BOOK REVIEW: THE RESERVE BY JORDON GREENE

BY TONY JONES 

“Dismal monster horror lacking in teeth, but sadly not page length”
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The opening pages of “The Reverse” sees a couple of young men Omar and Joe being brutally murdered by some nasty Big Foot type of creature. So, if you’re looking for any type of suspense, or slow reveal of tension, you are not going to find it in this forgettable, repetitive, and incredibly long novel as the author lays his cards on the table in this opening chapter. Over the next pedestrian and very long novel there is much more of the same, with various characters, none of which you care about, being despatched by a killer creature. When this sort of horror is done well, you’ll think of Adam Nevill, Nick Cutter or Ronald Malfi, who can all transform an idea as simple as this into literary and scary horror novels. At the trashier end, and there’s nothing wrong with that, think Hunter Shea, Jason Parent, or Michael Patrick Hicks, three authors who write SHORT punchy solid genre which blow “The Reserve” out of the water and would do so in a third of the page count.
 
Chapter two introduces the major characters we’re going to spend the remainder of the novel with. Cooper is a university student visiting New York for the summer and staying with his brother Nick. Out of the blue Nick surprises Cooper by telling him he has landed him a big part in a b-movie horror film which is going to be filmed illegally on North Brother Island. This is an uninhabited bird sanctuary, located near Rikers Island, but still in close vicinity of NYC. As cash is short they will use the island location for natural sets including an abandoned hospital in recreating a post-apocalyptic setting. Before long they canoe over to the island and once the first member of the small firm crew disappears the fun begins. There really is not much more to say about the plot as the various characters are then mundanely despatched by the creature.
 
Interestingly enough, I discovered that North Brother Island is a genuine location, which really is a bird sanctuary, uninhabited by man. Situated right in the heart of New York, potentially, this could be a grand setting for a horror novel, but the author never really gives it a sense of time and place and the bland descriptions lacked atmosphere, detail and any sense of threat. Before long I could not care less about any of the characters and the appearance of the creature was so frequent I quickly tired of that also. A lot of the book is written in the first person “I” tense via Cooper, and this limited character development (there was none) and restricted what could be done with the other characters after the filming started to go bad.
 
By about 80% into the novel I really began to wonder whether there was anything more to this book than being a simple creature feature and eventually it did change direction. I guess this was supposed to be seen as a twist, but it did not work for me, and it remained ridiculous until the final page.
 
I notice Jordon Greene has reviewed his own book on Good Reads, not sure what I think of that, giving it five stars, noting “It's a creepy tale that's sure to rattle your nerves.” I disagree completely, it did not rattle my nerves, it just got on them. However, you are more than welcome to read it and make up your own mind. I review horror books all the time, both literary and trash, and this is one I would advise you to avoid.
 
Out of interest I went to the publisher Franklin/Kerr Press to double check this was not self-publishing in disguise. It says not, however, how any editor let this book pass at this length (Amazon says 332 pages, but it feels way longer) with such a flimsy story should get out of editing and find a new job. I also prayed my kindle way lying when it said seven hours of reading was remaining, sadly it was not.
 
This novel has the moniker “SOME PLACES WERE MEANT TO BE FORGOTTEN”. More likely it is this novel which will be quickly forgotten. Avoid.
 
Tony Jones

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