The Reading Bud

Author: Ben Hoene 
Release Date: 31st October 2020
Genre: Crime, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
Series:
Format: E-book 
Pages: 96 pages
Publisher: 
Blurb:

Natasha Cole was an angelic thirteen-year-old girl. She grew up in a fatherless home in the ghetto of Clever Rock; the murder capital of the country. Despite her bleak upbringing, she was a light in darkness with her uplifting and whimsical personality. All of that changed when she fell victim to rape. She was forced under the threat of death by her rapist to never tell a soul what he did.

Thirty years have passed since that incident. Natasha is now a mentally ill drug addict in her forties. After thirty years of silence, she reveals the identity of her rapist. Almost immediately after this confession, a mysterious stalker murderously pursues her. Who’s after her? Natasha must maintain what little sanity she has left to solve this mystery and stop the attacker; while trying to stop her own demons in the process.

Book Review

The Marring by Ben Hoene is a psychological crime thriller that addresses the issue of rape and its consequences.

I love psychological thrillers as much as I love writing them. So when I was approached for this book, I was really curious to read this book. I liked the overall story of the book, but I felt that this book was on the heavier side and leaned more towards the dark side of the internal conflict of the character than I would have preferred. Make no mistake, I am a dark fiction writer myself and prefer dark works over the lighter ones, but in this book, the suspense and mystery were completely overshadowed by the internal conflict and the crime and therefore I wasn’t sure about how the book is listed as a psychological thriller. It is more about the consequences of rape and the character dealing with it than about the stalker, who feels like a sub-plot and not the main conflict.

As I said, I liked the overall story. I wasn’t overly in love with the main character but I was intrigued enough to want to know how the story ends. Also, the writing was okay for most parts, but at some places, the prose felt choppy and full of adverbs. But it was a quick read, so it has that going for it.

Again as I said, I felt the element of suspense and mystery felt overshadowed by the character’s past which, in my humble opinion, drowned out the plot. With better editing, these issues could have been easily worked on, but the copy I received had these issues.

I would recommend it to all thriller readers who don’t have a problem of trigger with rape and abuse related themes.

You can also read this review on Amazon and Goodreads.