REVIEW: Pursued by Joel Gomez-Dossi

Pursued by Joel Gomez-Dossi
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

The writing was good, the story was fast-paced, and that’s everything nice I can say about this book because it was crappy. I think it was going for a B-rated-teen-horror-movie thing or a parody of it, but either way the book failed. I didn’t cringe. I didn’t laugh. I just wanted to finish the book already so it would stop annoying me.

The Characters

Jamie, the MC, was stupid and naive beyond belief. I would list all the stupid things he did but I would simply be summarizing the entire story, and I say this with no exaggeration. Honestly, I can’t even give one example because I would be compelled to rant in long paragraphs.

Now I will say this: Jamie did do one smart thing...kinda. That one thing was trying to find evidence against the villain to back up his claim that the villain was a villain. Otherwise, no one would believe him because the villain was a well-connected, respected cop who was actively sabotaging the MC’s credibility. However (and this where the “kinda” comes in), if Jamie was an inch smarter, he and his friends would have hired professionals, i.e. a private detective and a lawyer, instead of amateurishly doing it themselves. It was no surprise to see that they quickly tipped off the villain who then targeted his friends too, escalating the already dangerous situation to the going-to-capture-and-torture-you level.

While Jamie was a moron, the villain was a caricature. His character seemed to me like it was based upon a hodgepodge of traits a serial killer would have.

The other characters were no better. I know everyone has problems of their own, but everyone in this book was screwed up in one way or another. Domestic violence, illegal immigrants, family estrangement, conversion therapy, etc., each issue was slapped onto a character, and wham-bam, there’s your character development.

The Ending

It was more than a case of lazy character development, it was also a lot of unnecessary and superficial drama. I didn’t like the shit-isn’t-over-yet ending, particularly the HIV issue that should have been dealt with early in the story. The obligatory bittersweet ending, recall that the book is a horror/thriller, was a shade of ridiculousness.

In Conclusion

I rate Pursued 1-star for I didn’t like it. I’m thankful that the story limited the POVs to Jamie and the villain. Multiple POVs would have make it insufferable.

Just when you think the stupidity is over, it’s BACK! There is a sequel, Deadly Cult, and I must confess. I am seriously tempted to read the sequel despite rationality. Now that’s scary.

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