I first got wind of writer Nate Kenyon when I was sent his first Leisure release BLOODSTONE earlier this year. It was a decent book that had a lot of spooky twists and turns and was very much like Stephen Kings THE SHINING in many respects and gave you that uneasy feeling that Stephen King gave us with Salem’s Lot as well. A lot of other critics are all comparing him to King and while I think Kenyon still has to work his way up in the ranks to be considered another “King” his work is very good. With THE REACH it’s pretty much Kenyon’s version of CARRIE and FIRESTARTER all wrapped up in one. The thing is; I enjoyed THE REACH more than I did CARRIE. I know that’s a bold statement, and I’m probably in the minority on this one. But Kenyon gives us many unique characters in this book that are very easy to relate to.
THE REACH is about a young college student named Jessica Chambers whom is studying psychology in Boston. She is a very bright student and is asked by her Professor; Dr. Jean Shelley, to be part of a special case at the Wasserman Facility, a mental hospital for people and children with special cases and psychological problems. Jess is asked to talk to a girl named Sarah, whom is being kept in the facilities basement in a padded room. The girl has been heavily medicated and is even put in a straight jacket. She is considered very “high risk”. After weeks of working with her, Jessica finally gets Sarah to open up, but she soon finds that Sarah fears many of the hospital staff, and that they have been performing many test on Sarah since she was a little girl. Weird unexplainable things begin to happen as Sarah opens up to Jessica. Jessica does not believe what she is seeing as Sarah begins to reveal signs that she has special psychic powers, powers that are very hard to control. Not knowing why the poor girl has been caged up her whole life, Jessica investigates the facility and find out that there is a more to Sarah’s story than she is being told. As Jessica begins to unravel the truth Sarah’s powers are growing stronger, and soon enough she is not going to take the abuse of the experiments anymore.
Kenyon gives us some very well developed characters in this book, ones they will grow to love right away and others that you will grow to dislike because of the evil things they are doing. The character of Jessica Chambers is the real hero of the book, while it’s almost lead to believe that the psychic child Sarah is the main focus of the book, she still takes a back seat to the character of Jessica Chambers whom takes Sarah under her wing, and will do anything to help Sarah out. The book has many villains, and some characters who are on both sides of the fence. One complaint I do have is that Kenyon does really jam a lot of psychological mojo and terms down our throats, which at times can be very confusing. However, in his defense, I must say that Kenyon really did his research in order to give us a book where the facts about the psychological research displayed in the book are accurate to that of real life research and studies. It does get tedious at times, as Jessica does tend to think over all the things she has learned in college and read in textbooks.
Overall, THE REACH is one hell of a book. I enjoyed this Kenyon book a lot more than I did BLOODSTONE. Its a book with very interesting characters and is a story that is very detailed and well written. If you’ve read Stephen King’s CARRIE, or FIRESTARTER you’ll enjoy this one a lot. And although I never read John Farris’s THE FURY it is also being compared to that book as well. It also is a book that bring the whole belief that many psychologist dismiss as a form of Schizophrenia, that being the claim of people having psychic powers or ESP. I think Kenyon is trying to tell us that there are a lot of things that are best left unexplained by science, and while this book really does get into the whole science behind psychology, it also sticks up for the many people who believe that they have this gift but are scared to let the world know they do. It’s a book that has some very frightful moments but you find yourself cheering for Jess Chambers and Sarah all the way though. This is a book well worth the time to sit down and read all the way though especially if you really enjoyed King and Farris books. Kenyon is quickly rising to the top of genre by bringing the horror novel back to it roots.
THE REACH will be available though Leisure Fiction in December 2008. Just in time for Christmas.
– Horror Bob
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