Official Review: The Dark Lake by Anthea Carson

[TrishaAnn92]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Dark Lake" by Anthea Carson.]

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The Dark Lake by Anthea Carson, is a well written fictional mystery novel that will hold you captive until the very end. The Dark Lake is book one in the Oshkosh Trilogy. Feeding the reader just enough information to keep you interested until the closing and even then you are still left wanting more.

Jane, the main character in the story, lives a life built around a traumatic even in her past. She is a drug addict and an alcoholic struggling to better herself but not wanting to move past the accident at the same time. She refuses to grow up. In her thirties, she has the personality of a teenager, she has a bad relationship with her mother and refuses to think that she does anything wrong. As the story goes on she reverts back to drinking and starts hallucinating and that's where the story begins to become confusing and the reader starts to question whether everything outside of her past is a hallucination or if specific parts in the story are her hallucinations.

I enjoyed this story immensely. The author gives enough information to keep you hooked and not enough at the end to make you speculate and want to find out more. I was so curious to know what had happened to her and at the same time I wanted to smack the character silly for refusing to remember her past and acting like a child. The story was very descriptive and the going back and forth between the past and the present was well played so as not to confuse the reader with going back and forth between the different information continuously.

When the author took you back into the past each time, it was like you got to know Jane's friends a little bit better, to see the kind of people they were, presenting it as Jane's memories. It allowed the story to seem more realistic and well developed. The one thing I could say about it, though was that the ending felt rushed. The ending also irritated me, in a good way, if that makes sense. It left me utterly confused and speculative, ready to jump into the rest of the series.

Books of this nature are my favorite as they keep the reader thinking and ultimately wanting more. It gives the reader a sense of excitement. I rate The Dark Lake by Anthea Carson a 4 out of 4 stars because there was just not a moment that I was not captivated and wanting to know what had happened and what was wrong with this woman to make her act like a child. I would recommend this to all of my fellow book lovers because I really think anybody would enjoy this book.

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Buy "The Dark Lake" on Amazon

[denise_burke]

I agree that this was a captivating book, although I did begin to question what was real and what were hallucinations. I am definitely interested in reading the next book in the series.

[CapeBretonBookLover]

looks interesting

[sahmoun2778]

Another good review!

[TrishaAnn92]

It was interesting!

Thank you sahmoun!

[gali]

Thank you for the lovely review. It sounds really intriguing.

[TrishaAnn92]

Thank you gali!

[TiffanyJade]

Hmm I might pick this one up. It sounds intriguing.

[Sunjay]

It sounds really good. However, in "what became before he shot her" the teenage girl is a girl with drug problems and keeps goin to the past. Also torughflashbacks we understand the events of the cause of the violent teenager. However, i think i will enjoy this book (the dark lake) more since its looks interesting and less confusing. Thanks for the review

[obiebookworm]

Jane sounds like the type of character that would exemplify drug and alcoholic codependents - desperately wanting better but not knowing how to break out of their vicious cycles.

Great review!

[curlybookworm]

I love books with lots of mystery over misery! Nice review!:)

[Bookwoman]

Great review! Makes me want to get the book and read it.

[clockwork360]

Great review in and of itself. Books like this when at the book store or even amazon sometimes can make me walk right past them for the dreaded cliche of "Judging a book by its cover." However, it is like sitting at home listening to an older brother or sister tell you about a great story they just heard about that makes you want to see for yourself. Great Review and I may just have to read this one.

[manda2286]

That sounds good, I want to read it now.

[Stella White 47]

This sounds like a book I would read. I'm not sure I would enjoy it, exactly; however I believe it could help me understand and empathize with the recovering addicts in my community. For some reason this medium size city seems to have an unusually high number of such troubled souls. The childish behavior you mention is common to this group; probably for the same reasons that cause their difficulties with alcohol and drugs.

-- 11 Dec 2014, 15:53 --