I mentioned before that I was going to be participating in the One Child reading experience. If you don't know what that is, you can read my original post HERE. To briefly summarize, Enthrill is a new publisher, trying new marketing techniques. They took this book and created a month long reading event. One Child is a thriller that you read in real time. Each day new chapters were released the same time the events took place within the story. The online reader also included links to facebook pages, business websites, news reports and more that made the real time reading experience realistic.
This book felt like a true story. It read like real life. I almost feel like these characters are real people. Jeff Buick is a very talented writer. So, now let me get to my review of this book, as well as the experience of reading it in real time. (And be warned... This is a long one, because there is a lot of ground to cover here!)
I just reading this early this morning, and I'm still reeling. The story includes everything that makes a good thriller. It contains realistic and sympathetic characters. People who are very clearly bad guys, people who are very clearly good guys, and several people who inhabit that shady in-between area where you aren't quite sure just where they fall. It has a conflict, a climax and a slightly unbelievable resolution that you totally eat up anyway, because seriously?! That's just what had to happen!
For all that this book had everything that makes for a great thriller, there was so much more to it that just another thriller/conspiracy story. This book makes a political statement, asking us to become more aware of our situation and the problems facing others. It takes a very real issue in America, the war in Afghanistan, and it asks Americans to take a closer look at why we are there, what we are accomplishing, and what more needs to be done there. And the best part about it? It does all of this while keeping us totally entertained, completely absorbed in the story and never makes you feel like you are being pushed or beaten over the head with the information. The book, quite simply, tells it like it is.
That is what I think was the best part about this book. It's honest. The sections of the book that take place among the American soldiers in Afghanistan is painfully real. While reading, you can feel the fear and adrenaline from the soldiers, and understand the fear, anger and pain of the Afghani people. It would be interesting to talk to someone who has been over there fighting how accurately Buick portrays the conditions, because they felt horribly real to me. It makes my heart hurt that this is what some people face every day. There's the danger of unexploded land mines being stepped on by children or animals, the angry Taliban soldiers storming through your town, not caring who they hurt in an effort to kill the soldiers fighting them, people afraid of who will next burst through the door of their homes with guns held at the ready. It's tragic and painful to read. I can only imagine how much harder it must be to live it.
There are four main story lines within this book. Initially, we don't see a connection between any of the stories, but eventually, they all pull together and we are able to find the connections, and determine how each player and each movement sets the stage for what is to come as each story line finally becomes one.
So, our first story is Kadir and his three daughters. Halima is the eldest, and she dreams that she changes the world.
Next, we have Carson Grant and William Flemming. Flemming is an incredibly wealthy big-shot on Wall Street, and Carson is his newly promoted Division Head of the High Frequency Trading Unit of his Wall Street Corporation.
Third is Russel Matthews, a reporter going to Afghanistan to bring the truth about the situation over there to the people in America. We also meet several soldiers in Afghanistan who help us understand what life is really like.
And finally, we have U2, preparing for a rock concert in Moscow, and the team lead by an ex-CIA agent trying to bring it down.
The story is crafted perfectly. The pacing is wonderful, the story flows beautifully and the characters are believable. I really enjoyed reading this book and felt like I truly got to know the characters. The only real complaint that I have with the story is the ending. It was just a little bit too pat, and a few events were a little bit too unbelievable for me. Carson Grant is a naive idiot, and I never really felt like I was able to like him. His character felt a little bit flat to me. Part of his limited character depth, I think, comes from the fact that the woman he is engaged to, Nicki, is an almost superfluous character. She is dying of Cystic Fibrosis, and I felt that she was never anything more than a device. She provides "depth" to Carson's character, a little bit of drama, and is there for consequences. She was never really developed as a person. Instead, I felt like she was developed as a disease.
Other than my problems with the Carson/Nicki dynamic, I loved the characters in this book. Not all of them are people I'd like to meet on the street, but most of them (even Carson) felt like people that I might. It's possible I could run across someone just like almost any of these characters. It's not too likely that I'd run into a psychotic Russian who gets his thrills from killing people slowly, but I'll probably run into someone who has served a tour or more in a foreign war fighting for liberty and the right to life.This is definitely a book that I will read again in the future, and one I would recommend for others. I'm going to be looking to read more by Buick in the future. I'd like to see how I feel about a book of his reading it in one straight shot. But for now, Buick is definitely someone to watch for. One Child is so much more than I expected it to be, and I strongly recommend that you go out and read it now.
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Now, about the experience because you have to say something about that-
This book was the most unique book I've ever read because of the way it was released. As I mentioned, it was released in real time, with different chapters becoming available every day so that the events in the story unfold as you are reading about them. You are able to view the social networking pages of many characters, and are able to watch the reports that Russel Matthews sends from Afghanistan.
Although I truly enjoyed the little extras that came with the book, only having access to a limited number of pages every day stifled a lot of the excitement and adrenaline that I usually feel when reading a thriller/suspense novel. I was more invested in the characters than the events, because the chapters kept cutting off. I am a pretty fast reader, and rarely take more than 1-3 days reading a book. When I read, I prefer to read one book at a time, focus all my reading energies into that story and those characters and read it. Because this book provided me with daily cut offs, I found it really easy to distance myself from the events of the story and there were times when I'd leave it for a few days so I would have more to read when I came back to it.
The 4 videos that were released with the days events also reaffirmed what I already knew. I am more emotionally involved in what I read than in what I see or am told. The book made me cry, made my heart hurt. Watching those same events on Matthews video reports didn't even really make me sad. They were just kind of there. But that isn't the fault of the videos, it's just how I am. A really well written sad scene in a book can make me sob. A similar scene in a really well done movie just kind makes my throat hurts and my eyes tear up a little.
The timed release was a great idea and really made a difference in how the story made me feel, but I don't know that I loved it. I loved the idea, and enjoyed the execution but don't know if it's something I will be looking to repeat. However, I definitely plan to re-read this book sometime in the future and I strongly encourage you as readers to pick up a copy. It makes you think a lot more than I ever expected it too. I know that Halima has changed my world. Are you going to let her change yours?