Adam J Nicolai- Alex

Firstly, massive respect to Adam J Nicolai for self-publishing and doing so well in the Kindle chart. Though self-publication has become easier because of ebooks, it is still a brave and difficult thing to do. Unfortunately, although I admire Nicolai's proactive approach to getting his work out there, I really didn't like the book. Alex is unimaginative and trite. I wouldn't have bothered to struggle through it if it wasn't for this blog. Perhaps, I am being a little bit harsh, it has some glowing reviews on Amazon and surely they can't all be written by Nicolai's family.

The Plot: Ian's son, Alex, is murdered and although the perpetrator is dead as well, Ian can not find closure. His wife has left him, his job is threatened and now he is being haunted by his son. Are these visions of Alex a manifestation of his grief and a sign of mental ill health or is the ghost of his son trying to communicate with him beyond the grave?
Trigger warning:  rape, child abuse, N-word, murder.

The premise of this book is overdone, a ghost with unfinished business and a father wanting vengeance has been done to death (pun totally intentional) and Nicolai doesn't add anything new. The whole thing was very predictable, and everything was too neatly tied up at the end.

Currently Reading

Kindle have a spring sale on at the moment, and though it's slim pickings I have downloaded a couple of bits that caught my interest. These goodies were all less than a pound:

• Lawless, Matt Bondurant. I was a fan of the recent film adaptation, and as usually I think books are better I'm going to give this a go. 
• The Little Friend, Donna Tart. I've read this before, but it was library copy so for 99p I thought I might as well download my own copy. It is a while since I read it, so I can't quite remember what happens, it's about a girl who's brother is murdered when they are both children. 
• Alex, Adam J Nicolai. When I got this yesterday it was free, which is the only really reason I downloaded it really. From the product description it looks to be about a father grieving for his dead son.

Oh dear,  looks like I've gone for a bit of a theme. Two books on dead children, slightly macabre.

I also downloaded a free sample of A Lady cyclist's Guide to Kashgar, Suzanne Joinson. I've heard good things about it, but I wanted to give it a try myself before splurging a whole £4.99.   


*disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Amazon, and all books have been purchased by me, with my own money