Turtle Boy
By: Kealan Patrick Burke
Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
Its a good paranormal mystery but it does have have child abuse mentioned. It is a fairly short book but has a lot packed into it. Suspense, good mystery, ghosts, and murder. Good narration! ( )

I like Burke's writing. He portrays a real world and believable characters. Plus, his stories are often uniquely scary; SOUR CANDY is a perfect example of this. And while THE TURTLE BOY was good, it also felt slightly splintered.

Timmy Quinn is eleven years old and home from school for the summer. He is excited to spend it with his best friend Pete. However, a dark discovery at the beginning of summer leaves Timmy alone for most of the summer. Until his mom intervenes and forces Pete to be friends with a girl, Kim Barnes. Together they discover the darker secret behind the dark discovery.

The story is solid and enjoyable. The characters are interesting and believable. The disjointed part was that the novella was part Young Adult and part adult. It seemed that Burke was creating his own YA character that teens and pre-teens could follow. The novella had all the characteristics of a YA novel. However, at the same time, the story seemed a bit intense and graphic for a YA story. Personally, I liked the extra intensity but then as the parent of a pre-teen, I'm not really part of the YA audience. There are five books in the Timmy Quinn series by Burke, so I imagine that it has resonated with people fairly well. Hopefully Burke is finding and pulling in the next wave of new readers who love horror and who like that extra-gore instead. I'm kind of digressing. I found the story fun to read, it kept me engaged all the way to the end, and I wasn't disappointed at the end. I probably won't pick up other Timmy Quinn stories, but I will be picking up other Kealan Patrick Burke stories. ( )

This was a decent, quick read but the ending left me a little confused. It didn't feel finished, even knowing that there would be short stories and novellas later on. The author gets a little heavy handed with the adjectives sometimes too. ( )

Summer has just begun and eleven-year-old Timmy Quinn and his best friend Pete are looking for something to do in their small, boring town of Delaware. They go down to Myers Pond where they discover an odd looking boy sitting on the bank.

This is a really solid short story, and the first in the series about Timmy Quinn. Good writing, interesting story, never dull. I look forward to reading the next one! ( )

September 10th BR with my Burke Gore Gals Kat and Anasylvia.

So yeah…I am a scattered mess of thoughts after that and as my fellow BRer noted…a cliffhanger to boot…which left me with nothing but more questions.

So the good… -While this book really has very little of the “Gore” we girls are going for with Burke’s works, it did fill me with so much anxiety that I really could not put it down. However, at one point, I was so uncomfortable with where a certain scene was headed that I was almost ill. Thankfully, it did not go to where I was thinking (thank you Kealan for that). -The mystery and mindfuck of who is behind the crime itself along with the trail of breadcrumbs that left me stirring all night…including an image appearing at the end of the book that totally turned things upside down for me. WTF? -Our Turtle Boy himself and additionally the alternate cover…which is really far superior to the one linked to this book.

And I don’t want to say bad…so I’ll say less good… -This is clearly an early work of Burke (come to find out, one of his first) and as such details and descriptions fall short of the brilliance we have come to see in his later works. At times even, I was confused, left trying to figure out who “he” was referring to. Specifically when the main character thinks “Maybe he deserves to die.” Is he referring to several other male characters or himself…I am still not clear. In the end, I was entertained. Our BR will continue sooner than planned as the cliffhanger left us needing more as we work our way through Burke’s collection. Next up…the continuation of “The Turtle Boy" with The Hides." ( )