The Green-Eyed Monster (The Enigma of Twilight Falls #1)

Since I'm not a very big fan of horror, I rarely read books that creep me out. Well, apart from Andrew Van Wey, who's first book Forsaken kept me up all nigh (in a good way!), who is so good you should check out his books along with this. This book is so scary that I stopped reading it once it got dark.

The Green Eyed Monster revolves around two incredibly talented writers. The book jumps between the present and their childhood/past, slowly unveiling the sinister force behind their talent. The two writers were born on the same day, went to the same school, wrote similar but different works, and had an imaginary grandfather. This is already a little scary, but add in stories (from various points of view) of how people who come in contact with them and their works end up destroying other people and you'll find yourself blasting loud cheery music while knocking on a friend's door to beg for company.

I think this is one of the rare stories where I say it's not about the characters but the plot. And atmosphere. This is a scary book (I was going to say delightfully scary, but that makes it sound like a children's horror movie somehow) and you should read it if you want to scare yourself off the path of being a writer.

But then again, if you read it and continue writing, then you'll know that your need to write is stronger than any mental force that can appear.

The only thing that I was unhappy about was the ending. For some reason, when the force that drove them finally appeared, he wasn't as scary as I imagined. Perhaps it was because I disagreed with his history of time and assessment of the universe (thank you rational part of me), but I think it's because the scare of the unknown grandfather figure (with butterfly metaphor) was so well-written that anything else would have felt anti-climatic.

Perhaps, this is a book you'll buy and read almost to the end. Then, you can sleep in your bed with an open ending. Then again, you might get nightmares (or dreams, depending on how much you like horror).

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.

I don’t pretend to totally understand chaos theory: butterflies flapping their wings on the other side of the world seem distant and, if I’m honest, rather insignificant to me. Jealousy and envy - that I get. Who hasn’t been a little envious when their friend got the boy, the job, the promotion…?

Mike Robinson skillfully blends chaos with jealousy and supernatural horror in The Green-eyed Monster, a book filled with characters as eerie and strange as anything thought up by King or Koontz.

James Becker and Martin Smith are writers so alike they are almost the same person. They were born at virtually the same time in virtually the same place and echo each other’s lives from school onwards. But the boys are deadly rivals, each trying to outdo the other at every opportunity.

The book opens with the death of Becker at the hands of Smith. How the two men got into this situation is then told in flashback, through the eyes of the people with whom they connect - if connect is what you can call it. The boys never talk to anyone else, they never have friends, girlfriends or join clubs.Yet their classmates cannot think of one without the other. They are inseparable in the minds of all who know of them.

Their story is told through the eyes of their first teacher, a classmate in high school and the cop who arrests Smith for Becker’s murder. This device works perfectly, allowing Robinson to show us how the pair influence those around them whilst maintaining the ‘otherness’ of the boys themselves. And through their writing, their influence is most definitely evil and sinister.

Robinson’s writing is exquisite. He weaves poetry from the dreadful things he sees and describes beauty in the evil resulting from the words of Becker and Smith. The voices of the narrators are believable and consistent and the story drew me in so much I was turning the pages long after bedtime.

But - and it pains me that there is a but - in the final few chapters it seems that the author lost his way. Remember how amazing The Matrix was? And then how exasperated you felt when Neo spent so much time discussing metaphysical philosophy with the Architect? As with the end of this book, I was left feeling let down, confused and a little bit angry. When Smith eventually meets ‘Grandfather’, an amorphous character who has circled and influenced both men from childhood, the story seems to go off on a totally different direction. Like God addressing Adam, Grandfather takes over the end of the book with a long monologue on creation, philosophy, good and evil. And it was, for this reader, just a little boring and irrelevant.

If I were to rate the first 90% of the book it would earn an easy 5*. With the disappointing end, I’d have to take it down to 4*.

In summary, Mike Robinson is a writer I’d love to read again and The Green-eyed Monster is still a brilliant, atmospheric and tense read, even with the disappointing end.

This was an awesome crazy wild ride of a story. I absolutely loved the dynamics, the backstory of the boys, the interweaving of characters and the sheer "out-thereness" of the plot. 2 boys born on the same day, their lives like conjoined twins, have an influence on their neighbors and schoolmates that is deadly and diabolical. Mike Robinson is not afraid to push the limits of string theory, fringe science, alternative universe...what would you call it? Slipstream fiction, I suppose. I read this book in a day and it stuck with me like the aura of a migraine headache - just on the outside edge of my peripheral vision. Huge new fan of this writer. I would give 4.5 stars if I could, saving a 1/2 star because it's not a book I could recommend to just anyone - very particular, smart, readers only.