Location : Cleveland, OH
I was provided a reviewers copy of this book by the publisher.
Eric Bear has a very successful career in advertising and marketing with one of the largest firms in Amberville, Wolle & Wolle. He is also blessed with a beautiful wife, Emma, and lives in an upscale neighborhood in Amberville. Eric has it all. But Eric has some secrets in his past and they have returned in the form of Nicholas Dove, a major crime figure, who wants his name removed from a "Death List." If Eric is successful, Emma lives. If he fails, Emma will be, literally, torn limb from limb. The only problem is that everyone knows that the "Death List" is more fiction than fact. To help, Eric enlists three friends from his past, Tom-Tom Crow, Snake Marek, and Sam Gazelle, each with their own issues. But they worked together well in the past, complimenting each others' deficiencies.
Amberville is a unique book; a mystery, a tale of good and evil, a commentary on society, religion, and morality that is populated by characters that are stuffed animals. Throughout the book, you are presented with different perspectives, some of which take few moments for you to realize who is relating the story and why. While some may be initially confusing, the patient reader will be rewarded with a satisfying novel. One that may require you to re-read parts, to make sure that you understand the advances in the story. And even though the Epilogue says "To be read as needed," quite a few people may need it, as I did. Just to make sure that Amberville finished where I expected.
The hard part is to mentally reconcile the fact that all of the characters are stuffed animals. Married stuffed animals (while "cubs" are delivered fresh from the factory, there are other parts of a marriage that give you pause). Stuffed animals that may be drug, gambling, or sex addicted. Drunk, homeless, sociopathic, or defective stuffed animals. Life may be populated with people with those attributes, but to have a stuffed animal display those traits is . . . different.
Highly recommended for those looking for something out of the ordinary. And for those that want to subtle, and some not so subtle, symbolism.
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