Review of Prism of Her Soul
Posted: 04 Nov 2024, 18:30
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Prism of Her Soul" by Rob Dixon.]
How does one even begin to categorise Prism of Her Soul by Rob Dixon? This book refuses to be boxed in any of the genres because it encompasses all of them at once. It’s horror, psychological thriller, paranormal, gothic, and human drama, all set in the ever-culturally relevant city of London. Rob Dixon wrote a winner here, telling a tale that will knock anyone’s breath off because it will feel like a heavyweight champion box has just punched them in the stomach. Rob does all of this through storytelling, showing how cruel human beings can be and how one’s past can catch up with them in unexpected ways and leave them stunned.
The novel opens with a prologue, where an unknown man calls an emergency line to report a sort of crime. The man says he is seeing a naked woman covered in blood! The emergency responders ask the man for more information, but he is unwilling because he is getting up to no good himself. The first chapter introduces to us a hard-driven woman by the name of Kate. Kate is beautiful, smart, and rich. She is every man’s dream, every woman’s envy. Her life is good. All she does is focus on her work, keep good hygiene, and go out now and then to blow off steam.
Kate’s life doesn’t have any problems, except if you count nice life problems. As a high-baller Londoner, she has her secret, like going to exclusive establishments and getting up to activities that she would like not to escape the building. Things for her start going south when she suspects she is pregnant. No, she is not dating anyone—it was just a one-night thing. She takes a home pregnancy test, and it comes back negative. Phew! A relief. But why is having these scary nightmares that are so explicit? Her journey to getting answers leads her to places a person of her stature never imagined she would be.
I would be lying if I said I knew what to expect from this book. Every page, let alone a sentence, had its own shocker. When I thought I had read something mind-blowing on the previous page, the next page proved me wrong. It hooked me from start to finish. You could deduce yourself from the prologue summary I had given above. I was curious to know what scared the man like that. And I wanted to know whether the man wasn’t guilty himself. This is what the author did best, gripping you to read on until the last page.
The characters were amazing. They fitted. They were spot-on. They were realistic and acted like how I would expect people of their station in life to act. This showed how accurate the author’s research was in creating these characters. They were not that many. Kate was the protagonist, and then others were supporting characters, like her boss, mother, uncle, and the Ambassador. Each character, no matter if they were in a supporting role, was developed to the fullest. That’s because they all had a role to play.
The writing sealed the deal. As I have mentioned, the author wrote the book in a way that you won’t help yourself but flip the page to know what would happen next. The narration eased the story forward, making sure it didn’t prematurely reveal important information. This enabled the suspense to keep building page by page until the very end, where everything came down like a heavy rain. The dialogue kept the characters human-like. Their different personalities, especially dialects, shone through the dialogue. Through the way they spoke, I could imagine myself in London, encountering these characters of different backgrounds. The descriptions were so vivid that I saw London as it was, with its historic buildings and streets.
The conclusion made the book what it was. It made sure that, in the end, everything was worth it. I felt pleased I had continued reading until the last page because the end was rewarding with its plot twist. I don’t know how many times I mentally slapped myself because I couldn’t believe I didn’t see that coming. The ending reminded me of a book called Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough, which was adapted into a Netflix miniseries of the same name.
I have come across a couple of errors that the book could do well without. But I feel like they weren’t enough to take away my enjoyment of the book. So I rate this book five out of five stars. I recommend it to mature adults because of its strong language and gory, disturbing scenes. Themes of abortion and sexual assault are prevalent throughout. People who are sensitive to them, I advise they should shy away from this book.
******
Prism of Her Soul
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes | on Smashwords
How does one even begin to categorise Prism of Her Soul by Rob Dixon? This book refuses to be boxed in any of the genres because it encompasses all of them at once. It’s horror, psychological thriller, paranormal, gothic, and human drama, all set in the ever-culturally relevant city of London. Rob Dixon wrote a winner here, telling a tale that will knock anyone’s breath off because it will feel like a heavyweight champion box has just punched them in the stomach. Rob does all of this through storytelling, showing how cruel human beings can be and how one’s past can catch up with them in unexpected ways and leave them stunned.
The novel opens with a prologue, where an unknown man calls an emergency line to report a sort of crime. The man says he is seeing a naked woman covered in blood! The emergency responders ask the man for more information, but he is unwilling because he is getting up to no good himself. The first chapter introduces to us a hard-driven woman by the name of Kate. Kate is beautiful, smart, and rich. She is every man’s dream, every woman’s envy. Her life is good. All she does is focus on her work, keep good hygiene, and go out now and then to blow off steam.
Kate’s life doesn’t have any problems, except if you count nice life problems. As a high-baller Londoner, she has her secret, like going to exclusive establishments and getting up to activities that she would like not to escape the building. Things for her start going south when she suspects she is pregnant. No, she is not dating anyone—it was just a one-night thing. She takes a home pregnancy test, and it comes back negative. Phew! A relief. But why is having these scary nightmares that are so explicit? Her journey to getting answers leads her to places a person of her stature never imagined she would be.
I would be lying if I said I knew what to expect from this book. Every page, let alone a sentence, had its own shocker. When I thought I had read something mind-blowing on the previous page, the next page proved me wrong. It hooked me from start to finish. You could deduce yourself from the prologue summary I had given above. I was curious to know what scared the man like that. And I wanted to know whether the man wasn’t guilty himself. This is what the author did best, gripping you to read on until the last page.
The characters were amazing. They fitted. They were spot-on. They were realistic and acted like how I would expect people of their station in life to act. This showed how accurate the author’s research was in creating these characters. They were not that many. Kate was the protagonist, and then others were supporting characters, like her boss, mother, uncle, and the Ambassador. Each character, no matter if they were in a supporting role, was developed to the fullest. That’s because they all had a role to play.
The writing sealed the deal. As I have mentioned, the author wrote the book in a way that you won’t help yourself but flip the page to know what would happen next. The narration eased the story forward, making sure it didn’t prematurely reveal important information. This enabled the suspense to keep building page by page until the very end, where everything came down like a heavy rain. The dialogue kept the characters human-like. Their different personalities, especially dialects, shone through the dialogue. Through the way they spoke, I could imagine myself in London, encountering these characters of different backgrounds. The descriptions were so vivid that I saw London as it was, with its historic buildings and streets.
The conclusion made the book what it was. It made sure that, in the end, everything was worth it. I felt pleased I had continued reading until the last page because the end was rewarding with its plot twist. I don’t know how many times I mentally slapped myself because I couldn’t believe I didn’t see that coming. The ending reminded me of a book called Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough, which was adapted into a Netflix miniseries of the same name.
I have come across a couple of errors that the book could do well without. But I feel like they weren’t enough to take away my enjoyment of the book. So I rate this book five out of five stars. I recommend it to mature adults because of its strong language and gory, disturbing scenes. Themes of abortion and sexual assault are prevalent throughout. People who are sensitive to them, I advise they should shy away from this book.
******
Prism of Her Soul
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes | on Smashwords