Angie Smith and Curtis Loew are having dreams they can't shake. At the heart of each is Angie's daughter, Kaya. Angie's dreams end in death, the spreading of hand-shaped bruises across her daughter's throat. Curtis' dreams end in something else, something closer to obsession than love. Angie is worlds away, trying to keep her drug-shattered mind from falling apart, traveling through an American underbelly filled with inhuman shapes, dark whispers and old friends with empty eyes. Curtis is Kaya's new neighbor. He's getting closer to her, and her mentally unstable grandmother, Colleen. He's had families before, but he'd always made mistakes. Mistakes that led to new names, new towns. But this one time, he swears, things will all work out. He's got so much love to give. Siren Promised Featuring an introduction from author Simon Clark, over thirty illustrations by Alan M. Clark and an afterword by the book's creators, Siren Promised sets a new benchmark in visual and written storytelling.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
not for the squeamish,
By
This review is from: Siren Promised (Paperback)
Beautiful in its honesty, the plot is raw and creative. Without sermon or judgment, the story reveals a naked, ugly picture of drug abuse and exile. Although there is a very intricate supernatural element to it, it is purely secondary. What you will remember, what will haunt you, is the desperation of Angie, Curtis, and Kaya, and to what lengths they will go to fill their emptiness. Although I should warn you, the intensity may be too much for those looking for a few hours of simple entertainment.
Watching a character fall from grace and then get back up has always made for compelling drama, and if that is what you're expecting here - put the book down. Although the players capture the pain and suffering of life and all of its complexities, they receive no simple answer. There are no rainbows here. What they do portray is the gritty truth, without bows or gift-wrapping. As they fight against their desperation and for their redemption, you can't help but care, even if you don't want to. The atmosphere is abrasive and dense. The moment you open the book, the air around you begins to immediately attack your senses. When you move through the forest with Angie, you can almost smell the decay and filth. When Curtis investigates the Smith's house, you sense the weight surrounding it. It's all around you, and that stench, that smell, never leaves you. It's very power involving you in the story and placing you in their environment. And just when you think you can't handle any more, the pace pushes you through and past it. Although it's not a swift read, the speed is calculated and safe. With every aspect of the book being open to illusion, you will actually come to depend on the pace. It was perfect! Unlike most collaborations, Clark and Johnson's styles blended well together; too well, in fact. To this very moment, I still can't determine when one took over and the other sat back. Interlacing between reality and the drug-infused, nightmares of Angie, the authors make you live through it, rather than just read about it. The power of Clark and Johnson working together is in their ability to blur the lines in the tale and touch you where it counts. By the time I was done reading I was wondering about the purpose in my own life; they left me with an emptiness I didn't even know existed. Now normally I don't comment on the illustrations in books for the sheer fact that I know next-to-nothing about art, but the illustrations in this book require mention. Conveying what is going through the character's minds, the images bring to life what can only be imagined. They are beautiful! In fact, there is one picture in there that I am seriously considering framing and hanging on my wall.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Read it immediately,
By
This review is from: Siren Promised (Hardcover)
I have just one word for you - DAMN!
Beautiful in its honesty, the plot is raw and creative. Without sermon or judgment, the story reveals a naked, ugly picture of drug abuse and exile. Although there is a very intricate supernatural element to it, it is purely secondary. What you will remember, what will haunt you, is the desperation of Angie, Curtis, and Kaya, and to what lengths they will go to fill their emptiness. Although I should warn you, the intensity may be too much for those looking for a few hours of simple entertainment. Watching a character fall from grace and then get back up has always made for compelling drama, and if that is what you're expecting here - put the book down. Although the players capture the pain and suffering of life and all of its complexities, they receive no simple answer. There are no rainbows here. What they do portray is the gritty truth, without bows or gift-wrapping. As they fight against their desperation and for their redemption, you can't help but care, even if you don't want to. The atmosphere is abrasive and dense. The moment you open the book, the air around you begins to immediately attack your senses. When you move through the forest with Angie, you can almost smell the decay and filth. When Curtis investigates the Smith's house, you sense the weight surrounding it. It's all around you, and that stench, that smell, never leaves you. It's very power involving you in the story and placing you in their environment. And just when you think you can't handle any more, the pace pushes you through and past it. Although it's not a swift read, the speed is calculated and safe. With every aspect of the book being open to illusion, you will actually come to depend on the pace. It was perfect! Unlike most collaborations, Clark and Johnson's styles blended well together; too well, in fact. To this very moment, I still can't determine when one took over and the other sat back. Interlacing between reality and the drug-infused, nightmares of Angie, the authors make you live through it, rather than just read about it. The power of Clark and Johnson working together is in their ability to blur the lines in the tale and touch you where it counts. By the time I was done reading I was wondering about the purpose in my own life; they left me with an emptiness I didn't even know existed. Now normally I don't comment on the illustrations in books for the sheer fact that I know next-to-nothing about art, but the illustrations in this book require mention. Conveying what is going through the character's minds, the images bring to life what can only be imagined. They are beautiful! In fact, there is one picture in there that I am seriously considering framing and hanging on my wall.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A haunting tale that stares up at you from the bottom of life,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Siren Promised (Paperback)
Angie is twenty-nine years old, and used up by addiction and abuse. Getting clean, she knows she must break away from her lifestyle and boyfriend/dealer Cypher so that she can reacquaint herself with her thirteen-year-old daughter Kaya. What Angie doesn't know is that Kaya, living with Angie's pill-addicted and abusive mother Colleen, is being stalked by neighbor Curtis Loew, who wants a new family.
Before Angie can leave for her old home, her friend Stacy talks her into attending a rave, "just to dance". But Cypher is there, waiting for Angie. He corners her, forces some bad LSD into her mouth and rapes her. Angie manages to escape, injuring Cypher in the process, only to stumble into the woods where the drugs render her senseless. In her fugue, Angie has visions of Kaya dying. With the bad drugs still running rampant through her brain, Angie must get herself together and find the money to get home immediately. Her fear for Kaya's well-being overruns her fear of Cypher. And while Angie struggles to get closer to Kaya, so does 'Uncle Curtis'. 'Siren Promised' is a story of wretchedness and redemption. The horrors of Angie's past and her current drug fugue are not sugarcoated. The atmosphere is bleak and filled with disturbingly dark situations, the characters are unlikable at best, and yet you may still find yourself rooting for the character's lost innocence to bloom again. Kaya's existence with Colleen is so horrid that even 'Uncle Curtis' looks like a good parental figure to her. Angie's life has been so wasted its practically impossible to believe she can reverse it, and yet right up to the final horrific confrontation it is Angie who dares to continue clinging to her hope. Also noteworthy are the darkly beautiful illustrations by Alan Clark, a talented cover artist whose works I have always admired. I only recently discovered Jeremy Robert Johnson, and while I don't consider 'Siren Promised' to be his best piece, I most definitely look forward to purchasing more of his books. Enjoy!
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