Brine Book Review

Title: Brine

Author: Adrienne Jones

Publisher: Creative Guy Publishing

Pages: 204

ISBN: 9781894953511

Brine is one of the most inventive, luring, brilliant and thought-provoking books I've read this year.

I have to admit that the first thing that caught my attention when I was browsing through Creative Guy Publishing's book catalog (whose site I would highly recommend visiting), was the beautiful and bizarre cover of Brine. I know that you're not supposed to judge a book by it's cover, but after seeing the cover for this one, I couldn't help myself: I had to make sure it was as kick ass as the cover led me to believe.

Good thing I was quick to judge this book by it's cover!

Not only is the cover bizarre, but so is the story: it follows a year in the life of Elliot Newton, an up and coming painter, whose life is changed forever after waking up one morning from a drunken painting streak the night before. Nursing a hangover Elliot quickly realizes that he's not alone. In fact, he finds that over night his Cape Cod property has become occupied with several creatures not of the human world, but rather of the human mind. With the help of his friend Bobby, the two slowly begin to unravel the truth behind the painted inhabitants. From there the story goes from weird to weider, and ends at extremely weird.

Jones does a marvelous job with keeping the pace smooth, and quick, filling it full of memorable characters, and a kick ass plot that keeps you guessing with each page. I really loved the concept of the first third of the novel, and although it at first reminded me of Stephen King's Duma Key, I was happy to find that it far surpassed anything that King could ever write. And that goes for the remaining two-thirds of the book as well.

Have you ever cracked a book open, begun to read, and hours later realized that you've spent all your time absorbed by the pages in front of you? Well, that's exactly what happened to me with this book. At 204 pages, it's a quick read -- which was a good thing, considering I read it in one sitting -- but the story is so well written that after reading it, it feels like you've just finished reading a 350 page novel. There's so much going for it at once, that even if the characters ridiculous and shoddily written, it would still be one hell of a novel.

Brine was absolutely amazing, and surpassed my expectations by many miles, and then some! That's why I'm giving it 9.5 TARDIS's out of 10.

I absolutely loved Brine, and I can't wait to see and read what kind of other weirdness Jones stirs up and commits to the page in the future. With a few more re-reads, I have a feeling that Brine will quickly become one of my favorite all-time novels.

So, if you're into reading weirdness, I would highly suggest picking up a copy of Brine as soon as possible. You can buy a copy over at Barnes&Noble.com, and at Amazon.com, and while your at it, pick one up for a friend. They'll thank you for it later!

~Rodney