What do you think?
Rate this book
Sparkle
"In his latest fantasy, Kambitsis crafts a tale of small-town weirdness that would tickle Stephen King." - Kirkus Reviews Something evil is hidden in the woods outside of the beautiful town of Sparkle, PA, the kind of thing Peter Huffy, newly arrived in town, does not believe in. Little does he know that something is happening in Sparkle, something that hasn’t occurred on Earth since the destruction of Camelot a millennium and a half before, and the forces of good and evil are going to collide. Twelve-year-old Derek Windward is the sole keeper of Sparkle’s oldest secret. He is the only one who has witnessed the evil hiding in the darkest part of the forest, and how terrifying the power it wields truly is. It is the Bunyine - a giant, tormented creature born eight-thousand years ago in the Garden of Eden and harboring an ancient grudge for the betrayal of its masters Adam and Eve. One morning, Derek receives a cryptic message carved into a tree. A message from the beast itself. Though what the Bunyine wants is unclear, what it would do to get it is unthinkable. Sparkle brings together the charm and wonder of fantasy and the thrills of horror, creating a unique experience for readers of both genres, and all ages. Color drawings inside ebook!
374 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 25, 2017
14 people are currently reading
10 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 25, 2017
I recently read Sparkle by Arin Kambitsis at his request for a review on my blog. I might’ve mostly said yes because I thought his name was cool (and I first read it in my mind as Eren—the main character from Attack on Titan.) Anyways, I’m glad I read it (the author shot me a free review copy).
I thought Sparkle an odd name, but it made more sense once you start reading. Sparkle is the ironic name of the town where the story takes place. Similar to Arkham, MA or Twin Peaks, OR Sparkle is a normal place… up until it isn’t.
Derek’s quest to defeat the Bunyine (which is the great, mysterious evil of this book) begins with a journal and an adventure into the woods. He picks up a crew of other adventurers as the pages turn… after all, an old man in a cave once told us “It’s dangerous to go alone…”
The cryptic setting gave me a feeling like a modern day Dunwich Horror, although the antagonist is less force of cosmic horror and more voracious, calculating evil (like the creature from It.) The familial thread of the Windward family in the story kept reminding me of the Whatley’s from Lovecraft’s mythos… and that’s alright—it certainly adds an element of timeless mystery as the story unfolds across multiple storylines until the author begins crossing them over, making a braid out of individual threads.
The story is finely crafted and the writing is tight. It might be something like Clive Barker meets CS Lewis (specifically being a horrific kind of Narnia—the Bunyine’s origins are in a kind of para-biblical tale stemming from an Edenic creation story. Like Lewis, there are some moral implications we walk away pondering.) I recommend you hop on over to Amazon and pick up a copy for yourself!
I thought Sparkle an odd name, but it made more sense once you start reading. Sparkle is the ironic name of the town where the story takes place. Similar to Arkham, MA or Twin Peaks, OR Sparkle is a normal place… up until it isn’t.
Derek’s quest to defeat the Bunyine (which is the great, mysterious evil of this book) begins with a journal and an adventure into the woods. He picks up a crew of other adventurers as the pages turn… after all, an old man in a cave once told us “It’s dangerous to go alone…”
The cryptic setting gave me a feeling like a modern day Dunwich Horror, although the antagonist is less force of cosmic horror and more voracious, calculating evil (like the creature from It.) The familial thread of the Windward family in the story kept reminding me of the Whatley’s from Lovecraft’s mythos… and that’s alright—it certainly adds an element of timeless mystery as the story unfolds across multiple storylines until the author begins crossing them over, making a braid out of individual threads.
The story is finely crafted and the writing is tight. It might be something like Clive Barker meets CS Lewis (specifically being a horrific kind of Narnia—the Bunyine’s origins are in a kind of para-biblical tale stemming from an Edenic creation story. Like Lewis, there are some moral implications we walk away pondering.) I recommend you hop on over to Amazon and pick up a copy for yourself!
Displaying 1 of 1 review