Hello, lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host Paul DeBlassie III and his new book, “The Unholy”! For other stops on his Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in this post.
This book was compelling, captivating, thought-provoking, reflecting, and stimulating!!!
This book is filled with many suspenseful, mysterious, mystifying, and thrilling scenes!! There are dark corners, hidden secrets, dangerous forces, haunting memories, scary superstitions, and supernatural elements at play!!
This book starts right off with a dark, intense scene of young, 5-year-old Claire Sanchez, hiding among the tree line watching her mother being murdered by a scary black cloaked man. This scene is quite catching and pulls you in quickly with so many questions and worries about little Claire. However, it just as fast drops you out of this gripping scene as the next scene promptly fast forwards twenty years as Claire is now an adult, at twenty-five-years-old and is working at the Ecclesia Dei Psychiatric Hospital in this giant desert near the region of Aztlan. She is working in a unique position as a licensed natural therapist with a background in mental health services working specifically with Hispanic and Native American patients. This position couldn’t be more perfect for her as she had previously worked as a mental health worker while she was in training for her natural therapeutics license. That plus her being raised in a medicine women culture – “Women of Lozen,” that had taken her in after Claire became a “huerfana,” an orphan. With her strong upbringing in these traditions and the connection to her mom having also been part of this society it was easy to see why Claire chose a similar path and how she was excelling in it. However, Claire is hesitant to follow directly in her mom's footsteps as a medicine woman; when called out, she firmly insists she is a natural therapist, not a medicine woman, as Claire knows following directly in her mom's steps would only lead to danger. But now that Claire is the same age her mom was when she died she is starting to get curious and wanting to find out the truth behind the mystery of her mom's death. Claire goes on a self-discovery journey while also tracking down her mom's killer. What she finds is not only shocking and disturbing - it's more than she ever could have imagined!! Sorry, no spoilers here!! But you will definitely want to read this book and find out what happens and what Claire discovers!!!
I really liked Claire and easily connected with her!! She is strong, intelligent, caring, compassionate, respected, driven, persistent, polite, and kindhearted. However, she has many heavy weighted memories, nightmares, and demons that haunt the little girl she was when she watched her mom get brutally attacked and killed. That understandably would make anyone anxious, scared, fearful, worried, and on edge. I loved Claire’s passion and drive about wanting to truly help her patients, to understand their pain, and help them heal. She truly went above and beyond for her patients - putting them first.
This is the second book I have had the pleasure of reading from Paul DeBlassie III. I must say one of things I have noticed and come to enjoy in his writing is the intense force of the ying and yang themes and how he compels the reader to look at and discover both sides of the coin. For example, his books focus on good vs. evil, church vs. state, right vs. wrong, villain vs. hero, love vs. hate, Native American Spirituality vs. the dark side of institutionalized Christianity, etc., and even though many of us may unwittingly jump quickly to one side Paul pushes us to see and interpret both directions. And shows us that each one is not always so black and white – there are many shades of gray!!
I really liked all the Native American cultural and historical references that were sufficiently placed throughout the book. I also enjoyed the Native American language that was integrated into the story. I appreciated that the author defined each word in the passage on the fly, but I would have loved to have had a glossary word list at the end of the book that showed all the words included and their definition/sentence example.
I really enjoyed the in-depth amount of research the author did while constructing this book that is well-established throughout the story. That plus his strong background in psychology, and his love, passion, and respect of all things Native American is clearly evident from page one.
This book is an enjoyable, satisfying read. Although only 222 eBook pages, it does feel longer than that and it is not a quick read. In addition, this is definitely not a book that you can read while multitasking. There is too much to the story and it really does need your full attention, otherwise, it will be easy to get lost or confused – found this out the hard way lol. Not a flaw, I just normally juggle many things at a time, but it was nice to stop, take a break, cozy up, and focus on just getting whisked away into the story.
However, I have to say there were a few times I felt the story was repeating itself as it re-described many pervious scenes. I know what happened, I was there, I read it. So, I felt this detracted a bit from the story and stretched it out longer than it needed to be.
There are some predictable scenes. However, there are still a few unexpected twists and turns that you won’t see coming!
At this time, it does not appear that this book is part of a book series. Therefore, this book can be read as a standalone.
All in all, I really enjoyed reading this book and would absolutely recommend it! I think all thriller readers will like this book too! So, add it to your TBR List and get to reading - you won't be disappointed!
**Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book and have voluntarily provided an honest, and unbiased review in accordance with FTC regulations.**Did you find this review helpful?
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Paul ~ Good morning! Welcome back! It's so great to have you here again! Congrats on your new book and good luck on the book tour! I really enjoyed reading and reviewing your book, thanks for providing the copy! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for hosting!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate getting to hear about a new book. Thanks for taking the time to share it with us.
ReplyDeleteI liked the excerpt, thank you.
ReplyDeleteAlly, Good morning! Thank you for hosting The Unholy. Stay safe and well.
ReplyDeleteGreat excerpt!
ReplyDeleteGreat review
ReplyDeleteSounds like a very good book.
ReplyDeleteIf you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
ReplyDelete