Book Review: Descent ***************

My favorite book of all time is To Kill a Mockingbird, and I'm not saying that's changed but I just finished Descent by Tim Johnston and this book absolutely blew me away, like no book has in a very long time.

The writing is gorgeous; unique descriptions, vivid images, emotion that poured from the page and wrapped around my heart. Tim Johnston is an amazing storyteller. This book is a page-turner in the truest sense of the word. There were parts where my heart thumped wildly - I was so fearful of what was about to happen. There were parts where I was literally sobbing (I'm not kidding), there were parts where I was simply in awe of the writing.
The reason I read this book is that I saw Tim Johnston at the Writer's Digest Writers Conference. He was the closing keynote speaker and his speech was, for the most part, awful, at least in the beginning, peppered with "um's" and apologies (for not being able to forward his Power Point slides, for not practicing his speech, etc.), for forgetting what he was saying...but he was so real and so funny and so humble that I just didn't care how uncomfortable he seemed on stage.
His book Descent was a bestseller - his debut adult novel - and when the introducer enumerated his awards and accolades, I yawned. Everyone has awards, at least everyone at writers conferences. Everyone is a "best-selling" author, at least everyone at writers conferences.
But after his charmingly awkward keynote I got the Kindle sample of his book and was engaged enough to buy it. And I have to say, this is an amazing book, one of the best books I've read in years, and I've read a lot of great books.
It's a powerful piece of writing - the story unfolds beautifully, the characters grab your heart. I have to say I was a bit confused in the beginning - he has a tendency to use pronouns instead of names, so until I got into the story I wasn't sure who "he" or "she" was.
No matter. It wasn't long before I got so involved that I stayed up long into the night to read.
Read the synopsis on Amazon, I won't spend time here telling you what it's about - just trust me...READ THIS BOOK!

Many, many stars out of five for Tim Johnston's Descent.
I wish I could write like Tim Johnston.