I looked forward to reading this novel; the premise intrigued me, I enjoy reading new authors, as I adore the chance of stumbling across a new voice I’ve never heard, but somehow Nine Lives failed to land on all four paws for me. I can tell a lot of love went into the writing of it and that at no point does it look like he’s rushed his way through. George Moser has been crafting this for sometime, weaving in a love of his family and personal experiences/tragedies to boost the idiom “write what you know”.
Now the idea of a demonic cat returning again and again despite the number of times it’s put down excited me to start with, instantly reminding me of Dean Koontz’s TICK TOCK, but soon the characters became nonsensical (who leaves their family alone to drink beer with their buds after a giant cat has mauled the family pet?!?), random scenes are added in without any real context to the rest of the story, gaping plot holes appear swallowing bloodied bodies that need to be disposed of. In truth a lot could have been chopped out to make it a shorter scarier piece and less prosaic than it ends up being.
I managed to get half way through before the ridiculousness of it got the better of me. I so wanted to like it as certain moments had me smiling, but in truth I think the idea would have pack a great punch as a much shorter story, Moser has over thought this more than he needed to, the Tomb raiding sub-plot would have tied in nicely with the seemingly indestructible felines, but sadly by then I’d put the cat back in bag filled with broken bricks and tossed it the depths of a dark, fast flowing river
2/5
Now the idea of a demonic cat returning again and again despite the number of times it’s put down excited me to start with, instantly reminding me of Dean Koontz’s TICK TOCK, but soon the characters became nonsensical (who leaves their family alone to drink beer with their buds after a giant cat has mauled the family pet?!?), random scenes are added in without any real context to the rest of the story, gaping plot holes appear swallowing bloodied bodies that need to be disposed of. In truth a lot could have been chopped out to make it a shorter scarier piece and less prosaic than it ends up being.
I managed to get half way through before the ridiculousness of it got the better of me. I so wanted to like it as certain moments had me smiling, but in truth I think the idea would have pack a great punch as a much shorter story, Moser has over thought this more than he needed to, the Tomb raiding sub-plot would have tied in nicely with the seemingly indestructible felines, but sadly by then I’d put the cat back in bag filled with broken bricks and tossed it the depths of a dark, fast flowing river
2/5
