or online at www.sullivangoss.com/Exhibits/RobinGowen2012.asp.
Robin is married to a paleobotanist, who corrects the science in both her paintings and her stories. She’s published science fiction short stories, a dystopian science fiction novel, Future Past , and Night Must Wait, a historical novel about the Nigerian Civil War.You may contact Robin or read her blog at : http://robinwinter.wordpress.com, or on her website: www.robinwinter.net.
New Words Learned:
abraded – scraped away or worn down by friction
acolytes – followers or attendants
countenance – to support, encourage, or sanction
I am used to seeing this word used as a noun. Its use as a verb was new to me.
counteraggress – to attack in response to the aggression of another
deliquescing – dissolving into liquid
denigrated– belittled or disparaged the character of
jacaranda lined street, www.desktopnexus.com
ferment – agitation; unrest; excitement; commotion; tumult
I am used to seeing this word as a verb. It being used as a noun was new to me.
hidey-hole – a nook or cranny used as a hiding place
My husband and I call the shelter for our outdoor dogs a hidey-hole. I never bothered to look it up in the dictionary because I thought it was just a term we made up. Guess I was wrong.
insouciant – carefree or unconcerned; light-hearted
jacaranda tree – You can read about this beautiful tree at http://www.dailynews.com/lifestyle/20120608/joshua-siskin-the-blooming-blue-haze-beauty-of-the-jacaranda-tree.
naan– a leavened, often tear-shaped flatbread of India, baked in a tandoor
nattered – talked idly and at length; chattered
palps– sensory appendages
parsimonious – Frugal or stingy is the commonly known meaning. Thanks to Robin Winter, I now have an additional defintion for this word: Among scientists, it is the common expression for the idea that where more than one theory exists to explain phenomena that the simplest one should be accepted.
Perseid meteor shower – Everything you need to know: Perseid meteor shower
pho – Vietnamese soup
runnel – a small stream
scarper – to depart in haste
simulacrum– any image or representation of something
swathe – a long narrow strip or belt
trope – a word, phrase, or image used in a new and different way in order to create an artistic effect
tules – either of two large bulrushes, Scirpus lacustris or S. acutus, found in California and adjacent regions in inundated lands and marshes
ubiquitous – having or seeming to have the ability to be everywhere at once
vernal – appearing or occurring in spring
I want to thank you for the wonderful review, detailed and delightful, and for hosting my book on your blog. I want to add that there is yet another definition for ‘parsimonious’– among scientists it is the common expression for the idea that where more than one theory exists to explain phenomena that the simplest one should be accepted. I love your adding a glossary to your review.
I’m glad you enjoyed my review. 🙂
I have added a glossary to my reviews for quite some time now. I hope it helps those who read the books I review. I know it helps me; it ensures I look up the words. 🙂 Thank you for the additional definition of “parsimonious”. I will add it to the definition in the review.