Review of The Middle Reaches (Episodes 1-8)

[Janki Patel]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Middle Reaches (Episodes 1-8)" by L. Andrew Cooper.]

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5 out of 5 stars

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If an eerie and blood-curdling story, bordering on unhinged, is what you are looking for in your next reading experience, then you might have come to the right place.

The Middle Reaches Cycle One: Shadow Man (Episodes 1-8) by L. Andrew Cooper follows the story of five school friends who reconnect after their school reunion. Years later, Nick, Leslie, Celia, Ambrose, and Pedro have been having strange dreams that might be linked to the mysterious disappearance of their friend, Sheldon. All of them, in their dreams, travel to an area that Sheldon used to describe as the Middle Reaches. However, this place seems to have its own consciousness and is now beckoning these friends toward itself. 

The review, henceforth, is based only on Episodes 1-8 of the book. The story of these friends and their supposed quest to explore this unusual place of their dreams takes the readers along on a dark and forbidding journey. If I had to describe this book overarchingly, I would come up with the word atmospheric. The author successfully creates an ominous atmosphere right from the book’s beginning and continually adds to it episode after episode. The book follows a multiple-point-of-view narrative, which suits the storyline perfectly.

There is also a sense of mystery attached to each character that is unravelled gradually in the book. The differences in the nature of these characters, like Ambrose’s bluntness and Leslie’s reserved nature, evoke the strangeness of the whole plot even more and add flavour to it. The book is heavily influenced by basic elements of nature like trees, water, and animals, and in the same parallel, talks about the basic primal sexual drives of humans as well. I cannot forget mentioning the amazing work done at the editing and proofreading level. The book has a professional touch to it, and I just flew by page after page while reading. 

I have no additional suggestions for the book. It was a perfect read for me. For all the above reasons, I rate this book five out of five.

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The Middle Reaches (Episodes 1-8)
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