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Drawn In
Things haven’t been going well for Natalie Swift. Ever since she witnessed the murder of her boyfriend she’s been struggling to keep her world together. Her vacation in Florence should allow her to soak up the culture she loves and get some rest, but her plans go awry as soon as she arrives in town.
Rory‘s also in Florence. He’s Natalie’s dead boyfriend and he can’t seem to leave her alone. His plan is to coax her to join him on the other side. The worrying thing for Natalie is that he has always been very persuasive.
Arturo is a street artist. His pictures are of the highest quality. They’re also the portals through which he collects souls. He’s dishy, romantic and immortal and he’s turning Natalie’s head in a way that Rory doesn’t appreciate one bit.
And Barabbas? He’s an imp with a heart of darkness sent to sort things out when Natalie interferes in the soul collection of a young child.
Drawn In is an engaging tale that follows what happens when mere mortals start meddling with the natural order of the universe. For all of the characters involved, this story really is a matter of life and death.
Rory‘s also in Florence. He’s Natalie’s dead boyfriend and he can’t seem to leave her alone. His plan is to coax her to join him on the other side. The worrying thing for Natalie is that he has always been very persuasive.
Arturo is a street artist. His pictures are of the highest quality. They’re also the portals through which he collects souls. He’s dishy, romantic and immortal and he’s turning Natalie’s head in a way that Rory doesn’t appreciate one bit.
And Barabbas? He’s an imp with a heart of darkness sent to sort things out when Natalie interferes in the soul collection of a young child.
Drawn In is an engaging tale that follows what happens when mere mortals start meddling with the natural order of the universe. For all of the characters involved, this story really is a matter of life and death.
178 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2016
About the author
Nigel Bird
52 books75 followersNigel Bird is the author of the Rat Pack series, The Shallows, the Southsiders series, In Loco Parentis, Smoke, Mr Suit and Dirty Old Town as well as a number of other novels, novellas and collections.
His work has appeared in a number of prestigious magazines and collections, including 2 editions of The Best Of British Crime,The Reader, Crimespree and Needle.
He is currently an editorial consultant for the publisher All Due Respect books.
He lives on the East Coast of Scotland in Dunbar (Sunny Dunny) with his wife and three children.
As well as writing fiction, he has been a teacher for thirty years and has worked in a number of mainstream and special schools.
His work has appeared in a number of prestigious magazines and collections, including 2 editions of The Best Of British Crime,The Reader, Crimespree and Needle.
He is currently an editorial consultant for the publisher All Due Respect books.
He lives on the East Coast of Scotland in Dunbar (Sunny Dunny) with his wife and three children.
As well as writing fiction, he has been a teacher for thirty years and has worked in a number of mainstream and special schools.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 28, 2017
This is a book in Fantasy Factions bracket for SPFBO and currently has no feedback yet.
Plot:
This is a single POV second person point of view book that follows around a British girl who's currently in Italy.
She's eating dinner one night and steps outside to leave, and meets an artist drawing something on the ground. It turns out to be the form of a dead person strewn out on the pavement. She doesn't know why he's doing it, but there's something strange and mysterious about him that makes her want to know him better.
She hears someone calling from behind her, and it's the waiter from the restaurant coming to return a sweater she had left inside, and he's hit by a car, and his body lands directly on top of the chalk drawing.
Nobody else saw the artist, and nobody else saw the chalk drawing, it disappeared when the body was removed.
The main character gets involved with the artist through the book, and you get to learn all about Collectors and how they shepherd souls from one life to the next.
Characters:
Nat - she's the main character of the story. She's suffered a pretty big loss, her ex bf was shot and killed and now she's being haunted by his ghost. He won't let her move on with someone else, and he's constantly in her thoughts telling her to do some pretty messed up stuff.
Arturo - the artist, he's a collector and helps people move on from this life to the next
World Building:
This is a pretty short book, so there wasn't a terrible amount of world building, but it was a cool concept none the less. There's some rules that go along with being a collector, there's neat aspects to the chalk magic system as well - about 80% through there's a neat twist with this.
God and the Devil are real, and so are Demons, there's a huge Christian influence with this book, churches are safe havens and the after life is real. Tormented souls get stuck in Limbo and haunt other people who have restless or broken souls.
Pacing Prose:
This book according to goodreads is 115 pages (ebooked it, no pages available) it read very quickly, there wasn't much of anything that should have been discarded or anywhere that was a 'slog' because it was such a short and compact story.
Audience:
For people who like demons, gods, devils, ghosts
For people who enjoy compact and tight story
For people who like second person writing
For people who like the idea of collecting souls/reaper main characters
For people looking for something different.
Plot:
This is a single POV second person point of view book that follows around a British girl who's currently in Italy.
She's eating dinner one night and steps outside to leave, and meets an artist drawing something on the ground. It turns out to be the form of a dead person strewn out on the pavement. She doesn't know why he's doing it, but there's something strange and mysterious about him that makes her want to know him better.
She hears someone calling from behind her, and it's the waiter from the restaurant coming to return a sweater she had left inside, and he's hit by a car, and his body lands directly on top of the chalk drawing.
Nobody else saw the artist, and nobody else saw the chalk drawing, it disappeared when the body was removed.
The main character gets involved with the artist through the book, and you get to learn all about Collectors and how they shepherd souls from one life to the next.
Characters:
Nat - she's the main character of the story. She's suffered a pretty big loss, her ex bf was shot and killed and now she's being haunted by his ghost. He won't let her move on with someone else, and he's constantly in her thoughts telling her to do some pretty messed up stuff.
Arturo - the artist, he's a collector and helps people move on from this life to the next
World Building:
This is a pretty short book, so there wasn't a terrible amount of world building, but it was a cool concept none the less. There's some rules that go along with being a collector, there's neat aspects to the chalk magic system as well - about 80% through there's a neat twist with this.
God and the Devil are real, and so are Demons, there's a huge Christian influence with this book, churches are safe havens and the after life is real. Tormented souls get stuck in Limbo and haunt other people who have restless or broken souls.
Pacing Prose:
This book according to goodreads is 115 pages (ebooked it, no pages available) it read very quickly, there wasn't much of anything that should have been discarded or anywhere that was a 'slog' because it was such a short and compact story.
Audience:
For people who like demons, gods, devils, ghosts
For people who enjoy compact and tight story
For people who like second person writing
For people who like the idea of collecting souls/reaper main characters
For people looking for something different.
Did Not Finish
November 6, 2017Will not rate this one, as I DNFed it pretty early....
This is not my personal cup of tea at all! I do not like romance in my fantasy, and this one, while well written prose wise just lost me when I got to this sentence:
"Our tongues meet. They say hello like old friends, who know exactly what to do." => sorry, I'm out...
This is not my personal cup of tea at all! I do not like romance in my fantasy, and this one, while well written prose wise just lost me when I got to this sentence:
"Our tongues meet. They say hello like old friends, who know exactly what to do." => sorry, I'm out...
January 21, 2019
A well-written paranormal novelette, with well-observed characters and a skillfully-evoked setting. The supernatural elements are mysterious and intriguing, and the only let-down is that the book seems to wrap things up too quickly.
August 13, 2024
This was pretty bad probably one of the worst books I’ve read
June 4, 2016
Eighteen year old Natalie is studying Art and spending some time in Florence. Her boyfriend Rory died in violent circumstances seven months previously and she is still grieving, to the extent that she hears his voice in her head, encouraging her to ‘join him’ in the after-life. While in Florence, she sees Arturo, handsome and talented, drawing a figure on the ground. Later, a man is killed on this spot, lying exactly as Arturo had portrayed him. Nat discovers that nobody else can see him or his drawing. She then sees the predicted death of a young girl and interferes, erasing the drawing. This pulls her in deeper to find out what’s going on. Meanwhile, the voice of her dead boyfriend calls to her like a siren-song.
I always enjoy Nigel Bird’s writing and he’s no one-genre author. I found this novella very gripping and intriguing. It proposes a means to the afterlife overseen by a few soul collectors the world over, in order to help souls who are lost through the violence of their passing. It’s a classic device in a supernatural story that an unquiet soul can’t rest and it’s a really unusual idea Nigel Bird has come up with here to postulate a way around this. Natalie interferes in the process by taking pity on the five year-old who is destined to die. I found myself thinking that it would be an impossible job for many of us. Who wouldn’t try to give a child a longer stay on earth? A quick read but, in places, a very exciting one.
I always enjoy Nigel Bird’s writing and he’s no one-genre author. I found this novella very gripping and intriguing. It proposes a means to the afterlife overseen by a few soul collectors the world over, in order to help souls who are lost through the violence of their passing. It’s a classic device in a supernatural story that an unquiet soul can’t rest and it’s a really unusual idea Nigel Bird has come up with here to postulate a way around this. Natalie interferes in the process by taking pity on the five year-old who is destined to die. I found myself thinking that it would be an impossible job for many of us. Who wouldn’t try to give a child a longer stay on earth? A quick read but, in places, a very exciting one.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews