Kristopher ReiszRecensioni

Really enjoyed this one!

Not my cup of tea. All of the non-magical plot seemed seriously unlikely and strained, and the magical plot was flat and dull. I skimmed a good chunk of the middle of the book, and I don't think I missed much.

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: The worst ‘scary’ story ever.

Opening Sentence: But it’s a beautiful day, Holly.

The Review:

Possibly the worst book I’ve read all year. Usually, by the time I’ve read about a third of any book I know how well I’ll like the rest of the story. With The Drowned Forest, it started off incredibly boring with a whiny main character and unfortunately that impression remained until the last page!

Steve is wearing the same clothes he had on yesterday morning. Sipping an energy drink, he says, “So…what? You crashing here?”
I nod. “Holly’s a ghost. Her soul’s trapped in the river, and I have to stay here until we can free her.”
“Wow, that sucks. It won’t keep you up if I play Xbox will it?”

Jane is the most irritating protagonist ever. I tried to cut her some slack because her friend died but seriously, her constant preaching drove me insane. Don’t get me wrong, a little faith or encouragement to connect with an alternate being here and there can bring more life to a book, but this was different. Jane preaches in every single conversation, telling her friends off about not coming to church, and overall being far too judgmental. To make matters worse, throughout the story, Jane has a one-way conversation with her dead friend, Holly. It was sad at first, but when every thought of hers surrounded Holly, it became a leeeeetle obsessive. It was no surprise that her parents thought she was losing it.

“Christian music isn’t really a style of music like rock or the blues. It’s really more of a song theme, like love songs.”
“So?”
“So listening to it all the time and nothing else, it’s like listening to love songs all the time and nothing else.”
“So? Would that be so horrible?”
“Yes. Because nobody’s in love all the time.”
“So? Maybe we would be in love all the time if we listened to love songs all the time.”

Tyler was a definitely more likeable than Holly, at least he had some semblance to reality! I might have actually enjoyed the story if it was told from his perspective.

The author tried to make this a scary story but it just came across as unrealistic. I couldn’t imagine the scenes where Holly comes out of the lake without being skeptical; the writing just didn’t draw me in. Maybe if there was less preaching and a different protagonist this might have been a halfway decent read.

Notable Scene:

But then you died, and God ran away. He’s gone, and I don’t know why. I kneel and bow my head and say the words, but they can’t open my heart anymore. My heart is broken and useless like an old watch. It’s a lump of rusted-up metal in my chest. All I do is kneel here and talk to you.

FTC Advisory: Flux provided me with a copy of The Drowned Forest. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.

Jane misses her best friend Holly, who drowned while they were horsing around on the tire swing by the river. They’d played with the swing thousands of times, but no one expected Holly to drown doing an easy back flip. Unable to contain her grief, Jane talks to Holly in her mind and spends all her time praying. Read the rest of the review on my blog: http://shouldireaditornot.wordpress.com/2014/05/29/the-drowned-forest-kristopher...

I won this book from First Reads at Goodreads. I enjoyed it. It had me hearing music in my head as I was reading while they were singing. There was religion in the book but that did not bother me at all. I was so happy that they were able to save Holly.

I won this book from First Reads at Goodreads. I enjoyed it. It had me hearing music in my head as I was reading while they were singing. There was religion in the book but that did not bother me at all. I was so happy that they were able to save Holly.

This book was a good read. I read some other reviews where everyone was complaining that it definitely does not fall under YA novel and I can see why after reading it. I really enjoyed it, but there were some parts that left me wondering what if I had a 15 year old reading this book? But then I remembered how in this day and age teenagers talk and act the way Misty and Daniel did in the book. It's sad, but it is happening.I think that is what I liked about the book the most. It felt real and like an everyday teen going through her changes. It was easy to like the characters and feel for them.Daniel is your popular jock going away to a good school and Misty is your "hoodrat" who really does not have any plans and handles life and its challenges as they come day by day. Daniel falls for bad girl and bad girl falls for good guy. On top of all that Misty is half black and that is an issue to some. It was also a very different take on werewolves and very unique. I give this book four stars and would read part 2 if there was one. :-) A good read.

Unleashed by Kristopher Reisz takes a very interesting spin on the mythology of werewolves in the modern environment. Within its pages the author he explores the complexities of teen peer pressure with an interesting twist of lycanthropy. Instead of a curse, the characters are able to turn into actual wolves from eating mushrooms found in an abandoned factory. The city they live in is seemingly rotting away and decaying from the “rot-eater god” of the mushrooms. Within the book there is much conflict between wildness and civilization. The author does tend to really dismiss all other characters as shallow, boring, and tame compared to the main characters which I think hurt the story and made to one sided, but ther than that the book was a pretty good read over all. An interesting twist for a werewolf tale.

Reviewed by Lynn Crow for TeensReadToo.com

Daniel Morning has a beautiful girlfriend, an early acceptance to Cornell, and the world at his fingertips. So why does he feel so trapped?

When he gets to know Misty and her friends, he realizes how much freedom lies beyond the rules and restrictions set down by his parents and teachers. Misty's group is a pack in the most literal sense of the word. At night they eat a mushroom sacred to the god of decay, and shape-shift into wolves to prowl the streets and mark their territory.

At first disturbed and disbelieving, Daniel finds himself sucked into this shadow world of magic and defiance. His grades slip and his girlfriend ditches him for another guy, but with Misty, he doesn't care. Still, he can't bring himself to tell her the truth--that despite their connection, he's planning on leaving come fall. But then the pack's activities cross over the line between conscious rebellion and wild destructive abandon, and Daniel realizes he has to make a choice: between Cornell and Misty, between safety and freedom, and between the perfect life he used to have and all the lives that now stand to be lost.

Kristopher Reisz's UNLEASHED has one of the most unique takes on an established mythology that I've ever seen. Its twist on the werewolf tales will keep readers guessing right until the end. Daniel is not always likable, but his motivations are easy to understand, and his growth throughout the story is well-developed. The descriptions of shape-shifting and being wolves are so vivid readers will wish they could experience it for themselves. It's an intense, can't-put-it-down read that will have readers turning pages long after they should be asleep.

Highly recommended to all fans of urban fantasy and the supernatural.

Reviewed by Carrie Spellman for TeensReadToo.com

Gilly just wants to be beautiful, and Samantha just wants to go home. At least, that's what the resident crazy homeless guy in their town tells them late one night. The strange part is when he whispers about the Witches Carnival, and tells Gilly that if she hurries, she can catch it. Everyone knows the Witches Carnival is just a myth, something to dream about when you wish you could escape your life. Funny thing is, both of them want just that. The next day at school Samantha convinces Gilly to run away and search for the Witches Carnival.

The adventures begin. From Alabama, to Georgia, to Florida, to Rhode Island, to London, they chase the Carnival, and the idea of escape. They do and see things and people they could never have imagined. When Gilly hesitates Samantha pushes; when Samantha pauses Gilly convinces. Without each other they wouldn't keep going.

In the end they find out that home isn't always where you'd expect, and beauty is something you have to find in yourself. And that crazy old man might not be so crazy after all, or he just might be...

I feel like I have to add a few notes as to the nature of this book, and some of the things that happen. There is a fair amount of sex in this book. Not just discussions about sex, but actual sex. There's also some drug use. In defense of the drug use, the bad side of both the use and the lifestyle are realistic and somewhat graphic. I would say that both sex and drugs aren't encouraged or discouraged, merely treated as a reality. Overall, though, TRIPPING TO SOMEWHERE is a good, entertaining read.

Daniel’s doesn’t feel in control of his life. He is a senior in high school and seems to have everything going for him. He just received word from Cornell that he has been accepted and everyone is excited - except him. Daniel knows he doesn’t deserve the early acceptance into Cornell. He feels like a cheater. Daniels parents found a doctor that agreed to diagnose Daniel as ADHD which allowed him more time for his SATs. He has never felt comfortable with this decision, but his parents insist he deserves his spot at Cornell despite how he got it. With his feelings unsettled about his future, he begins to notice a group of kids that are on the fringe of school society. The outcasts.Misty and twin brother Marc are of mixed race in Birmingham, AL where thoughts of the civil rights movements are still fresh on peoples’ minds. They are frequently referred to as “stray” or “mutt” by their peers and struggle to maintain the motivation to attend school. Misty and Marc, together with their friends Val and Eric, begin to visit an abandoned furnace and discover a wild mushrooms growing in the dank and dark building. They decide to eat the mushrooms hoping for a wild ride. They discover animalistic instincts they didn’t know they had after ingesting the mushrooms and shift into wolves, leaving behind their humanity. At first, this transformation is short, but as they continue to make the transformation their ability to stay in wolf form gets longer and longer.Daniel and Misty begin to form a relationship. Daniel just wants an out from his pre-determined life. Misty is looking to the future. She invites him to join the pack and sets Daniel’s life on a very different path.While this book isn’t a MUST read, it is enjoyable and a unique concept for a werewolf story. The language is rough (sometimes crude) and there are many sexual situations between various couples. This is definately not a book for the typical middle school reader.

Tripping to Somewhere is the debut novel by Kristopher Reisz. It was described to me as a cross between Gaiman and Kerouac. While that may be what the author was aiming for, I think its too lofty of a goal for his first book.

The story follows Gilly and Sam a pair of angst filled teenage girls as they run away from home to join the fabled Witches' Carnival.
Their chase takes them on a trip across not only the country, but across the ocean. Along the way they run the gambit of sex, drugs, rock & roll, and even throw in a few felonies for good measure. They find the Carnival, but the cost to join in might just be too much to pay.

Tripping was published by Simon Pulse which is an imprint of Simon and Schuster generally aimed at younger readers. I think I was outside the key demographic audience for this book. While I found it fairly enjoyable, and a fun easy read, It did nothing to particularly grab me. Perhaps I'm just not capable of empathizing with an angst filled teenage lesbian, but the characters did not make me care about them. The situations they got into and out of seemed too unrealistic for me, even in a fantasy novel.

All in all, while I don't think its a great novel, I think that it will appeal to many teens, who are looking to live vicariously through the protagonists. As I said it was a fun read despite the flaws.

6 out of 10

May I say that after having tracked the author's blog for a few months, I had been looking forward to reading the book. Quite good- not quite as humorous as I had expected, but enjoyable read that didn't leave you with a huh feeling, nice tor ead a book that is complete in and of itself these days. Enough mythology in it for the smart reader, and the point of view was quite believeable.