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Phantom Effect
Jonathan Martin Delaware Deseronto is a six-foot-five serial killer with a problem. He's stuck out on I-476 in a heavy November rainstorm with two flat tires and the dead bodies of a cop and a coed named Marissa Madison in his trunk. Desperate to get off the highway, he drives his car on its back rims towards exit six. The car stalls on the ramp, and Deseronto uses the last of its momentum to plunge over the crest of a steep slope and crash into a length of concrete pipe below. The car comes to rest on the edge of a construction site where machines are positioned to tear down an old Motel 6.
For Deseronto, the worst is yet to come. Marissa Madison had been a psychic of sorts while alive, using her ability to assist people in their personal journeys. Now the ghost of Marissa will utilize her strange gift, trapping Deseronto in the abandoned motel and forcing him to live the last fatal week of her own life as a passive passenger in her body.... Soon Deseronto will experience something truly the mind-numbing terror of being stalked by himself.
For Deseronto, the worst is yet to come. Marissa Madison had been a psychic of sorts while alive, using her ability to assist people in their personal journeys. Now the ghost of Marissa will utilize her strange gift, trapping Deseronto in the abandoned motel and forcing him to live the last fatal week of her own life as a passive passenger in her body.... Soon Deseronto will experience something truly the mind-numbing terror of being stalked by himself.
Audible Audio
First published February 2, 2016
About the author
Michael Aronovitz
36 books38 followersNovels:
Alice Walks
The Witch of the Wood
Collections:
Seven Deadly Pleasures
The Voices in Our Heads
Writer of Reviews and Criticism on / in:
Hellnotes
The Weird Fiction Review
Chiaroscuro
The Australian Metro
Anthologies:
Searchers After Horror
The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror
Upcoming:
Novel- "Phantom Effect" Night Shade Books / February 2016
Novel- "Becky's Kiss" Vinspire Press / November 2015 under the pseudonym Nicholas Fisher
Alice Walks
The Witch of the Wood
Collections:
Seven Deadly Pleasures
The Voices in Our Heads
Writer of Reviews and Criticism on / in:
Hellnotes
The Weird Fiction Review
Chiaroscuro
The Australian Metro
Anthologies:
Searchers After Horror
The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror
Upcoming:
Novel- "Phantom Effect" Night Shade Books / February 2016
Novel- "Becky's Kiss" Vinspire Press / November 2015 under the pseudonym Nicholas Fisher
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
January 24, 2016
PHANTOM EFFECT, by author Michael Aronovitz is a supernatural thriller with a distinct twist. Serial killer Jonathan Martin Delaware Deseronto is about to learn how it feels to be the prey, as opposed to the predator. His latest victim, Marissa Madison, had a mental power of sorts that allowed her to see what she called “patchwork” of a person’s mind–bits and pieces of their emotions and lives. In life, she aided some by helping them fill in the blanks, to lead them to a more fulfilling existence, using this gift.
In death, she uses this power to tap into her murder’s own mind, and reverse things–forcing him to see and feel her final days through her body, as he was plotting her death.
The beginning grabbed my attention immediately, throwing me into the action at the very first page. It doesn’t take long for the real horror to unfold.
While in “narrator mode”, Aronovitz is able to use some of the evocative prose I found so entrancing in his previous novel, ALICE WALKS. However, the vast majority of this tale is told in the voices of the main characters, Deseronto and Marissa, themselves.
Deseronto’s tale had me feeling a wide range of emotions: fear, sadness, anger, confusion, and apathy. Despite–or rather, because of–his severe flaws, his was by far the most interesting and spellbinding part, in my opinion. Sadly, while a part of me did pity Marissa, her tale wasn’t exactly what I expected. I felt that much of it made her seem very “superficial” as a person, and during the reading I found myself wondering why certain scenes and information was included, when it didn’t strike me as having relevance to the story at all. Although Marissa was the victim, I can’t say that I ever really “liked” her, and found much of her ability and use or repression of it to be quite confusing at times. Her part of the story slowed the momentum considerably, in my mind.
The ending did pickup in the action and suspense department, and I finally glimpsed the story as a whole, as opposed to its individual sections. All of the parts were cleverly woven together to form an intricate web that encompassed the previous–seemingly unconnected–experiences.
Just like a “patchwork”, or a jigsaw puzzle, all of the pieces began to fall into place . . . .
In death, she uses this power to tap into her murder’s own mind, and reverse things–forcing him to see and feel her final days through her body, as he was plotting her death.
The beginning grabbed my attention immediately, throwing me into the action at the very first page. It doesn’t take long for the real horror to unfold.
While in “narrator mode”, Aronovitz is able to use some of the evocative prose I found so entrancing in his previous novel, ALICE WALKS. However, the vast majority of this tale is told in the voices of the main characters, Deseronto and Marissa, themselves.
Deseronto’s tale had me feeling a wide range of emotions: fear, sadness, anger, confusion, and apathy. Despite–or rather, because of–his severe flaws, his was by far the most interesting and spellbinding part, in my opinion. Sadly, while a part of me did pity Marissa, her tale wasn’t exactly what I expected. I felt that much of it made her seem very “superficial” as a person, and during the reading I found myself wondering why certain scenes and information was included, when it didn’t strike me as having relevance to the story at all. Although Marissa was the victim, I can’t say that I ever really “liked” her, and found much of her ability and use or repression of it to be quite confusing at times. Her part of the story slowed the momentum considerably, in my mind.
The ending did pickup in the action and suspense department, and I finally glimpsed the story as a whole, as opposed to its individual sections. All of the parts were cleverly woven together to form an intricate web that encompassed the previous–seemingly unconnected–experiences.
Just like a “patchwork”, or a jigsaw puzzle, all of the pieces began to fall into place . . . .
April 6, 2018
If there's one book you read this year... for the love of all that is good, don't let it be this one. I felt like I was taking acid and recovering from bad seafood all at once. A serial killer's car breaks down, but he manages to get it off the highway. The car crashes but he survives. Ok, seems like no big whoop. Then sh*t goes sideways and there's some kind of flashback/vision crap about spiders and neutering and the victim in his trunk is chasing him through a construction site. I decided this thing didn't deserve the rest of my Thursday night.
January 30, 2018
Yikes. Too gritty for me, skimmed a lot. I thought the ending was interesting though.
May 24, 2024
This story is dark and gritty and at times the vivid depictions were a bit overwhelming, but overall I thought it was a good story and well told. It reminds me of a Stephen King novel. The writing is seamless and I got pulled into the story, but I didn’t like a lot of the language in the book. Reader beware, there are lots of triggers in this book and I think the author could have dialed it back or at least given a trigger warning in the beginning.
January 27, 2018
Phantom Effect
Total disappointment, hated the characters, the author had a great idea for the storyline, but didn't carry it out. Such a DISAPPOINTMENT!
Total disappointment, hated the characters, the author had a great idea for the storyline, but didn't carry it out. Such a DISAPPOINTMENT!
April 19, 2016
This was an uncomfortable book to read. The way it was written left you feeling the characters constant helplessness especially as the book opens with the aftermath and then fills in everything that happens before. I will say the ending didn't quite feel like it was a part of the same book I'd been reading, but I'm not sure what I would have done differently. If you're looking for a book that will make you very aware all of the dark corners of your neighborhood or make you wonder if that person behind you really is following you, this is certainly the one for you.
July 5, 2023
It’s a peculiar one, that’s for sure. I’m gonna file it as a Guilty Pleasure, because I did enjoy it.
We bounce back and forth between a serial killer, and his chosen next victim…and she’s a psychic of sorts, who can sense him coming. In fact, she can sense a whole lot of things - we’ve got a very odd telepath/precog situation here - so in theory, this young woman has a tremendous advantage, as compared to all the previous targets of this very successful predator who selects her at the same moment she detects him selecting her. Alarmingly, a little gizmo Marissa carries around to dampen her supernatural powers goes on the fritz at the worst time, and until it can be tinkered with…well, she can’t sense the monster coming…
This is just part of the book. It is a book with a somewhat frustrating structure - and with a large central portion that makes me wonder if the author, in attempting a Horror novel, misunderstood the Assignment. After a wonderfully frightful several chapters to get things started, the Horror elements disappear for a long middle that explores what has happened earlier in Marissa’s life in terms of how telepathy-Plus can gift, or curse, but maybe mainly curse. By the time we are in this zone, the book is being either brilliantly lazy, or lazily brilliant, when it comes to cohesion, momentum, and “Why?…Why did that happen?”. I never really got bored, though. Or detached from the book. And then we amble over to the final sections, which connect more firmly to the opening section…and the book is an effective Horror novel again (albeit with some dubious dialogue/speeches).
I recommend this as a Horror oddity - flaws maybe not actually improving it, but giving it a life all its own. Guilty Pleasure (unless you get no pleasure from it, in which case I will feel guilty). I would say, on reflection, it fits together better than it feels like it does at first. For me, it was great timing to get to this book not long after Yardley’s Pretty Little Dead Girls, because they are both novels featuring brave young women with the power to sense being targeted by serial killers…and they both face the battle to the best of their ability. Pretty Little Dead Girls is, to my mind, the superior reading experience - but Phantom Effect, coming along by chance as a totally different handling of a similar premise, has me applauding this alternate, and strikingly different, approach. If Phantom Effect had somehow reminded me too much of Pretty Little Dead Girls, then I’d be harsher towards what would be just the messy version of a better book I already met. Instead, I would say both books are well worth a look, and they are fun to compare.
We bounce back and forth between a serial killer, and his chosen next victim…and she’s a psychic of sorts, who can sense him coming. In fact, she can sense a whole lot of things - we’ve got a very odd telepath/precog situation here - so in theory, this young woman has a tremendous advantage, as compared to all the previous targets of this very successful predator who selects her at the same moment she detects him selecting her. Alarmingly, a little gizmo Marissa carries around to dampen her supernatural powers goes on the fritz at the worst time, and until it can be tinkered with…well, she can’t sense the monster coming…
This is just part of the book. It is a book with a somewhat frustrating structure - and with a large central portion that makes me wonder if the author, in attempting a Horror novel, misunderstood the Assignment. After a wonderfully frightful several chapters to get things started, the Horror elements disappear for a long middle that explores what has happened earlier in Marissa’s life in terms of how telepathy-Plus can gift, or curse, but maybe mainly curse. By the time we are in this zone, the book is being either brilliantly lazy, or lazily brilliant, when it comes to cohesion, momentum, and “Why?…Why did that happen?”. I never really got bored, though. Or detached from the book. And then we amble over to the final sections, which connect more firmly to the opening section…and the book is an effective Horror novel again (albeit with some dubious dialogue/speeches).
I recommend this as a Horror oddity - flaws maybe not actually improving it, but giving it a life all its own. Guilty Pleasure (unless you get no pleasure from it, in which case I will feel guilty). I would say, on reflection, it fits together better than it feels like it does at first. For me, it was great timing to get to this book not long after Yardley’s Pretty Little Dead Girls, because they are both novels featuring brave young women with the power to sense being targeted by serial killers…and they both face the battle to the best of their ability. Pretty Little Dead Girls is, to my mind, the superior reading experience - but Phantom Effect, coming along by chance as a totally different handling of a similar premise, has me applauding this alternate, and strikingly different, approach. If Phantom Effect had somehow reminded me too much of Pretty Little Dead Girls, then I’d be harsher towards what would be just the messy version of a better book I already met. Instead, I would say both books are well worth a look, and they are fun to compare.
February 19, 2018
I was so excited to read this book. I thought it would be a lot of things. Tense, scary, thrilling.
It started off good. Got weird, and then fizzled.
There was no part that was remotely scary. Except maybe the part where Marissa saw Jonathan breaking in.
Marissa (the victim/psychic) is an annoying character. Jonathan has an interesting back story as to how he came to be. But that's all kind of wasted by the fact that he doesn't experience what it was like to be stalked by himself. Unless I read the book the wrong way. It seems like he was in Marissa's head taking a stroll down memory lane instead. Or recounting events.
1.5 stars for a promising beginning.
It started off good. Got weird, and then fizzled.
There was no part that was remotely scary. Except maybe the part where Marissa saw Jonathan breaking in.
Marissa (the victim/psychic) is an annoying character. Jonathan has an interesting back story as to how he came to be. But that's all kind of wasted by the fact that he doesn't experience what it was like to be stalked by himself. Unless I read the book the wrong way. It seems like he was in Marissa's head taking a stroll down memory lane instead. Or recounting events.
1.5 stars for a promising beginning.
December 5, 2021
Nah, this didn’t really work for me. If Marissa and Deseronto’s stories were told alternatingly instead of one after another, it may’ve flowed better. There were also several descriptions of tasks Deseronto was performing that I found unintelligible. Some things were gross, especially things Deseronto said and did, but I wanted to find him as a serial killer throughout the story and Marissa as a spectre monster more actually scary.
Also, was Deseronto’s trunk filled with water at the beginning or what? Why the hell did the cop’s body keep bobbing in and out, as if it was a floatie that he was trying to hold underwater?
Also, was Deseronto’s trunk filled with water at the beginning or what? Why the hell did the cop’s body keep bobbing in and out, as if it was a floatie that he was trying to hold underwater?
January 7, 2019
The description of this book sounds like a great read. I have NEVER given up on a book before. NEVER! Even if I only paid $.99 I have always read the book to its end, even if I hated it.
This is the first book I just cannot stomach. I got to 13% and just cannot keep going any further. During whatever Deseronto is doing there are flashbacks to when he was a child. Fine, not the first book to have a back story, most are usually welcome. I couldn’t take it anymore when a break off went into another break off in itself. It is just ramblings that just keep going and going and going.
This is the first book I just cannot stomach. I got to 13% and just cannot keep going any further. During whatever Deseronto is doing there are flashbacks to when he was a child. Fine, not the first book to have a back story, most are usually welcome. I couldn’t take it anymore when a break off went into another break off in itself. It is just ramblings that just keep going and going and going.
March 6, 2024
I feel ambivalent towards this book. It begins with a bang and then peters out to a whimper before a bang of an ending. The narrator was superb and while I'm not sure where to tighten the story up through the midsection, it seems to go on for far too long. On one hand it was good to see the back story developed for the characters but perhaps too much time was spent there.
August 1, 2022
This is the first book in a long time that I just couldn't make myself finish listening to. The description was great. It started off really interesting and then it just became weird and boring. Great concept but poor execution. Such a disappointment.
May 23, 2026
Christ, that's it. I give up.
July 9, 2026
I kept asking why I was still reading this. I would have DNF'd, but I didn't, and I wish I had now.
March 28, 2024
An interesting notion, incoherently developed.
January 29, 2016
Jonathan Deseronto is a monster. He stalks and murders young women for the pleasure of seeing them scared out of their wits. After a kill, he dismembers the body and buries the remains in a series of graves in the woods. Marissa Madison is a wealthy and spoiled young woman secure in the knowledge that she's intelligent and beautiful. She also has a unique gift; the ability to read a "patchwork" of other people, catching snippets of their thoughts and past lives. Sometimes these readings can help the person, but sometimes they can be misread and do more harm than good.
The story is told alternately in the first person of Deseronto and in the third person of the narrator. The chapters in Jonathan's voice are spine chilling in their lack of any feelings of empathy. He's a sociopath who was pushed over the edge by a mother with very bizarre ideas of discipline. He feeds on the fear he inspires in his victims. Killing is just a game for him.
When Deseronto makes the mistake of adding Marissa to his string of murders he's in for a big surprise. Marissa's psychic ability enables her to get into the killer's head and force him to live out the days leading up to her death from her perspective. Deseronto learns what it is to be the prey rather than the predator.
Mr. Aronovitz keeps the pressure building as we listen to Deseronto's creepy musings. Marissa's gradual descent from privileged princess to rabbit on the run is both fascinating and repulsive at the same time. Switching back and forth between points of view kept me on edge throughout the book. The climax is completely unexpected and quite satisfying.
I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway and am grateful for the chance to read an advance copy. I highly recommend it to fans of horror and psychological thrillers.
The story is told alternately in the first person of Deseronto and in the third person of the narrator. The chapters in Jonathan's voice are spine chilling in their lack of any feelings of empathy. He's a sociopath who was pushed over the edge by a mother with very bizarre ideas of discipline. He feeds on the fear he inspires in his victims. Killing is just a game for him.
When Deseronto makes the mistake of adding Marissa to his string of murders he's in for a big surprise. Marissa's psychic ability enables her to get into the killer's head and force him to live out the days leading up to her death from her perspective. Deseronto learns what it is to be the prey rather than the predator.
Mr. Aronovitz keeps the pressure building as we listen to Deseronto's creepy musings. Marissa's gradual descent from privileged princess to rabbit on the run is both fascinating and repulsive at the same time. Switching back and forth between points of view kept me on edge throughout the book. The climax is completely unexpected and quite satisfying.
I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway and am grateful for the chance to read an advance copy. I highly recommend it to fans of horror and psychological thrillers.
May 24, 2016
The good: I loved the "patchwork" that Marissa taps into. It was explained just enough, it was described vividly through experiences rather than laid out like it was from a textbook.
Having the chapters switch from Johnny's first person POV to Marissa's third person narrative was mostly a good move. It shook things up, and it kind of sorta almost kept Johnny from reading as just another horror novel villain.
But that said, because we already know Marissa is dead (not a spoiler if you read the synopsis for this book) there's no tension. The book spends all its time dragging Johnny from one day in her life to the next, and it never makes an impact on him. Not his fault, I think; it didn't make an impact on me, either, and I'm not even a serial killer.
Marissa was an interesting character. Her parents were my favorite part of the book. And yet. And yet, so much of this book bored the hell out of me. I snatched this one up the day it was released hoping I'd get a novel full of revenge and rage and...I got chapters talking about shopping and chapters where I was called "asshole" about a hundred times. There's no urgency. Johnny never seems scared.
"A serial killer receives the most terrifying comeuppance of all--reliving his crimes through the eyes of his victim."
Sure, except he was never scared, he didn't learn anything, and the climax had such potential even after how the story crawled, and then it just fizzled.
Having the chapters switch from Johnny's first person POV to Marissa's third person narrative was mostly a good move. It shook things up, and it kind of sorta almost kept Johnny from reading as just another horror novel villain.
But that said, because we already know Marissa is dead (not a spoiler if you read the synopsis for this book) there's no tension. The book spends all its time dragging Johnny from one day in her life to the next, and it never makes an impact on him. Not his fault, I think; it didn't make an impact on me, either, and I'm not even a serial killer.
Marissa was an interesting character. Her parents were my favorite part of the book. And yet. And yet, so much of this book bored the hell out of me. I snatched this one up the day it was released hoping I'd get a novel full of revenge and rage and...I got chapters talking about shopping and chapters where I was called "asshole" about a hundred times. There's no urgency. Johnny never seems scared.
"A serial killer receives the most terrifying comeuppance of all--reliving his crimes through the eyes of his victim."
Sure, except he was never scared, he didn't learn anything, and the climax had such potential even after how the story crawled, and then it just fizzled.
June 9, 2016
4.25
I would not recommend this book for everyone. Just a handful of folks that want to be disturbed then bored.
The first thirty pages or so are so aggressively masculine and steeped in tools and machine jargon that I nearly put the book down for good. It was intimidating and unnecessary. Once the story started rolling, shit got good and creepy, complex and amusing. I started to regard the first thirty pages as a kind of troll or boogeyman that says, don't come here, don't read this shit. A literary scarecrow. And if you push past it you're rewarded with 100 some pages of interesting imagery, rich characters and shocks.
Sadly, the next 100 some pages are tedious and filler. The male characters are well conceived and executed. The lady character is insipid and dull. Her cliched personality and response to danger wouldn't bother me so much if the dudes hadn't been spectacular. She calls her mom Mother and her dad Daddy. I knew it was gonna be rough with her. Wide eyed waif doesn't cut it anymore, chum.
If this writer can dial back the ego that spills out in his lists of tool, car parts, building materials, stuff stacked under the basement stairs, road maps... (seriously, this guy loves to make lists of stuff piled around the scene. you're smart and do diligent research, I commend you for that.) Get his female characters up to a higher standard and he'll really knock my socks off with his creepy disturbing scary writing.
I would not recommend this book for everyone. Just a handful of folks that want to be disturbed then bored.
The first thirty pages or so are so aggressively masculine and steeped in tools and machine jargon that I nearly put the book down for good. It was intimidating and unnecessary. Once the story started rolling, shit got good and creepy, complex and amusing. I started to regard the first thirty pages as a kind of troll or boogeyman that says, don't come here, don't read this shit. A literary scarecrow. And if you push past it you're rewarded with 100 some pages of interesting imagery, rich characters and shocks.
Sadly, the next 100 some pages are tedious and filler. The male characters are well conceived and executed. The lady character is insipid and dull. Her cliched personality and response to danger wouldn't bother me so much if the dudes hadn't been spectacular. She calls her mom Mother and her dad Daddy. I knew it was gonna be rough with her. Wide eyed waif doesn't cut it anymore, chum.
If this writer can dial back the ego that spills out in his lists of tool, car parts, building materials, stuff stacked under the basement stairs, road maps... (seriously, this guy loves to make lists of stuff piled around the scene. you're smart and do diligent research, I commend you for that.) Get his female characters up to a higher standard and he'll really knock my socks off with his creepy disturbing scary writing.
May 21, 2016
I'm pretty open about what I expect from a horror novel, but the one thing I absolutely demand is that feeling of terror. I want to feel menace hovering over the page. I want my horror novels to have me jumping at every noise around me. And that was just lacking here. To me, it read more like a suspense story. We open the novel near the end, so we know what has already happened. The bulk of the book is spent in getting there - in finding out exactly how it went down. It's hard to feel terrified when you know from the outset what is going to happen, and honestly the voice of Deseronto just irritated me. There were a couple of moments with gruesome images, and a couple of moments of trauma, but the scary stuff was just not that strong. It's a shame, because the idea of a killer being haunted by his victim is an interesting one. It just didn't work here. At least not for me.
February 11, 2016
Phantom Effect is the third novel I have read by Michael Aronovitz. This one is the tale of serial killer. It’s not a typical serial killer novel though, this one has a little extra zing to it. You see, Deseronto (the killer) is usually pretty sly. He goes through all kinds of machinations to make his grab. His eye falls on Marissa Madison, and he is determined to make her his next victim. This was an unfortunate choice for Deseronto, because Marissa is a special girl with a special talent that enables her to fight back, in a most personal way. I really like Aronovitz’s style of writing and word choice, his sentences are crisp and clean and have an almost melodic sound to them. A real page turner. Highly recommend.
October 20, 2016
Solid psychological cat and mouse between a hunter and some very unusual prey. Very descriptive, with a weird kind of pathos evoked through the memories it reveals. Not terribly creepy, but effective.
April 24, 2016
I liked this book, but I'm not sure about the ending. I think the author could have gone a different way with events, but that's just me.
May 3, 2016
The whole thing was good, but the ending ruined it.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews