Claw: A Canadian Thriller

Claw, Book 1

By: Katie Berry

Narrated by: Alex Knox

Lawless, British Columbia is on edge after a powerful earthquake jolts the region, quickly followed by a string of savage animal attacks. Newly stationed to the area after her predecessor mysteriously disappears, Conservation Officer Christine Moon needs to calm the jangled nerves of the small mountain town.

Awakened from ancient slumber, something stalks the swirling, grey mists that surround Lawless. A beast with a gnawing hunger that grows stronger by the minute - its only thought, to satisfy its ravenous appetite.

Rampant corruption at the highest level has targeted Christine to be the next mysterious disappearance. Now, she's in a fight for her life while trying to track and contain the creature threatening to decimate the local population.

©2019 Katie Berry (P)2020 Tantor

Flawed but Very Solid Monster Novel

In all honesty, I really did enjoy this. I love creature feature fair and I did like the scientific approach to it, as this genre usually takes a more speculative narrative. I have 3 major complaints. 1. the frequent info dumps dragged the story making me lose my concentration a lot. 2. Which may not have been so bad if the narrator wasn't so dull at these points. Good overall but these parts weren't his strong point. 3. I have to admit the dialogue wasn't very good. it didn't sound like how regular people talked. Too long winded and stilted, and sometimes just downright cringe inducing. However the story was a good one. I recommend it.

Good story, from a promising author

I get the feeling that this may be a first published novel from this author. Great story, great premise, very well thought out and it holds together well. The writing has the feel of somebody in love with words. The descriptions are wonderful, and the feel and description of the fog throughout makes it feel like a character itself. Creepy, hiding the monster, almost sentient. The reactions of the characters felt real - denying the monster until they had no choice. Very, very well done.

My feeling of this being an early novel comes from an overuse of the language. If one word is good, then five are better. Some of the best writers pen their books with an almost sparse style. The author here gives us far more detail than needed. I don't mind that, but three paragraphs can be made into one and say the same thing. This is just experience, and I expect future works will tighten up.

The main irritation I had was with small things, that irritated like a small barb that kept pricking at me. In describing Alex, the author kept referring to him as 'the boy'. After a time or two, I kept wanting to say 'he has a name!'. It took me out of the story. And some characters were over described - such as Trip and Alex. Trip isn't a naïve idiot and Alex isn't an angel. I got a little tired of the descriptions making them out as if they were.

In the future, I hope the author keeps their eye on the tale that they are telling, and less on the minutia surrounding the world they have built. It will make for a cleaner story. If Alex has a story to tell, write a separate story about it. Don't try to do too much in one book.

Overall a great, enthralling story, and I will definitely be following this author, hoping for more.

less is more

I sometimes wonder if authors get paid by the word. This would have been a much better book if there wasn't so much information about people who are just passing through the story.

Yawn

very long winded and predictable. Not very entertaining. I won't be continuing the series.

the bad narration

The narration was bad. Story was long and drawn out. And it just seemed to be crazy descriptive for no reason.