adult fiction – Kate M. Colby

Twerking Cruxes and a Cloaked Visage by Kemka Ezinwo
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I received a free electronic copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Twerking Cruxes and a Cloaked Visage by Kemka Ezinwo follows the lives of individuals from a Nigerian community. The novel takes place over several years, beginning when the members of the youngest generation are schoolchildren and ending when they are nearing middle age. Over the course of the novel, the characters are put through multiple challenges, including; fighting for love, finding and reuniting with lost family members, struggling with religious belief, and learning the true nature of those around them.

The crowning jewel of Twerking Cruxes and a Cloaked Visage is the way Ezinwo weaves the lives of the multiple characters. All of the characters are interconnected in some way, and even when their paths diverge over time and distance, Ezinwo finds a way to bring them back together again. Keeping track of these characters and their many narratives must have been an extremely difficult task as a writer, and I commend Ezinwo for her ability to keep the characters straight and align their narratives in such a clever way.

From a reader’s standpoint, keeping track of so many characters is somewhat challenging, and there were several times throughout the novel where I had to pause and remind myself who a character was and how s/he was connected to someone else. Likewise, because Twerking Cruxes and a Cloaked Visage takes place over multiple decades, a lot happens in the one novel. This made the plot and details feel rushed. I felt like, just when the plot would really develop, it would be rushed onto the next event. Moreover, I felt like I did not have ample time to get to know the characters at more than the surface level. Honestly, I believe the events of this one book could have encompassed an entire series if given room to breath and develop properly.

On a grammatical level, the writing struggled. I spotted errors in almost every-other sentence, which consistently forced me to pause and re-read and threw me out of the narrative. Additionally, much of the dialogue lacked proper tagging, which made it difficult to know who was speaking. The dialogue also felt similar for all characters, which dampened the emotions the author tried to portray and hindered the uniqueness of the characters. One aspect of the dialogue that I did enjoy was when it would lapse into specific “dialects” to show when the characters were experiencing intense emotions.

Twerking Cruxes and a Cloaked Visage manages to follow multiple characters as they grow and beautifully interconnect their story lines in a way that feels authentic to their characters. However, the fast pace of events and lack of personality in dialogue prevents the readers from connecting with the events and characters as deeply as they could. In the end, if you like romance, drama, and a dash of mystery, you just may like the winding narrative and turning events of Twerking Cruxes and a Cloaked Visage.

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If you are interested in reading Twerking Cruxes and a Cloaked Visage and would like to help sponsor my writing and research, you can purchase it at my Amazon Associates Store. By doing this, you will not pay a cent extra, nor will the author receive a cent less, but I will receive a small commission on the sale. Simply click the book’s title or the book’s image.

The Ground Will Catch You by David Powning
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I received a free electronic copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

The Ground Will Catch You by David Powning follows Steve Hollis, a dissatisfied salesman, whose true passion in life is judo. Steve has been avoiding his passion for years, due to a violent mistake that he deeply regrets. He begins to return to the art after meeting Jack, the owner of a local dojo. However, at the same time he meets Jack, Steve also meets Emily, a sophisticated ballet dancer with whom he falls in love and who pulls him away from judo in favor of a more normal domestic life. When tragedy strikes, Steve’s loyalties and passion are tested, and he is torn between Jack and Emily and the worlds they offer.

First and foremost, Powning’s writing in The Ground Will Catch You is top-notch. The narrative style of Steve’s voice is sharp, sarcastic (when appropriate), and thoughtful. Perhaps it is Steve’s dislike of his day job and the fighting elements, but the narrative style reminds me a bit of Fight Club, in the way Steve internally mocks his coworkers at the beginning and faces every situation with bold honesty and attitude. Moreover, you can tell Powning has done his research — the descriptions of judo practices and forms are spot on and described perfectly.

Likewise, The Ground Will Catch You is full of strong characters. Each character is well-constructed and deep. They read like real people with real relationships. No one character is flawless, but no characters, even the ones who turn out to be antagonists, are so flawed that they become one-dimensional.

Personally, I think the writing and characterization are the strongest parts of The Ground Will Catch You. The story line is interesting, and the way the chapters alternate between the different parts of Steve’s life keeps the reader engaged and creates nice symmetry. However, because the novel is so relationship-focused, there are some times where the plot can be a little slow. Likewise, there are sections where plot points pass in “summary” rather than in “scene,” which can be frustrating to a reader who, like me, would have liked to see more of a situation directly from Steve’s eyes.

The end of the novel contains a few fantastic twists that I, personally, did not see coming. However, again, much of these twists are described in summary after they happen, and it would have been more engaging and clearer to see the events Steve witnessed unfold directly through his eyes. Regardless of this stylistic choice, the end of the novel is still satisfying and addresses important themes on trust and following one’s passion.

In all honesty, The Ground Will Catch You is probably not a novel I would have picked up on my own, but I am so grateful that the author sought me out for a review. The Ground Will Catch You is gorgeously written and a wonderful display of human character and the struggles individuals face in the pursuit of passion. It has everything one wants in a novel — action, love, mystery, internal struggle. I strongly recommend it.

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You can find out more about David Powning on his website, and you can read an interview with him on The 2K International Writers’ Blog Tour here.

If you are at all interest in reading The Ground Will Catch You, please pick up a copy — 10% of the proceeds go to support the fight against breast cancer.

If you are interested in reading The Ground Will Catch You and would like to help sponsor my writing and research, you can purchase it at my Amazon Associates Store. By doing this, you will not pay a cent extra, nor will the author receive a cent less, but I will receive a small commission on the sale. Simply click the book’s title or the book’s image.