Wind Down

by Mark Ewig

Aaron Starks survived a near death experience when he was stabbed by an unknown assailant. All of his college roommates were suspects. However, investigators could turn up nothing to catch the attempted murderer. Fifteen years later, Aaron is all grown up with a family. Things are going great until he starts experiencing strange blackouts and other paranormal visions. During the blackouts he still interacts with others, but he cannot remember anything he said or did. Doctors are unable to provide an answer. It is not until Aaron has an encounter with Ju'van, a local shaman, that he realizes what he needs to do. He is sent on a journey to meet up with all his old roommates to discover the truth on what really happened the night he was stabbed in the back.

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Paranormal

172 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2014

Reviews

[Valicity Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wind Down is full of paranormal thrill with a hint of mystery. It has a cool name, if I say so myself, and an even cooler cover. I was drawn in by the artwork alone but the description took me in too. It’s a great read for anyone who likes to ‘figure things out’ or sit back in suspense. The story revolves around the protagonist, Aaron, whose life becomes full of twists and turns at the blink of an eye.

Aaron is stabbed in the back, literally, and this event changes much of his life forever. We are taken into this vibrant story as we ride along with Aaron trying to figure out the clues and the messages hidden in the odd events that unfold before him. He blacks out multiple times and often wakes up in different locations after days at a time. He’s left with the nagging question, what happened? And why?

Those same questions thundered through my head as I read this book. I’m not a huge fan of mystery but this was an exception I was willing to make. How many authors can successfully combine the paranormal with mystery and suspense? This is the perfect setup for a movie, a class-A thriller.
Much of the book is shrouded in mystery and much of it is edge-of-your-seat suspenseful but there are gentle parts as well. Aaron and his wife, Jessica, both go through the nightmare that haunts him after his assault. Aaron’s exchanges with his wife are some of the critical points of the story, this is where much of the characterization comes in. We see another side of him that isn’t quiet visible when he’s waking up in the streets XD. I think that was spectacular writing on Ewig’s part. To be able to convey a different angle to the protagonist in a very believable way.

One of my favorite things about Wind Down was that it was a paranormal read but it wasn’t weird. I’m not very fond of paranormal but this story cleverly integrated mystical elements into the core of the story. That made it easier for readers like me to adjust to such a twisting and turning plot. Most authors of this genre just thrust the readers into the book, without many details or many descriptions, but I enjoyed and appreciated Ewig’s relaxed writing and detailed form.
This book is a great read for those who love paranormal and mystery but it can also be enjoyed by those who are just getting into this genre or simply want to step out of their comfort zone. You will enjoy each character and their personal story and you will enjoy being submerged in the plotline and the in-depth details. Ewig is a great writer who truly lays out the plot in a way that makes his writing fit for all ages and all interests. It’s something everyone should have a copy of.

[Marco Marek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wind down is a story about Aaron who is going to move to his new apartment near the college, he had the luck to meet Jessica, who she was his neighbor but one day someone stabbed him and his life changed.
After fifteen years Aaron that now married Jessica, want to investigate who was the one that stabbed him so he would like to meet all the old college mates that were present when the fact happened.
With the help of Ju'van he will find the truth. It was a interesting read and the plot was good so the reader wants to find out who was the guilty.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simply put, I liked the story. It's hard to write a review w/out giving too much away but I will try. Learning what Aaron found out was very surprising to me and saddened me. I hated for him for his life not to be what he thought it was. I like how the story started out w/ his college days and then an incident occurred and then went to to 15 years later. Finding out the complete truth in the end was also sad. A very suspenseful book, I couldn't put it down because I HAD to know what happened!

[Gayle B · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the cover looks more like a Stephen King novel, I found it to be actually a refreshing change from some of the books I have read lately. No one was held captive, tortured and killed. The story actually shares an interesting take on mortality and had some interesting symbolism. It was very suspenseful and held my interest. A quick read with a surprise twist at the end. (I received a free copy of this book exchange for a review).

[Danielle's · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something different

*An advanced copy of this book was given to me in exchange for an honest review*

[Robert Grey · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard to get into details with this one, because this is one of those stories that contains a secret, and if you know the secret beforehand it dampens the emotional impact of both the suspense and the mystery which lessens the 'A-ha' moment when you learn the truth.

I will say the secret was original and the trail leading to its revelation was both logically consistent and well telegraphed without being obvious, I did not feel cheated at the end. For a while with the shaman and some of the clues I was hoping the protagonist (Aaron) might have been the Devil himself but this is not the case -- and no that won't spoil the story for you.

I won't give any more details, which is a shame, because this story is dripping with creativity and has some very novel ideas about [Subjects We All Think About That I Will Not Mention].

The writing/editing was top notch. No spelling or grammar mistakes, which is very rare for self published/first time authors. Good to see Mark Ewig take his storytelling seriously.

The first segment of the story surrounds the college life of four young men and their love lives -- who doesn't want to read about that? The author captures the feel (and vernacular!) of college life, the drinking, the partying, the desire to not study and the relentless chase of the opposite sex. But this is not Animal House for the 21st Century, he also explores the relationships between the young men as various stressors such as family, looks, personal backgrounds & jealousies take their toll. So a nice combo of titillation (yup, I chose that word on purpose) and drama to keep the pages turning through the first third or so.

Then flash-forward twenty years and our protag is an older, mature family man but... With a problem. And no, it's not ED, it's something worse. Much worse.

And I'll stop right there.

I realize this review is a smidge frustrating, because of the secret that is integral to the plot I am sort of hamstrung in what I can say. I am a sucker for these sorts of stories, off the top of my head I can think of three classic (and I mean major hit) movies and an underground favorite of mine that use similar storytelling devices. And if I even mention the movie names it'll spoil the surprise. So I'm left with this:

Read it! In Wind Down you'll find excellent plotting, characters who grow on a believable arc through the narrative, and a hidden gem awaiting you at the climax to wrap the story up nicely and leave you with some very thought provoking ideas.

Recommended without hesitation to anyone who enjoys the pyschological/paranormal, I enjoyed the read and look forward to future works from this author.

[Don Sloan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aaron has a big problem -- and it all started with the night he was stabbed in the back by one of his roommates. You'll be drawn into this outstanding and dynamic story from the very start, and carried forward on a wave of mystery and paranormal suspense.

Was it Drew, on meds because of an abusive situation at home? Or Ryan, who fought with Drew the night of the incident? Finally, there's Jason, who disavows any involvement outright.

Aaron goes to the hospital and stays four days while the police try to figure out who plunged the knife into his back. His girlfriend Jessica just wants to be there for him as the four friends break up and go their separate ways with the mystery of Aaron's assault unsolved.

Fast forward fifteen years. Jessica and Aaron are married with three wonderful children. His life is idyllic -- a nice home, good job, and a family who loves him. But suddenly, things start going wrong.

He blacks out, sometimes while driving, sometimes for days on end. And that's not all. He begins seeing things: an elderly couple that appear and disappear in the blink of an eye; an apparition that oozes from his television, known to him only as the shadow man; and odd, tingly sensations and a crushing weight that descends on him just prior to each blackout.

A shaman that he meets offers a startling explanation, and it's one that he initially rejects.

"The power to control the world is in your hands," intones the shaman, who encourages Aaron to link back up with his old roommates in an effort to see who might have set this strange series of life events in motion.

He gets no real answers from Jason, who now works as a policeman in a small town in Indiana. He continues to claim innocence, but does use his police connections to get the current addresses for Ryan and Drew.

On the way to see Ryan he again blacks out and comes to in a hotel room. Disoriented, he wanders the halls until he encounters Amanda -- another friend from college, but looking like she hasn't aged a day. She, too, encourages him to continue on his "journey."

Will Aaron find the answers that he seeks? What is the significance of the wind-up monkey? And what's the deal with the two bluebirds on the inner thigh of a stripper in central Illinois?

Follow Aaron on his quest for the truth. You, like he, may get more than you bargained for.

I give Wind Down five stars for inventive plot, intriguing and complex characters and a genuinely good story.

[Boundless Book Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to admit, I was a little discouraged by the cover, but this book is not as scary as the monkey makes it look, however, it IS full of mystery and suspense. Wind down is so full of suspense; you will not put it down.

Aaron’s story begins in college as he is moving into his first off-campus apartment. This is also the day he meet the love of his life, Jessica. Six months later, he takes Jessica out to dinner to confess his love for the first time. His life is perfect and everything is going his way, then he gets home. Aaron manages to survive the trauma of being stabbed that night, and is even able to move on when the case is closed with no answers.

Fifteen years later, he and Jessica are living the perfect life with three beautiful children, and all the success they dreamt of in college. The traumatic event from college is in the past, until Aaron starts having black outs, hallucinations, and bazar dreams. He is led to believe this will end when he provides himself with closure from his “near death” event.

His Journey takes him to meet with his college roommates to finally answer the questions; who stabbed me and left me for dead? And why? His blackouts and hallucinations continue throughout his journey to make his story more interesting than any other road trip. His three roommates have grown to have individually unique lifestyles. The answers to his questions unfold, but, is he asking the right questions?

This is definitely a well written and thought out story. I give it 5 stars and will be looking for more books by Mark Ewig....Beth


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[Rajalakshmi Prithviraj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Ewig's Book Wind Down is definitely a must read. It kept me hooked to it till the end, in fact, I couldn't stop myself from finishing it in one go.

All his characters are well etched but yes, Aaron is brilliant. And through Aaron, Mark has brought out the power the human mind has.
Paranormal is definitely a subject that has always intrigued me and I do vouch for the fact that sixth sense and intuition do exist. What will hook you on to the book is that it uses simple language and vivid visual imageries. The book autonatically leads your mind to visualizations as Aaron winds down. The story ends with a cliff hanger, just like an end which indicates the start of a new beginning.

P.S- Mark, when is your next book due for release?

[Amber · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s fair to say that only the dead know what happens once we inevitably shuffle off the mortal coil, however, it doesn’t stop the living from speculating what could be there on the other side of our demise. Are we reincarnated? Do we ascend to a higher plane of existence or face fire and brimstone? Maybe there’s nothing there except our bodies gradually decomposing six feet under. Throughout his debut novel, Wind Down, author Mark Ewig takes us through his idea of one of the many possibilities of life after death that really has one thinking about the loose ties left behind in one’s life. However intriguing the premise, though, there’s something to be said about the execution that leaves a lot to be desired and ultimately serves as a major distraction from the flow of the plot.

Fifteen years after literally being stabbed in the back by one of his best friends slash college roommates, Aaron Starks has all but forgotten his past as he enjoys life as a successful marketing executive. However, out of nowhere he starts to experience blackouts for extended lengths of time in which he honestly cannot remember what happened in the time between the beginning and end of the blackout. Gradually, as the blackouts grow longer and longer, Aaron realizes that they might have something to do with the fateful night he was stabbed and finally solving the mystery that’s plagued him for almost half his life. However, with these blackouts lasting longer and longer, Aaron finds out — though the guidance of a shaman — that he ultimately has a race against time to get to the bottom of his attack before he blacks out…for good.

Kudos have to be given to Ewig for his creativity with Wind Down. It’s an interesting concept to think that, after reaching death, your subconscious takes some time for it to literally wind down before expiring for good. To be put in Aaron’s situation — remembering being in one place, then waking up somewhere else, maybe even a different state — would definitely be terrifying to consider. Furthermore, the nightmares Aaron kept having from time to time, especially the ones involving the black shadow creature, added to the sense of dread and despair that permeated the story. I also thought incorporating the three little birds from Bob Marley’s eponymous song was a nice little touch to give the readers a clue that Aaron was gradually reaching the conclusion to the problems plaguing him. They would show up in unexpected places throughout his quest, such as tattoos on a woman’s legs or in a painting, leaving clues to no one within the story but Aaron. Another merit to this book is that Ewig made the action fast-paced enough that it I was left wanting to know exactly how his protagonist was going to solve this murderous maze.

However, one of the things that made Wind Down so frustrating is its carelessness with the technical aspects of writing. For example, throughout the entirety of the book, the narration would often switch between past and present tenses. One of the more glaring instances of this phenomenon came near the beginning of the story, when Aaron and his roommates met their neighbors for the first time. It’s perfectly illustrated by this sentence: “At first she doesn’t say anything and just sized Aaron up.” “Doesn’t” is, without question, within the present tense, while “sized” is past tense. More often, though, the tenses swapped between paragraphs rather than in the same sentence. Furthermore, there’d be points in which Ewig would use certain words incorrectly. In the fourth chapter, the narrator noted, “What if he got in a car crash due to not being lucent?” I’m sure Ewig meant lucid — to be clear of mind and focus — and not lucent — which translates to light-bearing in Latin and is also the name of a telecommunications equipment company. Many more instances of this type of error popped up throughout; twice the word “fleeted” is used as the past tense of “flee,” but the correct form of this verb is “fled.” Furthermore, I feel like a lot of the characters aren’t fully fleshed-out, but are actually placeholders for certain tropes: Jessica as the — literal — golden and perfect girlfriend, Jordan as the gimmicky “slut” role, Drew as the dark and brooding character, etc. We don’t even get to know what our main character looks like, but of course we know exactly how hot Jessica was considering she was the love interest. Although, things like these examples are fixed fairly easily when a piece is passed through the hands of an editor.

All in all, Wind Down has shown potential to be something good. It has the all of the right elements: an interesting premise, fast-paced action, a mystery that the readers help to solve, and the ability to evoke the reader’s emotions at some points. However, especially from a technical standpoint, there is definitely something left to be desired. On top of many instances of incorrect word choices and tense confusion, most of Wind Down’s characters are just TV Tropes articles instead of being realistic people going through the events of the story. I can feel, though, that Ewig is just getting started. If he can just nail down some of his problematic areas, his creativity could lead him to great places.

[PelicanFreak · Rating 2 out of 5]

To sum it up: this book needs a lot of help.

I was asked to review the book and when I read the blurb, I was really excited - it definitely gripped me and made me want to read the book.
It's part of the Kindle Owners' Lending Library so I used this for my monthly Prime book loan and I'm pretty sorry that I used my one-allotted-loan of the month up on this title, sadly.

From what I read, the characters seemed bland, but a good start. With some more development, they could be lovable, addictive characters.
To be fair, I couldn't get through the whole book because of the awful writing so perhaps they did go on to hook the reader.

The plot seems like a good one - a fun, intriguing story that packs in action, drama and some paranormal.
The problem and the reason I just couldn't - no matter how hard I tried - get through it is the writing- slash - lack of editing.

With some work, an editor and a bit of effort on the author's part, I do think this could be a great, fun book.
As it stands - this book is an example of the kind of works that give indie authors a bad name. There's a stigma against the community, there's an attitude of "everyone's a writer now" and so it's important for authors to present professionally-appearing works in order to not add to that stigma.

To be honest, I am a little bit insulted by this book - if the author couldn't be bothered to put effort into it, then why should I spend my valuable time reading it? I did try though, many times.

What this book needs:

*Grammar. The first thing I noticed, in just the first couple of opening lines was the poor grammar.
I was willing to work through it but I realized I couldn't when it escalated. The mistakes aren't even consistent. One minute, the author knows how to punctuate quotations, the next he doesn't, the next he does again and so on. It's extreme enough that it's distracting from the reading experience.

*Tense.
The book changes from present tense to past tense, back and forth like a yo-yo constantly. It's probably the only consistency in the book.

*Poor writing.
The writing is definitely fixable - it's just presented in a very juvenile, disorganized manner. Short, incomplete sentences grouped together. Sometimes they compliment one another, other times they don't, making the book hard to follow and just take a mental image from.

These are all things that can be fixed, and again - if they are fixed for a re-release, I do think this could be a good book and I think the author has promise. Clearly he's got some good story ideas, just doesn't have the writing ability - which can absolutely be developed from what I'm seeing here.

I hope he continues to write, but I hope he hires an editor and puts forth professionally published works.

It is a short read - if you can get around all the distractions you might enjoy it.

[Alexander Engel-Hodgkinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

The thing that primarily drew me to this book was its interesting concept. Oh, was it interesting. Genuinely interesting. To be honest, this kind of originality isn't easy to come by.

It's a damn shame, then, when a novel with such a great idea is betrayed and butchered by its bad writing. Inconsistent tenses, uncharacteristic stupidities acted out by our four protagonists Aaron, Jason, Drew, and Ryan;misused words, really bad grammar that just gets worse and worse as the story goes on... yeah, it's unfortunate. By the final three chapters, this book dropped into borderline unreadable territory because of all the errors, but I forced myself to finish it because I don't like to leave things unfinished, and the plot, at least, was interesting.

Speaking of the plot: it's about a college student named Aaron and his three flatmates. They move into their flat, they meet a bunch of girls, they have a party, etcetera. Aaron starts to date one of those girls, named Jessica, and after the time-skip, we find them married with three children.

But before the time-skip, we have to sit through six chapters of Aaron and his supposedly genius friends screw around and act like children. Drew in particular was nothing but a jealous crybaby whose actions seemed to be justified by everyone (not just him, I seriously mean everyone) because he has a history of abuse. Children who are abused do act out; I'm in no way saying that Drew's idiocy was unmerited. At least he had something of an excuse to be an asshole; what did the others have to explain themselves with? Aaron was the most tolerable, and mercifully, he was the center focus in this novel. Why? Because right before the time-skip, someone stabs him in the back and nearly kills him. One of his flat mates did it, and everyone knows it, but no one's arrested, and everyone moves on.

Time-skip. Aaron starts to experience blackouts that seem to only last a second, but actually go on for hours. He doesn't know why, and at first, neither do we. I'm not going to explain it, though, because then I would be spoiling the book.

The concept behind the blackouts is cool. The twist at the end is great. The ending is satisfying enough. Why, then, is this plagued with bad dialogue and so many errors that could be easily avoided? If this had been put through a few editing processes, I would have given this another star, or perhaps even two. Generally I try to ignore errors in indie-published work, but every once in a while, a book comes along that just has far too many for me to ignore. It takes me out of the story and by the time I got halfway through, I was shaking my head. A lot.

Hopefully Ewig's future works will be scrutinized more thoroughly--for his benefit, and his readers. He's on the right track with the story. The writing is this book's only flaw.

[Cori Dyson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a paranormal mystery, but one that gets you to thinking about life and our purpose and what do we really want to be doing with our time that we have here on earth. I meant to only read a few pages, get a feel for the book, but ended up reading the entire thing in only a few days! Each page beckoned you to turn to the next page and so on and so forth. It was difficult to put the book down even when you needed to. If you are a book addict, this may not be the book for you. You won't be able to read just one page or just one chapter of this book. You will have to read the whole book in one setting. You've been warned!

What I loved about the book:

The tone of the book is unusual but fits perfectly with the theme and the story line. I don't know how to describe the tone exactly, but it is perfect for the book. I'm not sure the same tone would work for other books, but it is perfect for this book. I also loved how you are slowly drawn into the story, then the author changes the rules and suddenly you are hooked. I love unexpected twists and the author definitely throws several in the novel to keep you on your toes. I love being kept on my toes and being surprised. The author did a great job of doing that.

I loved the journey the main character takes in the novel. It is a unique journey in its own way and is full of surprises. Aaron is the main character and though the book is written in third person you really feel like you get inside Aaron's head and know what's going with him.

What I didn't like about the book:
I wanted the book to continue past 'The End'. Isn't that the ultimate compliment to any writer? In hindsight I think the author ended it perfectly, because the ending is whatever we make of it. It is for us to fill and and answer.

I plan on putting this on my re-read list. I want to read it again, perhaps next year.

This is a quick, enjoyable and thought provoking read. It lingers on your mind like a good wine lingers on your palate. I think this is a thought provoking paranormal mystery.

[Shari Sakurai · Rating 2 out of 5]

*I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review *

Fifteen years ago university student Aaron Starks was stabbed in the back and left for dead. His attacker was never caught and Aaron had always suspected that one or more of his friends and flatmates may have been involved. Fifteen years on and Aaron is married to his university sweetheart, has three children and his dream job. Then his perfect life is shattered when he starts experiencing blackouts. When doctors are unable to find a reason for these, Aaron learns that his blackouts are connected to the attack on him all those years ago.

I really liked the concept of this novel. The ideas are very clever and original, and this had the potential to be an excellent paranormal/mystery. Unfortunately there were quite a few things that let it down.

The grammar is very poor. It jumps between tenses almost constantly making it very difficult to read, and also punctuation has been used incorrectly throughout. Whilst the characters have potential they are undeveloped and very immature for their age. They act more like primary school children than university students. The writing itself isn’t bad, but it yo-yo’s from either rambling long descriptions to very short sentences.

However, as I said this has great potential. In my opinion it needs to be longer with a lot more time taken to character build (especially the university part of the novel). A revision that adds to this good start combined with addressing the points I made above would make this a really unique and page-turning read.

And I loved the twist at the end! I never saw that coming!

[Nolan Oreno · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a ride. Initially starting this book, I had no idea the direction it would go. This is partly because of the author's smart move to leave much out of the plot details. It begins with Aaron in junior year in university, a star student who has everything going for him. He has the girl, the looks, the money, and the party lifestyle we all want. The first quarter of book takes place during a few segments of Aaron's college career. We meet his friends and are introduced to his personality, which as a result of the author's straightforward writing style, we find it all very realistic and relatable. In-fact, all scenes in the book are realistically written, from dialogue to charaters, making the more fantastical elements of the story more shocking.

After a major plot point occurs, Aaron being stabbed in the back by a mysterious attacker, the book turns from a fun and light read about partying college students into a full-flow psychological thriller. Without giving too much away, fast-forwarding 15 years, the reality that which Aaron know's begins to be questioned and everything that is 'normal' begins to disintegrate. This takes Aaron and the reader into a journey of the ridiculous, incorporating mystery and suspense in a very uncommon way. The book is separated into these very distinct two segments, and the surprise of this narrative twist is what made this story stand out. It is great at showing you how a normal, everyday life can transform into something fantastical in the blink of an eye. A fun read for all.

[Alyson Stone · Rating 1 out of 5]

Book: Wind Down
Author: Mark Ewig
Rating: 1 Out of 5 Stars

Mark asked me to take a look at his book awhile back when it was free on kindle. I would like to thank him for being so patient with me.

Um...Right away, I have some major problems with this book. First off, the characters were really immature. I mean, they are supposed to be in university, right? They just simply did not act like it. It was really hard to keep them all straight, which is a sign of poor development. Okay, just let me leave it at that.

The thing that I noticed right away was the poor writing. There was a bunch of mistakes in not only grammar, but in tense. I mean, I can live with a few errors, but the tense kept changing from present to past and back and forth. I have trouble with this myself, but I don't think I'm this bad. There is no order to events and things just don't flow right. I think that a little editing could fix this, but for me, it really did make it impossible to finish the book.

The story line is good, but again, the writing really does take away from the story. Again, fix it up and things will come together a lot better. Plus, there was pacing issues. Some many pages were not necessary and again, clean up.

I would not say that this is a bad book and I really do wish that I could give it a higher rating, but there are just too many errors that make it next to impossible. It's just in need of a good edit and a republishing. I do think that Mark has the potential, but just needs some help when it comes to writing.

[Sandra Lopez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aaron Starks, a young college student, is finally moving into his own apartment off campus. What does one really expect when you have four guys living together? Beer, parties, chicks—the usual, of course. That’s how Aaron pictured how life would be….until he meets Jessica.

Although the writing style was fairly average, the characters, in general, were expressly unique and relatable. Story had some areas that were compelling and others that were a tad mundane. However, it maintains a consistent flow throughout, never lagging for too long.

Mystery and drama are keys in this basic, yet intriguing, prose, which surrounds the life of our Aaron. The odd thing was the occasional blackout he would experience. Blackouts were bad enough, but why was he seeing and hearing things during his wake? What was wrong? Was he going insane? And could it have anything to do with what happened in college?

“The monkey’s drive and will to live continues even after it has been crushed.” It’s called the wind down effect. (127)

It had a slow beginning, but it picks up rather quickly about half way through. Suddenly, one questions the difference between reality and illusion, and then you have to see how it all ends.

A simplistically rendered tale, Wind Down is a perplexing race against time, scavenging in the dark depths of a foggy memory, to seek out Aaron’s killer and save his energy source.

A quick and easy read!

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are times in an avid reader's life where a good, somewhat out of the genre norm is a refreshing and much needed break. Mr. Ewig's indie release, which is a mystery/suspense with some heavy paranormal, was a nice break from the paranormal romance I've been inhaling lately. The book is a any easy read, breezing through the life and/or (not telling!!) death of Aaron.

We meet Aaron, his three roommates, their love interests, and Aaron's girlfriend, Jessica. As with life, it takes a devastating and unexpected turn when Aaron is stabbed one night by an unknown assailant. Onward from his healing and into his adult life, Aaron suddenly experiences paralyzing blackouts where he loses huge chunks of time. Aaron is suddenly confronted with solving who among his friends committed the ultimate back stabbing (pun intended!)

That's about all I can go into without giving away spoilers. This was a very enjoyable and distracting read. The book wasn't marred down in details and the paranormal side was weird and eyebrow raising (as it should be). The ending could be interpreted in many ways, but I appreciated the author zipping up the story instead of leaving it open ended.

Note: I was given a copy of this book from the author in return for an honest review. This did not affect my review in any way.

[Joanie Chevalier · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book started out slow and seemed a little juvenile but once you get past Chapter 6, things start to pick up. There's a simple theme really, behind the story. "Life is like a battery." Yes, it sounded funny to me too, but this is what Ju'van, a local shaman, in all his wisdom told Aaron. Then he demonstrated with a little wind-up marching monkey, clapping cymbals (I love the monkey on the cover; it has more personality than anyone in this story). 15 years after being stabbed, Aaron is suddenly walking around with blackouts and doctors can't figure out why. What is lacking in this story is the basic build up of the personalities of the characters. They lack depth and well, personality. What saved this book for me was near the ending when the author finally pulls everything together. So, in summary, if you get this book, it's a nice easy read but if you want to get to the meat of the story, perhaps read Chapter 1, skim the entire middle part of the book and read the last few chapters. There, done!

[Stephanie Noel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The mystery in the book is creepy and scary. Not knowing who tried to kill you and suspecting your roommates could be the culprits. That is unnerving. What’s also creepy is getting blackouts as well. This book has a mystery that keeps you guessing and not knowing what would come next. The book is very unpredictable and chilling to the core. It’s not the most scariest but it’s creepy. I also liked the voodoo aspects of the book that makes it even more interesting. The ending was the only part I didn’t like because I felt like its needs to be more finished or a confirmation if there would be a sequel. That is my only problem. Other than that problem the book is a good book. I do recommend reading it for yourself if you are looking for a good mystery. The links are below the page and until my next review keep on reading.

[Diamante Lavendar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this book had some editing issues, I absolutely loved the story line and conflicts contained within it! This is a novel about a man journeying through his unconscious, attempting to find answers to the mysteries that happened in his life. Unsure as to whether he is really alive or dead, the story follows him as he revisits old friends and tries to gather an ending to his paranormal trial.

This book will keep you guessing! It will also make you think about your own life and actions. This is a perfect book for those of us who love to examine life and attempt to better ourselves through those self examinations.

To any paranormal buffs out there…give this book a try! It’s hard to put down and a very interesting and introspective story!

-Diamante Lavendar, author of Breaking The Silence and The Secrets Of Yashire

[Beth]

I received this book for an honest review. The review will be posted on Boundless Book Reviews as soon as it's scheduled. I will be posting a link as soon as it's available. Feel free to check out our website for all the current reviews. AND don't forget to like us! http://www.boundlessbookreviews.com
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[Stefany Rattles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Ewig is a creative author. The story will capture your attention and you will be sucked in. It is a nice paranormal/suspense read that will surprise you. I will not give much detail of the story away to not spoil it for you
But if you are looking for a new read, you should definitely give this a try. You will not regret it.

-S.R.

[Aly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had me guessing until the end. I enjoyed the story and my guessing was not right at all. I loved the end and it did not leave me hanging. I think the author did a great job with this book. I loved it! * I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review*