Solitary: A Novel (Solitary Tales Series) Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
His Loneliness Will Soon Turn to Fear…. When Chris Buckley moves to Solitary, North Carolina, he faces the reality of his parents’ divorce, a school full of nameless faces—and Jocelyn Evans. Jocelyn is beautiful and mysterious enough to leave Chris speechless. But the more Jocelyn resists him, the more the two are drawn together. Chris soon learns that Jocelyn has secrets as deep as the town itself. Secrets more terrifying than the bullies he faces in the locker room or his mother’s unexplained nightmares. He slowly begins to understand the horrific answers. The question is whether he can save Jocelyn in time. This first book in the Solitary Tales series will take you from the cold halls of high school to the dark rooms of an abandoned cabin—and remind you what it means to believe in what you cannot see.
Series: Solitary Tales Series
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: David C. Cook; New edition (August 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1434764214
ISBN-13: 978-1434764218
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.3 x 8.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (233 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #1,179,812 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #16 in Books > Teens > Literature & Fiction > Religious > Christian > Emotions & Feelings #28 in Books > Teens > Literature & Fiction > Religious > Christian > Friendship #186 in Books > Teens > Literature & Fiction > Religious > Christian > Action & Adventure
Travis Thrasher, Solitary (David C. Cook, 2010)I didn't want to like Solitary.Travis Thrasher has some major issues with knowing when to insert paragraph breaks. It almost reminds me of those horrid "free-verse" novels that have been appearing recently from people like Ellen Hopkins and Tanya Lee Stone.And then there's the fact that it's "Christian Fiction".I don't have problems with Christian fiction (I adore L'Engle and Mauriac, e.g.), but I like it to be presented to me that way rather than snuck in under the radar.It's not the content, it's the deception, you see.(Are you getting what I mean about the paragraph breaks? Isn't it annoying?)So I was pretty much expecting to hate it.But Thrasher...he's the real deal.After the first couple of chapters, I was hooked.I ended up reading the last half of the book yesterday in one fell swoop.And yeah, despite my hatred of the "let's pad the book to four hundred pages by splitting my paragraphs every sentence or two" gig, one-sentence chapters? That I love. Especially when done effectively.Like it is here.So, yeah, some stylistic naggings to be had, and the ending pretty much screams out "this is the first book in a series", but I'm going to keep reading the series.I just hope he learns about paragraph structure before he starts writing the second book. *** ½
SPOILER ALERT - Have you ever seen one of those old mystery movies from the 30s or 40s where the detective gathers everyone into a room at the end to reveal who the murder is? He finally reveals who did it and you never could have figured it out no matter how many times you watched the movie. That is how this book made me feel. This is only the second review I have ever written for an book but I felt so cheated at the end that I was compelled to find a computer. First of all, the formatting is terrible. There are very few words on a page even with the smallest Kindle font selected. Big line gaps between every sentence of two. Every few seconds I had to tap "next page." I teach high school so the juvenile sentence structure, etc. didn't really bother me. It was OK that is was narrated by a sixteen year old boy with a ridiculous crush. This may be the first in a series but it didn't leave me wanting to read book 2. I think I would feel the same at the end of it and be tricked into buying book 3 where the cycle would repeat. At the end of a first book in a series, some questions should be answered but more questions remain. This just left all questions and the bloody sacrificial death of our heroine (sorry if I spoiled the surprise for anyone). I also did not like the bait and switch to discover that it was "Christian fiction/mystery" half way through the book. Preach to me if you want but don't hide the fact that you are going to do it. I am hitting delete on the Kindle as fast as I can. I can't believe I just wasted hours of time that I will never get back reading this.
Solitary feels like a screaming run through a dark forest in the middle of the night during a thunder storm. You can't see anything. You can't hear anything. You can't fully understand what's going on. You know you've got to stop and take shelter. But you can't because you're scared of what might happen.First and foremost, Solitary is scary. The type of scary that just sits in your gut and burns, screaming for you to run, even though you don't know who or what you're running from.Next, it's so realistic and personal that after five chapters it's like you're Chris. You know what you would do in his situations. Then Chris does it like he's reading your mind. Which just makes it scarier. Because even though Chris does everything you're telling him to, his situation just keeps getting worse.And lastly, if you don't cry after reading this book, or at least get severely choked up, no book ever will. Travis Thrasher's first attempt at YA fiction is such a seriously messed up, frightening, life-changing, tear-dripper, you're sure to love it.
Okay, so I'm going to indulge myself here for a moment - you can keep Ted Dekker. Keep Frank Peretti. Forget a whole bunch of others. Travis is the real deal. This guy can WRITE, and he knows how to create solid, real characters. I now have TWO favorite CBA (Christian Bookseller Association) authors I'll read at the drop of a hat: T.L. Hines and Travis Thrasher. This is funny, dark, amusing, sarcastic, sad, moving, suspenseful....and like F. Paul Wilson, Travis's prose just keeps you moving. The "Solitary" series is one I'm going to follow.
After reading the great reviews this book received, I expected something that would keep me on the edge of my seat with both eyes wide open. What a let-down! All throughout I kept waiting for the interesting part to come, but it never did. Also, I had been told it was "scary". It wasn't. It doesn't usually take much to send chills up my spine, but this book didn't even do that (which would have been fine with me). I was also less than impressed with the story line. I endured all the nonsense about the mysterious "heroine" (I already forgot her name, that's how impressed I was) hoping to get to the spiritual "depth" that I had been told, by a few reviewers, to expect. It never came. Instead, I was saturated with descriptions of the heroine's "hotness" that weren't original or creative either.Oh, yes, the paragraph breaks were getting to me. I kept thinking that I was back in high school and trying to make the 20-page requirement for my term paper by adding a lot of "reallys" and paragraph breaks. Did the author have a page requirement he was trying to meet?The story line was so shallow a tad pole couldn't wade in it. So were the characters. It seemed that all the characters did were have secret meetings, secret notes, secret thoughts, and never actually acted on anything. Even the people who supposedly knew all the secrets didn't actually seem to "know" anything. And, the secret meetings, letters, etc. didn't actually end up accomplishing anything.I wouldn't want to give away the ending to those who still wish to read this book, but I walked away thinking "you've got to be joking!" After finishing the book one question remains: what was the point?
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