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book review, Kea Wilson, literary novel, novel, pedometer geek, review, suspense, We Eat Our Own
Normally this pedometer geek reader only reviews books received through giveaways. It is the way for an appreciative reader to highlight those books and help authors get some much needed recognition. Hopefully, these reviews translate into a sale or two for these books.
Despite what many people believe there isn’t a great deal of money in books for most authors. Writers (like other artists) spend hours upon hours writing with no guarantee of ever recouping their time or money. While there are authors who do make money with their craft, most have to keep their day jobs. They write, frankly, because they must write.
Every so often, however, a book comes along that this reader chooses to review, and Kea Wilson’s We Eat Our Own is one of those exceptions.
We Eat Our Own
by Kea Wilson
Published by Scribner, 2016
ISBN: 9781501128318
Kea Wilson’s debut novel is unlike anything this reader has had the pleasure of reading. It’s a literary novel that doesn’t follow many of the known conventions.
We Eat Our Own is the story of the making of a horror film in the Amazon River jungles alongside a shadowy Colombian town comprised of drug cartels and guerilla fighters. The tale is basically told through a second person perspective (which is unusual enough in its own right, but it is more impressive when done by a debut author). There is also the more typical third person exposition as well as a bit of court testimony added to second person point of view.
Another convention that is ignored is the use of quotation marks when the various characters speak. This is reminiscent of Charles Frazier’s novel, Cold Mountain, which didn’t use them in that story, either, yet in this novel, it works…adding to the tension of the plot of the actor being plucked from obscurity into the starring role in a film that seems unbelievable.
For a reader who doesn’t understand all the technicalities of movie making, the descriptions of scenes, film techniques, and other movie situations were enlightening as well.
Because of the perspective in which it was written, YOU learn about the movie process, YOU become immersed in the world of the Colombian jungles and all that goes on behind the scenes, and YOU are given a front row seat into the mind of the protagonist (the American actor plucked from obscurity) Richard Trent/Adrian White.
While the novel is about the making of a horror film (and this reader is not particularly a fan of the horror film genre), the story itself isn’t a horror story at all. There are some graphic scenes, however; there are some rather gruesome descriptions of gory events, yet it wasn’t particularly scary to this reader. In fact, because of an overactive imagination, this reader kept expecting worse (much like those tense, suspenseful moments in a horror movie).
Overall, it’s a literary novel that is well worth the read if only for its unique style and insights.