BOOK REVIEW: TOME BY ROSS JEFFERY

I could read a thousand books set in Juniper. Hey, Ross Jeffery – can you please write a thousand books set in Juniper? Show us a school, or a corner shop, or… I don’t care where - I just love it there. It’s bleak and horrible and brings dry hot dust sticking to the back of your throat to mind. It’s got that good Old Testament biblical feel to it – you know, the doom and gloom stuff. The end of the world stuff. There’s an evil undercurrent twisting everything and it’s so great.

There is killer among those housed at Juniper Correctional. Inmates keep turning up dead, murdered in ungodly ways, but nobody knows how or why. The only thing that connects them is a nameless book from the prison’s library.

Tome is the second book set in a town called Juniper, from Ross Jeffery. I recently reviewed the first book, Juniper, giving it 4.5 out of 5 stars. I couldn’t put that one down and I was excited to pick up the second one.

The first chapter in Tome had me hooked… I mean… what is going on here?! What is this book?! What’s going on in this prison?! It sounds snake-like… is it Satan?! THE DARK LORD?! All of this was going through my head as I feasted my eyes on the carnage unfolding. It’s hard to talk about this book without going into spoilers, so I’ll go ahead with spoiler-free comments first and then warn you (for those who don’t want to read them) when the spoiler section starts.

After that first chapter, I found the book a bit harder to get into than I expected. Perhaps it’s because I loved Juniper so much that I went in with sky-high expectations. I spent a couple of chapters thinking ‘uh oh, I don’t know if I like it’. But I was wrong, because as I went along, I found myself obsessed. I’m not sure when it happened, but it did.

When I reviewed Juniper, I said that it was much more character-centric than plot-based, which was a compliment as I much prefer it that way around. I think that Jeffery’s character work is excellent. Tome is the opposite, in that it is very plot-focused. Turns out that Jeffery can do both equally well. Tome has a plot comprised of… oh, I don’t know… a thousand elements, and they all seamlessly come together with perfect placement and timing. I was about two thirds of the way through when it occurred to me that I was really REALLY enjoying the plot, and thus came the worry that I always get with Stephen King books. ‘This story is great… but will he land the ending?’

As a quick aside, I have to say I AM NOT slagging off Stephen King. He is my favourite writer and I think this ‘he can’t write endings’ thing is a load of poppycock. Generally speaking, he does a good ending. However, he’s written over 60 books and so now and then, you come across an ending that makes you want to throw the novel you so loved up until that point out of the window. Hey – nobody hits a home run every single time.

PS. Stephen, I love you, please be my friend.

So, which way did it go in Tome? Great ending, or great disappointment? Well, let me tell you, this was the ending of endings. The resolutions of resolutions. It was ending royalty. I wanted to crown it King.

My boyfriend kept looking over curiously as I read because I kept uttering things like, ‘awwww shiiiit, son!’ and ‘holy flirkin schnit!’

As expected, the characters were great. Mostly detestable, but man was I interested in how everything was going to go down for them.

I’d love to read the book the characters were reading, but I don’t know what that says about me.

I could read a thousand books set in Juniper. Hey, Ross Jeffery – can you please write a thousand books set in Juniper? Show us a school, or a corner shop, or… I don’t care where - I just love it there. It’s bleak and horrible and brings dry hot dust sticking to the back of your throat to mind. It’s got that good Old Testament biblical feel to it – you know, the doom and gloom stuff. The end of the world stuff. There’s an evil undercurrent twisting everything and it’s so great.

I’m going into spoilery specifics now so skip ahead to the last paragraph if you don’t want details ruined for you!

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SPOILER SECTION

Cynthia… oh, poor Cynthia! I knew Fleming was a dickhead but I never imagined he was THAT much of a dickhead. The earlier mentions of Cynthia from his perspective made me think he was a sour about a relationship between them that she ended. When it’s revealed that there was never a relationship, that he was reading what he wanted to read in every little thing she did and said, I was horrified. I was so scared for her, even though the very nature of her fate being told in memory was a clue to how things went. The way that Jeffery wrote Fleming’s thought process was so real and highlighted that in any given situation, there are always multiple perspectives (even if some of them are totally messed up and insane). This part of the story, for me, was outstanding.

I started getting very worried for Dolores. There were some subtle hints that she may meet the same fate as poor Cynthia. I was so worried that she’d end up alone with Fleming somewhere that I was totally misdirected and forgot to worry about her in the present. When she was killed, I was surprised, and laughing at myself for being surprised because, of course, I should have seen it coming.

Also, nice Labyrinth reference.

END OF SPOILER SECTION

I could go on about this book for so much longer, forever probably, but you get my point. It’s great and I loved it. You don’t need to read Juniper to understand this – it works as a standalone, but I recommend you do because both books are great and they compliment each other. The plot is great and unfolds in ways that are both satisfactory and surprising. The characters are brilliantly written, unique, each with their own voice. The greater evil is fascinating. There are multiple layers of horror, something for everyone, I think.

Tome gets 5 stars out of 5 for sure, and Ross Jeffery has now made the list of “writers whose books I will automatically buy without even reading the synopsis because I know I’ll love it”, alongside Stephen King, Adam Nevill, and Kit Power.

Another dark chapter in the history of Juniper unfolds…Juniper Correctional, jokingly abbreviated to JC, a dark jewel in the crown of the godawful American prison system, where the very worst of Juniper rot for life-sentences that seem to stretch forever. In this hell-on-earth, it’s hard to tell most days who is worse: the inmates or the corrupt guards that enact the will of the monomaniacal Warden Fleming. Fleming is a fallen star, a once bright-minded leader who turned the prison around, now hiding a terrible secret eating him away from the inside, a secret he’ll do anything to cover up.But Fleming has problems, problems that threaten to unveil his secret. There is killer among those housed at Juniper Correctional. Inmates keep turning up dead, murdered in ungodly ways, but nobody knows how or why. The only thing that connects them is a nameless book from the prison’s library. However, there is one ray of light: Frank. Frank isn’t like the other guards. Frank still sees the good in people and is trying to make a difference, to save those souls he can from the darkness in their own hearts. What Frank doesn’t realise, however, is that the darkness is real, and he is about to see its true power…

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