Supernatural Nevermore - Book non-review
Supernatural Nevermore
By Keith R.A. DeCandido
I’m a curious sort so bought a few of the Supernatural books even though I’ve mostly heard that they aren’t very good.
Starting with the first one, Nevermore, I look to the back cover and find the blurb interesting. Killings based on Edgar Allan Poe stories, hence the title. Sounds pretty good.
Hate the cover picture. What are the boys wearing?
Learn that the author has a lot of books out, mainly in TV universes like Star Trek, Buffy, WOW, Resident Evil, etc. . .
I browse around the acknowledgments and am not thrilled to find out Mr. DeCandido was handed this job because his editor on other projects became the editor for the Supernatural books. Okay, yeah, if I was him I’d jumped at it too, but still, I want the writers of these books to be as invested in the show as I am, not just asked to do it because you “know” somebody. Farther down his agent’s name snapped out. Lucienne Diver. That makes me feel a little better because she is a big dog in the writing world who wouldn’t take on a bad writer or at least one that can produce . . . of course that niggling little worry sneaks out “yeah but if you only write in media verse with a built in audience . . .?” Stop that, I haven’t even started reading yet. Plus he’s a USA Today Bestselling author so that says something, right? It could be great.
Chapter One: Begins in the point of view of the victim of the week just like a regular episode. Unfortunately this college student along with his friend who shows up are too stupid to live. I know they are going to die and I don’t care because they are boring and stupid. As they come upon the “evil” (see how I’m not giving any spoilers away?) instead of hauling ass, they have a conversation about what they think it could be and should they call 911. They die. I don’t care. It wasn’t chilling. It wasn’t scary. It wasn’t gory. Big thumbs down for Chapter One, but Two is next with Sam and Dean so I’m excited.
Chapter Two: The only thing that happens is Sam and Dean pack up their gear and check out of their motel and start driving to their next job that came from Ash through Helen. That’s it. Twelve pages of backstory from how they live off credit card scams to the Impala to a few of the secondary characters, etc. Now I don’t mind backstory, it’s needful, but I feel like it should be subtlety seeded out not a huge infodump. That’s all this chapter is and I’m hugely disappointed. Plus the brotherly bantering just wasn’t up to speed.
Chapter Three: Still on the road just pulling into the Bronx now. More infodumping, even Cassie is mentioned, but they do start talking about the case a little. Brother banter still not on game, but a little better. Maybe this is the kind of writer that hits his stride farther into the middle of a book. I hope so. I do want it to be good. I want all things Winchester to be good.
Chapter Four: From the point of view of Clare, someone attached to the last killings. Sam and Dean pretend to be reporters. We get our first description of the boys through Clare’s eyes. She turns and immediately goes ga-ga over Sam. Can’t blame her on that. He’s described with semishaggy dark hair, amazing brown eyes, and adorable small nose. While Dean has close-cropped hair and blue eyes. Wait-- What? Blue? Um?
There are a few funny bantering lines in this chapter, mostly from Sam at Dean’s expense. A few more clues about the case are gathered. Clare isn’t an idiot like the first chapter newbies and there wasn’t any big infodumps so maybe we’ve gotten past all that nonsense and the book is really going to pick up momentum and be good and creepy and everything I’m looking for.
Okay, so the first 40 pages were disappointing. If this wasn’t about two characters that I already adore, I’d probably stop reading, skip to the end because even with stupid books I have to know the ending and then toss it in my to-be-given-away pile. At least if an episode isn’t great there are still pretty pretty images to look at. Maybe these books should be made into picture books.
See Sam and Dean Winchester.
Sam digs up a grave.
Run Dean, run.
A ghost throws Dean into a tree.
All right, all right, possibly I’m being too hard. The last chapter was the best of the bunch so maybe it will only keep getting better and by the time I report on the next few chapters I’ll be raving. It could happen.
Part 2
non-review of Heart of the Dragon
non-review of The Unholy Cause
non-review of Bone Key
non-review of Witch's Canyon