Welcome to the first review of Horror Month!
Okay, this is a confession that I must make, being a fan of fantasy books and the like; I haven’t read Pendragon yet. Gasp, I know, right? Anyway, how is this related to Morpheus Road? Well, the same person who wrote Morpheus Road also wrote Pendragon, and apparently this book has some connection to the Pendragon series; also, most people read Pendragon before they read Morpheus Road. I am not one of those people, obviously, so Morpheus Road was my first introduction to the famous author’s works. A friend recommended Morpheus Road to me, so I decided to read the trilogy. So, was it a scary enough book to warrant reading at midnight or was it a failure? Sit back, relax, and read on as I review the Morpheus Road trilogy by D.J. MacHale.
The Setup:
The story begins by establishing two unlikely best friends: Marshall and Cooper. Marshall (or Marsh) is a fairly quiet, artistic, and nerdy teenager, while Cooper is loud, arrogant, and popular. On the last day of their freshman year of high school, Cooper gets in trouble for selling fake tickets, and as punishment Cooper is taken out to his old lake house with his parents; that is, after he and Marshall have a huge fight with each other. This results with Marshall (who’s the main character of The Light, by the way) smashing the final gift from his dead mother, and after that, well, “something wicked this way comes” is the best way to put it. I like how modest this setup is, with no elaborate tricks to try and get you interested into the story. It’s simple, yet effective. The characters are also established very well, and are instantly likable and sympathetic.
The Characters:
I’d say that the characters are the best part of this book trilogy, as they are well developed and likable; though, before I go into much detail, I need to clarify something; the first book, The Light, is told from Marshall’s point of view, The Black is told from Cooper’s point of view, and The Blood is told in the third-person point of view. So, technically, this makes both Marshall and Cooper the main characters. Anyway, my favorite character is probably Marshall. I love how the book actually establishes his hobbies and interests, which strangely is something I see rather rarely in any story, and it makes him a lot more relatable. He’s kind of nerdy, but not terribly so, and is pretty taciturn and cautious. What’s especially interesting about him, though, is his art skills and obsession with drawing a character he calls “Gravedigger”, which becomes a pretty big part of the story. However, there were moments when he just didn’t act like himself in the final book The Blood, and while it’s hard to explain why without spoiling much, let’s just say that it feels really out-of-place and unwonted. Next, there’s Cooper, the rambunctious troublemaker. I didn’t like him as much as Marshall, but he was still a memorable character despite not being present for very long in the first book. His story is told in the second book, and truth be told it is rather intriguing. He also remains pretty consistent within the story (unlike Marshall), so props for that. Then there’s Sydney, Cooper’s older sister and Marshall’s crush. I think her character is fantastic. I love how cold, rebellious, and cynical she can be, while at the same time retaining logic and being incredibly intelligent. I also think her development is great, and you can see the subtle changes in her character throughout the books. Granted, she’s not much of a character in the final book (or, at least, she doesn’t have that big a role), but I still really liked her character. Then there’s the villain, who shall remain nameless for the purposes of this review. He’s the only truly generic character of the bunch, not really having much of a personality besides wanting to take over the world. That, and he’s a bloodthirsty psychopath, but what villain isn’t nowadays? Overall, the cast is above average, and very memorable.
The Story:
I’d say that the story is completely mixed. The first book has one of the best stories I’ve ever come across (in fact, The Light won the award for the Best Book Story of 2013 last year), with perfect pacing and a fantastic sense of suspense and excitement. The second book, while not bad, actually kind of ruined the first book’s charm by explaining a lot of what happened in the first book (it’s the same story from a different perspective). The third book, however, is awful in every sense. The story is slow, lost all its mystery and suspense, and was straight up painful. To give you an idea, it took me a day to finish The Light, around two to three days to finish The Black, and The Bloodtook me forever. It was the worst conclusion to something so good that I’ve ever seen period. There aren’t that many themes to be discussed, except for the value of friendship and family I suppose, but they’re not very powerful. The books are more like popcorn material; the themes are there, but not very important to the overall result.
The Writing Style/Grammatical Errors:
I love the writing style for The Light, and to some extent The Black. The Light was able to make me feel scared and uncomfortable, as well as getting to the point without much verbiage. Its descriptions were clean, the voice was clear and interesting, and was so addictive. The Black is pretty much the same except for the being scared part, but it was still good. The Blood is, again, awful. The book switches from well-written first person to some of the worst third person I’ve ever had to read. Its descriptions were elongated, I couldn’t relate to the characters or understand their thought processes, and it was the complete opposite of terrifying. There were no grammar errors to speak of.
The Scare Factor:
Here’s a new section. So, because the entire point of horror is to scare someone, I decided to include this section for Horror Month and incorporate it into the final score (hence why the scorecard will be different). Morpheus Road’s first book was actually pretty terrifying, utilizing the abject fear of the unknown to its fullest. Okay, if you’ve read any horror story you can tell that a ghost of some sort is behind this, but you don’t know why, how, or if they’re truly malevolent. It’s brilliant, and what really made The Light stand out. The Black, on the other hand, isn’t all that scary; it was more like reading an action story more than anything else. And, like always, The Blood just sucks at it. All I felt while reading The Blood was boredom.
Final Judgment:
Overall, Morpheus Road is a mixed bag. The first book is fantastic, the second book is good, and the third book is just abysmal in every sense. I give The Light a 4.5 out of 5, The Black a 3.5 out of 5, and The Blood a 1 out of 5, to create an overall score of 3 out of 5 for the entire series. My recommendation is to read the first book, check out the second book if you’re truly interested, and then imagine your own ending. But, like always, it is up to you to decide your own opinions.
Horror Month ScoreCard:
Further Recommendations:
Anna Dressed In Blood
This is yet another horror series with a great first book and an awful sequel. Read the first book if you’re interested, because it is a very enjoyable and relatively scary read.
Pendragon
Yeah, I’m recommending this even though I haven’t read them yet. Apparently the stories are connected somehow, so check this series out and let me know how it turns out.
Well, that was the first Horror Month review. Horror Month Review #2 will be on the anime adaptation of Tokyo Ghoul. See you then!
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