Book #47
The Book With No Name by Anonymous
For many centuries the shelves of a library in South America held a terrible secret. Sitting on these shelves was a book with no name, written by an anonymous author. Everyone who ever read it ended up dead, yet the book always found it's way back to the library. In 2005 a special government investigator uncovered the truth about the book and it's link to the murders. Now available in paperback, you can discover for yourself the reason why no one ever read the book and lived, until now.
This book is insane.
I was drawn to it in the first instance because it was untitled, written by an anonymous author, and told me, "Whatever you do, don't read the book with no name". I am the type of person who, when told not to do something, will do exactly that. It's incredibly, incredibly complicated, with an array of very strange characters, very strange occurences, and some very strange plot twists.
It would be difficult to go into exactly what happens, but to summarise, each character is pursuing a precious stone called the Eye of the Moon. Each character's reasons for desiring the stone are different, yet vague, and nothing is revealed properly, or falls completely into place, until the very end. One character who is particularly determined to get his hands on the stone is the Bourbon Kid, who really has no qualms about who he blows away on his mission.
It's definitely not for the faint of heart. The violence and gore involved was quite intense, I even found myself cringing in places, which I never really do. It reminded me of Quentin Tarantino's films, and although I never really put a book down and think it'd make an excellent film, if Tarantino did this one I think it'd blow everyone away.
It packs in so many genres that I'm finding it quite difficult to choose one for it. It's a thriller, mystery, supernatural, crime, horror, and even a romance novel in places.
My favourite part was the author's use of a different character's point of view in each of the chapters. This allowed us to see everything as a whole, and sometimes to find things out before certain characters do, which I always enjoy in a sort of, "OMG DON'T GO IN THERE!" kind of way. It also added more suspense, as the author would switch to another character quickly while something exciting was just happening elsewhere. Although I hate using clichéd book review phrases, it was definitely a page-turner.
There is a sequel, called The Eye of the Moon, which I'm going to try and source immediately because I enjoyed this one so much. If you like a bit of violence and blood, give this one a go. I enjoy a good punching, and I loved this.
I'd also like to add a little something that people who have read, or who plan to read this, may have missed. I am a geek and looked at the publisher's notes at the front before I started reading this. Why? There is always a copyright note there with the author's name beside it. The copyright is c/o The Bourbon Kid.
