Official Review: The Sparrow by Jamie Horwath

ALRyder · Post by **ALRyder** » 05 Mar 2014, 17:06

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Sparrow" by Jamie Horwath.]

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The Sparrow by Jamie Horwath is about a drifter who takes a job as a gravedigger at a funeral home. He soon begins to follow his gut from one strange occurrence to the next. This is a short, paranormal horror story, so I don’t want to give too much away with my description part of this review. Let’s just say that the tone is set early and builds gradually, from a young boy’s statement about his papa not liking sparrows, to the local law enforcement giving our drifter a message of foreboding; “You’re not from around here, and we don’t like strangers in this town.”

While Horwath had strong scenes, always leading up to a very rewarding ending, I feel that the writing could have been smoothed out a bit. There was never any confusion or anything. In fact, I found that I could clearly see what was happening throughout. My issue was more with the simplicity of the style. Nearly every sentence that wasn’t dialogue started with names or words like he, it, and the. This style may very well appeal to many readers, but I usually prefer a smoother style, and if this hadn’t been a short story I don’t know if I would have finished it.

That all being said, it was a short story, and I really did want to get to the end to find out what the heck was going on. I also considered that perhaps Horwath was using the style of writing to keep a rural feel to the story. I'm not really sure. In terms of plot, The Sparrow, was very strong. Also, while the writing style may not have been what I prefer it was edited well, and I only caught one typo most probably wouldn’t have noticed.

As a reader I like my characters. I like to really KNOW my characters. I realize that with a short story this is hard to do, but characterization was definitely the biggest setback for this story in my opinion. I can’t really recall a single thought or emotion throughout the entire story. I am an avid horror reader, and I feel what really carries the suspense of the genre is the characters emotions. I want to know what that person is thinking and feeling by more than just their physical reaction to it. I just found myself wanting so much more. If the plot had not been so good I probably wouldn’t have cared what happened to each character.

Even with the two issues I already mentioned this was an interesting read. While I had my suspicions early on EVERYTHING was not revealed until the end. As I said before the end was very rewarding. It revealed just enough while leaving some mystery as well. Even as I write this review questions are floating around in my head, but I’m not frustrated by them (which is always a good thing).

I had a hard time deciding what to rate this one, because as you can see there were some issues I had with it. I kind of wish we could give half points, because I really teetered between a 2 and a 3. In the end I’m going to have to rank The Sparrow by Jamie Horwath a 3 out of 4 stars]/b] because I would still suggest it as an interesting paranormal read.

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JenniferBoyce · Post by **JenniferBoyce** » 22 Mar 2014, 17:26

This sounds like a fascinating read! I think I can deal with choppy/basic writing for the duration of a short story, hopefully. I will definitely have to check this book out. Great review!

ALRyder · Post by **ALRyder** » 24 Mar 2014, 00:41

Thanks. Let me know your thoughts. It's always interesting to see what other readers get out of the same story.

npandit · Post by **npandit** » 27 Mar 2014, 09:13

I like your review! I feel like I've got a pretty good idea about what this story is about. I find it interesting that many horror/crime novelists like to use that short choppy sentence structure, and avoid going too deep into characterization, but I think that this sometimes gets in the way of the story rather than adding to it.

ALRyder · Post by **ALRyder** » 27 Mar 2014, 10:55

There are times they go overboard with it as well. This becomes particularly annoying when there are multiple characters. I don't think it happens all that often with short stories though.

gali · Post by **gali** » 27 Mar 2014, 23:47

Sounds good. Thank you.

lera_elizabeth · Post by **lera_elizabeth** » 08 Apr 2014, 17:32

This book sounds interesting, I might just have to check it out and read it

ALRyder · Post by **ALRyder** » 16 Apr 2014, 23:15

You should. It's always good to have a few short stories on the kindle in my opinion.

DEON1 · Post by **DEON1** » 28 Apr 2014, 11:23

sounds very good for d short story

kio · Post by **kio** » 28 Apr 2014, 21:32

Sounds good, thanks

ALRyder · Post by **ALRyder** » 24 May 2014, 18:27

Thanks for the positive feedback!

reads-a-lot · Post by **reads-a-lot** » 09 Jun 2014, 12:48

Thanks for your honest review. Have heard about the book but never really knew what it was about.
Sounds like something I might want to read my way through even with the distractions you pointed out.

ALRyder · Post by **ALRyder** » 09 Jun 2014, 20:50

It is an interesting read, but be forewarned, even though it is marketed as a "book", it is only 22 pages. I noticed other reviewers were frustrated, only realizing this after they had bought it.

gali · Post by **gali** » 09 Jun 2014, 21:58

ALRyder wrote:It is an interesting read, but be forewarned, even though it is marketed as a "book", it is only 22 pages. I noticed other reviewers were frustrated, only realizing this after they had bought it.

Just 22 pages?? Its price is pretty steep for that short a book.