Official Review: Vengeful by AJ Parnell

[Amanda Nixon]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Vengeful" by AJ Parnell.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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In Vengeful, the reader is introduced to Luke Bolton, a college professor that has recently been through a series of traumatizing events that started with a gunman at his school. After that fateful day in which over a dozen students were murdered, nothing is the same for Luke. He is haunted by the memory of the event, plagued with nightmares of the student who committed suicide not long after, and trapped with the knowledge that his therapist, Abigail Davies, the one person he thought he could trust, has turned his back on him. In his vulnerable state, this makes Luke the perfect target for a group of ghosts that have been waiting to enact their revenge on Abigail, their ex-therapist who just might be responsible for the horrific wounds they faced in the past. Now, after being persuaded to kidnap her, Luke must face impossible choices that question who he is and what he is willing to do to maintain his sanity.

This book was truly intriguing in most aspects and kept me wanting to read more. The author, AJ Parnell, does a fantastic job of using descriptive imagery to create a scene. I found myself being constantly drawn in by beautifully crafted sentences that painted the story through serious, sad, and sometimes just horrific moments. I also felt the overall storyline was a great premise that kept me eagerly anticipating what was going to happen next and wondering what was actually real. I found myself captivated right from the beginning as Parnell introduced a main plot point in a stunning, unpredictable, and well put together first chapter.

I found this book to have a good flow from one event to the next. Not only that, but the two main characters of Luke and Abigail were well thought out, even if they were a bit cliche, and their development contributed to the flow of the plot. However, I was a little thrown off by some of the other characters. In particular, I found Detective Rogers to be someone that was not fully fleshed out. He was the typical seasoned cop with good instincts and that was his whole personality. Chapters from his point of view played up that one aspect of who he was and didn’t add anything else to him as a character. Overall, he felt more like a cliche than a person. Additionally, I was confused when he made choices that seemed to contradict his one trait of being seasoned with good instincts. For instance, at one point Detective Rogers was simply going to forget about interviewing the person Abigail had a big argument with just before her disappearance. In another moment, a suspect ran from him when he went to interview him and, without trying to go after him, he told his partner to let him go because he was tired of chasing him. One of the other characters I took issue with was Martinez. He was barely there and when he was I found myself wondering what his purpose was. In the end, I wished Detective Rogers would’ve been better developed and I felt like I didn’t need Martinez in the story at all unless the author was going to do more with him.

I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. I think it’s a very captivating piece of writing. The author did an amazing job with the imagery and the storyline and it makes for a very good book. However, I do feel as if some of the characters needed to be better developed and that is part of why I will not give the book a 4 star rating. I will also not give the book 4 stars because there were some moments the author hurriedly recapped events that were supposed to have happened before the book started. I wished, instead, Parnell had written out full scenes in these cases because that would’ve been much more interesting.

If you are somebody who enjoys psychological thrillers and stories that cope with the dark side of humanity, then I would recommend this book to you. If you are somebody who doesn’t like dark stories and some mistakes in the development of some characters, then this book is not for you.

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Vengeful
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[Kavita Shah]

The ghost use Luke as medium to take revenge on their ex-therapist Abigail. That's scary plus it has trauma and crime. Unwanted characters is really a turn off. Thank you for a great review!

[NetMassimo]

The use of cliches can make some part of a story predictable but overall this one seems intriguing if you like psychological thrillers. Thank you for your great review!

[Kenna Ridzi]

The title of the book really fits the description here. The ghosts using Luke as their revenge on Abigail show how terrible she must be as a therapist and a person. Great review!

[Buk Nerd]

Psychological thrillers usually make fascinating reads. I’m curious to know how Luke's story plays out. Well done with the review.