Official Review: The Hand by Joe Simmons
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Official Review: The Hand by Joe Simmons
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Hand" by Joe Simmons.]
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The Hand by Joe Simmons is a short story about the author's adventure at a state park. It attempts to warn people about the consequences of being reckless and incautious when out camping, but fails quite miserably.
The storyline follows Simmons as he revisits the campsite where the "hand incident" happened some years ago, this time with a group of teenagers. On their way to the site they meet an old ranger, Mr Washington, who used to work there and who was closely involved in the events. As the teenagers and Simmons settle at the campsite we see him narrate the story of the hand incident to the group, who find it so interesting that they promptly ask him for a visit of the area where it happened. He agrees and the next day they go and survey site H in the primitive camping area then drive back to their tents to have dinner with Mr Washington and learn more about the event that took place there before they were born. As the storytelling comes to an end everyone returns to their tents, feeling a little more spooked, but not fundamentally changed by hearing about the incident.
The story itself would be very interesting and could be quite enjoyable if it were narrated well. It is the type of anecdote that could be shared by sitting at a campsite and telling each other ghost stories, trying to spook each other. However, the narration lacks all the necessary elements that make a reader become immersed in a story. There are too many little annoying mistakes that could be forgiven if they were present by themselves, but make us want to put the book down if they all come together in one story.
First of all, there are mistakes in punctuation all through the book that get very annoying after the first ten pages. It makes one question whether the author has checked his grammar after finishing the book at all. There are frequent repetitions of not just words, but actions as well. For example, while driving through the camp the author tells us that he gave water bottles to his group of campers 4 times in one paragraph. The style of writing is also a little clumsy with very sophisticated and long sentences in one paragraph and slang words and simple narration in the next. It makes the story more jagged and the reader wonder whether the author was trying to be humorous or simply couldn't decide which style would suit him best. There is also a tendency to mix British and American slang, which is confusing for the reader as we don't actually learn whether or not the characters are American or British.
There are also sentences that do not make sense at all, with very awkward wording and confusing actions. The story in itself is hard to understand on first reading as the paragraphs and chapters are very short and there doesn't seem to be any transition in some places, while in others we have to suffer through meaningless conversations with characters we know nothing about. There is some good description in the story, but I'm sorry to say that it's in all the wrong places where we expect action instead of details about the food tent. This could be solved if the author made the short story a little longer.
The dialogue has a very dry and unrealistic feel to it as well. Sometimes it feels like Simmons is just stating facts that would be quite alright in a manual about camping, but are very out of place in a creative piece of writing. There are also sudden cuts between scenes and jumps in time. One moment Simmons is talking to the teenagers at the fireside, the next he is narrating his dialogue with a woman from 10 years ago, all in the same sentence. There are also some themes on demons and religion which need to be either expanded or ignored completely as they add to the confusion. But the most annoying thing about this short story is that it doesn't seem to have a point at all - no real beginning and no real ending. Nothing really happens in the book, we just hear a story narrated, but nothing done and no solutions offered to the problems posed.
I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars. I would not recommend it to anyone - while the story is kind of interesting and scary, it does not succeed in teaching us moral lessons. The characters are almost non-existent as we barely learn their names and nothing about their personalities and the writing style is rather clumsy and confusing.
***
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The storyline follows Simmons as he revisits the campsite where the "hand incident" happened some years ago, this time with a group of teenagers. On their way to the site they meet an old ranger, Mr Washington, who used to work there and who was closely involved in the events. As the teenagers and Simmons settle at the campsite we see him narrate the story of the hand incident to the group, who find it so interesting that they promptly ask him for a visit of the area where it happened. He agrees and the next day they go and survey site H in the primitive camping area then drive back to their tents to have dinner with Mr Washington and learn more about the event that took place there before they were born. As the storytelling comes to an end everyone returns to their tents, feeling a little more spooked, but not fundamentally changed by hearing about the incident.
The story itself would be very interesting and could be quite enjoyable if it were narrated well. It is the type of anecdote that could be shared by sitting at a campsite and telling each other ghost stories, trying to spook each other. However, the narration lacks all the necessary elements that make a reader become immersed in a story. There are too many little annoying mistakes that could be forgiven if they were present by themselves, but make us want to put the book down if they all come together in one story.
First of all, there are mistakes in punctuation all through the book that get very annoying after the first ten pages. It makes one question whether the author has checked his grammar after finishing the book at all. There are frequent repetitions of not just words, but actions as well. For example, while driving through the camp the author tells us that he gave water bottles to his group of campers 4 times in one paragraph. The style of writing is also a little clumsy with very sophisticated and long sentences in one paragraph and slang words and simple narration in the next. It makes the story more jagged and the reader wonder whether the author was trying to be humorous or simply couldn't decide which style would suit him best. There is also a tendency to mix British and American slang, which is confusing for the reader as we don't actually learn whether or not the characters are American or British.
There are also sentences that do not make sense at all, with very awkward wording and confusing actions. The story in itself is hard to understand on first reading as the paragraphs and chapters are very short and there doesn't seem to be any transition in some places, while in others we have to suffer through meaningless conversations with characters we know nothing about. There is some good description in the story, but I'm sorry to say that it's in all the wrong places where we expect action instead of details about the food tent. This could be solved if the author made the short story a little longer.
The dialogue has a very dry and unrealistic feel to it as well. Sometimes it feels like Simmons is just stating facts that would be quite alright in a manual about camping, but are very out of place in a creative piece of writing. There are also sudden cuts between scenes and jumps in time. One moment Simmons is talking to the teenagers at the fireside, the next he is narrating his dialogue with a woman from 10 years ago, all in the same sentence. There are also some themes on demons and religion which need to be either expanded or ignored completely as they add to the confusion. But the most annoying thing about this short story is that it doesn't seem to have a point at all - no real beginning and no real ending. Nothing really happens in the book, we just hear a story narrated, but nothing done and no solutions offered to the problems posed.
I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars. I would not recommend it to anyone - while the story is kind of interesting and scary, it does not succeed in teaching us moral lessons. The characters are almost non-existent as we barely learn their names and nothing about their personalities and the writing style is rather clumsy and confusing.
***
Buy "The Hand" on Amazon
Buy "The Hand" on Barnes and Noble
"What's coming will come and we'll just have to meet it when it does." - J K Rowling
Latest Review: "Memories from the Front Line" by Henry Chew, Neil Jopson
