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Library | Call Number | Status |
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Searching... Silver Falls Library | FIC WELLS | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Salem Main Library | TEEN Wells, D. | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Salem Main Library | Wells, D. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
John Wayne Cleaver is dangerous, and he knows it.
He's spent his life doing his best not to live up to his potential.
He's obsessed with serial killers, but really doesn't want to become one. So for his own sake, and the safety of those around him, he lives by rigid rules he's written for himself, practicing normal life as if it were a private religion that could save him from damnation.
Dead bodies are normal to John. He likes them, actually. They don't demand or expect the empathy he's unable to offer. Perhaps that's what gives him the objectivity to recognize that there's something different about the body the police have just found behind the Wash-n-Dry Laundromat---and to appreciate what that difference means.
Now, for the first time, John has to confront a danger outside himself, a threat he can't control, a menace to everything and everyone he would love, if only he could.
Dan Wells's debut novel is the first volume of a trilogy that will keep you awake and then haunt your dreams.
Author Notes
Dan Wells is the author of Mr. Monster and I Don't Want to Kill You . He lives in Orem, Utah, with his wife, Dawn, and four young children.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Fans of Jeff Lindsay's Dexter series and its TV spinoff will welcome Wells's gripping debut, the first in a projected trilogy featuring 15-year-old sociopath John Wayne Cleaver. Cleaver lives in Clayton, a small town in the heart of Middle America, where he assists his mother with the family mortuary and seeks to keep his demons at bay through sessions with a psychotherapist and rigid adherence to a set of boundaries. Obsessed with serial killers, Cleaver lives in fear that the monster inside him will break out and act on his violent fantasies. When the eviscerated remains of a local man turn up behind a Laundromat, the first of several murders in which the killer butchers his prey and takes body parts as trophies, Cleaver turns detective. Wells does a good job entering the mind of his unlikely protagonist, but a surprising revelation about the Clayton killer's identity may turn off thriller readers who prefer not to mix genres. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Fifteen-year-old John Wayne Cleaver knows he's different, but not because he has but one friend (and doesn't much like him) and not because he regularly helps out in his mother's mortuary. He's different because he recognizes the classic signs of an incipient serial killer in his own personality, and he's created a rigid set of rules to follow to keep his darker nature in check. When a string of grisly murders begins in Clayton, John's small hometown, he uses his specialized knowledge of serial killers to investigate. Will the darkness on the outside intensify the darkness within? Especially when he finds there is much more to this killer than anyone expectseven John. Wells's debut, the first in a projected trilogy starring a character who seems the love child of Showtime's Dexter and F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack, is an unabashedly gory gem. While certainly not for all audiences, this deft mix of several genres features a completely believable teenage sociopath (with a heart of gold), dark humor, a riveting mystery and enough description of embalming to make any teen squeamish even if they won't admit it. Buy multiples where it won't be banned. (Thriller/horror. YA) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
John Wayne Cleaver is an extremely self-aware young man who has spent most of his adolescence fighting a predilection for violence toward others. Like Dexter Morgan, Jeff Lindsay's serial killer protagonist (e.g., Dexter by Design), to whom he'll at least initially be compared, John knows what he is, or at least what he could become, which is why he lives by strict self-imposed rules. When mutilated bodies start to turn up around town, however, John realizes that he may be able to use his tendencies to solve the crime himself. What starts out as a typical serial-killer scenario, though, takes a much darker turn with Wells, one that makes this debut stand out. John not only works to track down the killer but to take matters into his own hands to protect those close to him. VERDICT Though it will appeal to Dexter fans, Wells's story stands well on its own. Great pacing, a likable character, and a combination of horror and supernatural elements make this title in a new trilogy appealing.-Craig Shufelt, Fort McMurray P.L., Alta. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.