T. M. Gregg

I received this book as part of the Goodreads giveaways in return for an honest review.

Gotta say, for an indie published book, this one stands out as very good. The writing is solid and professional, and aside from a couple of nitpicky things, it's actually better edited than some recent books I've read from the major houses.

In terms of the editing, there were three things that stood out and occasionally yanked me from the story. The first was the author's habit of using double sentence stops. Like this!! Or this!? Or, if being particularly emphatic, like this!!! Honestly, the writing was strong enough to not need clues like this to indicate the manner in which the words were stated. The second thing that bothered me was the way events lacked sufficient transitions to allow the reader to understand precisely how much forward in time we'd gone. At times, I simply stopped reading and wondered. Finally, there was a horrible misuse of a word on page 160: But I impugn you, Doctor, to act accordingly... Yeah, I believe the author was going for implore.

As I said, these are nitpicky. But how about the story?

Well, to be honest, it took a bit to get used to the structure of this story, because it's unusual, but I quite enjoyed it once I got the hang of it. The secret is to not look at the three stories as separate but connected, as I did. Consider them more parts one, two, and three of the same larger story. And the story is fascinating and multi-layered.

Some of the characters (in particular, Philbin, Anderson, and Helman) could have been fleshed out a bit more, but most of the characters were well-drawn and sympathetic.

The only complaint I have story-wise is the extended dream/hallucination sequence toward the end. I felt the story went off the rails in those pages, but once that was wrapped up, we were back on track and trundling down the rails again.

Overall, it's a great gothic novel with some definite horror tones in the spirit of Lovecraft (at times) and Poe (at others).

I fear I've focused a bit more on the negative than the positive here, but overall, I should state that I actually really enjoyed this book and would absolutely read more by T.M. Gregg.… (mer)

Patrick Henry is a doctor who works with the worse mental cases. He prescribes reading the diary of Mr. Alfred D. Cummings as therapy for Sam’s sleepless nights and fear of shadows.
He has to help Michael who claims to have locked the monster from one of the doctor’s books in a tower. Despite obstacles put into place by Michael’s aunt and doctor, Patrick knows he has to take action. Amelia Dearborn is trapped within her mind and reacts like a trapped animal whenever the medication fades away. The doctor is having problems of his own; his girlfriend editor is sleeping with his boss that expects his to ghostwrite a best-selling novel for him. The three stories each have some supernatural elements, twists, and turns. Overall, the plot flirts with the thin lines between sanity and insanity.… (mer)

First, let me say that I wanted to read this book because of the nuthouse.

Although well written, this story started off really slow and I kept setting it aside because I couldn't get into it. But when I got a few pages into the Monster, the book livened up substantially and I read it all the way through. I'm glad that I stuck with it.

This author is very descriptive and does a good job of pulling the reader into the story. There were many characters in this book, all with their own unfortunate stories, but the author did an excellent job of bringing their personalities to life.

The main character, Dr. Denny, led the story well and the other characters gave adequate, dramatic support. To top it all off, but not to spoil the story for anyone else, the crazies were really crazy without seeming like the author was trying too hard.

Good read!… (mer)