Official Review of: The Fantastic World of Sean Cleary

[obiebookworm]

Twenty-four-year old Sean Cleary is a charming and affable young man with a quirky mental condition. Labeled schizophrenic at a young age, Sean's personality vacillates from a highly intelligent adult to a playful youngster. He receives a mysterious email announcing that he is about to become famous. Sean awakes the following morning to find that all the Internet ads he views on his computer are embedded with videos of him waving and repeatedly saying, "Hello! I'm Sean Cleary." While Sean's overnight fame draws a group of admirers from around the world, a handful of shady characters not only want to profit from Sean's instant wealth, but one person in particular has plans to wipe out the entire Cleary family.

The Fantastic World of Sean Cleary is full of unexpected surprises. In her debut mystery, Berniere opens with the email that "changes Sean Cleary's life forever." Written in third person, the first two chapters of Berniere's narrative zeroes in on Sean's rather mundane life. Aside of his London-area university classes, the usual bullying from students, and getting together with his close friends, Sean is neither the least bit unconcerned about the prankish email, nor cares to know who sent it. The first two chapters are as mundane as Sean's daily activities. Yet once the news is out about Sean's cyber presence, Berniere's storyline shifts from humdrum to ridiculously bizarre when a glut of reporters shows up on the Cleary's front lawn. Although Sean is now in the international spotlight, Berniere begins to place his character in the background as mystifying people show up to a press conference with the journalists arranged by the Clearys.

Aside of Jacob Fry whose magical tricks and his claim of creating the Internet stunt captivate the crowd of reporters, the suave yet notoriously brazen Karina Millhard attempts to seduce members of the Cleary household and Sean's friends. Unmistakably one of Berniere's despicable antagonist characters, Millhard is disturbingly intimidating as she attempts to offer to pay them large sums of money in return for their hopefully slanted side of Sean's story of fame. Whatever she can't get via manipulation she manages with threats. With each of Millhard's secret interactions, Berniere takes her time to reveal the true backbone of Sean's family and friends. Except for a small handful of friends who can see right through Millhard's facade, much of Sean's supposed support team is sated with selfishness -- all vying for their piece of the "Sean" pie.

Amid the clandestine meetings, Berniere splices in more of Sean's cryptic incoming emails, which segues into a subplot that unveils disturbing background information to the Cleary's past. Fortunately, there are other people other than Sean's tightly knit group of friends who genuinely care about Sean and his fragile medical condition. Ian Willis, one of Sean's university professors joins forces with Linda Edwards, an author who is writing a book about Sean. Although the book is progressing nicely, there are gaps in Sean's story. The teacher-author team gets wind of the mysterious disappearance of Robert Cleary, Sean's scientist uncle, and the two take off to Northern Ireland to further investigate. Their sleuthing not only reveals the missing puzzle pieces, but also leads to the real culprit behind the Internet stunt, indeed Berniere's creepiest villain.

Berniere's debut novel is fascinating, compelling, and totally un-hackneyed. That being said, I give The Fantastic World of Sean Cleary a 4 out of 4 rating.