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Espíritu Creativo: Un Thriller Sobrenatural (2013)

by Scott Nicholson(Favorite Author)

3.55 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

Horror

publisher

Haunted Computer Books

review 1: Somehow, I had three Scott Nicholson books on my kindle. "Drummer Boy" was the first, a book I felt was so horrible that I would never read another book by said author. Joke was on me. Because, as I said, three were on my kindle. This was the second book, and it was only marginally better. At least I finished it.So, we have Korban Manor, an awesome artistic retreat where folks of artistic abilities can come and recharge their juices for a very hefty price. I got the feeling that they only allowed one of each time, as I can't remember there being really two of any kind of artist at the retreat in the story, unless they were a couple. We had a sculptor, a painter, a photographer, a videographer/documentary person, a writer, a psychic (yeah, whatever), a couple who played ins... moretruments, and a few others. They applied to come to this retreat, and it's like the Who's Who of their artistic world. What they don't know is that it's haunted by the evil Master Korban who is sucking the creative energy from them to feed himself, and plans on becoming solid once more because this trip so happens to coincide with the Blue Moon in October. Not a bad storyline.In fact, it was the storyline that drew me in and made me break my "Never this author" vow. Beyond the first chapter, I was ready to go back to my "Never this author" once more. For a good idea, the execution was horrible. I finally figured out why, but I'm saving that for my third review since it will tie everything together."Creative Spirits" promised to be a scary book, but never delivered on the scares. Scott Nicholson kept pulling me out of the action and horror to focus on a new character. This book suffered from both "Too Many Characters" and "Vanishing Characters". Every chapter focused on a new character, in a new location, with a new problem, and it was dizzying. I never felt scared because I got whiplash from being whisked from where Mason was to where Anne was to where Roth was and so on. Because of the focus, you'd think the characters would be better developed, but I felt like they weren't developed enough. Oh, they were better than the ones I encountered in "Drummer Boy" but not developed enough that I cared about them. The only character I cared about was Adam, and I think he only showed in maybe five chapters total.The huge cast of characters is weeded out quickly. Of the artists that arrive, Scott only focuses on a handful, but the rest are basically dropped. At the end, we have the musician couple playing a song, and I forgot who they were because they are not talked about at all since they arrived. Some characters get a brief dialog at their introduction, and then they, too, are dropped. They served no purpose in the book and I felt they could have been cut. Of the characters we do focus on, we keep going back to Anne and Mason. Mason was okay, but I couldn't wait for Anne to die of cancer (as evil as that sounds). She annoyed the crap out of me with her "I'm a Psychic and people make fun of them, so anyone who talks to me must be making fun of me so I'm going to be a bitch to them first" attitude. I wanted to deck her. Hell, I still want to deck her.Mason was more sympathetic, but he was a wet towel. Adam, as I mentioned, was the only one I really cared about, and I don't normally go for gay storylines. Here he is, a man who inherited a lot of money, enough to go to this three month retreat, so his boyfriend can reap the benefits. And almost at once, the boyfriend turns into a jackass. Now, I don't know if he was supposed to be a jackass before hand and Adam thought this would bring them together, but I really felt for him. And after Adam's fate is revealed and his boyfriend is callous, I wished they had switched places. To hell with it, SPOILERS: Adam dies. And no one cares. Literally, no one cares. Not his boyfriend, Paul. Not Anne. Not Mason. No one. The one good character, and he is treated so horribly. That sucked.The story doesn't flow right. Since every chapter is another character's POV and story, it never flows properly from one section to the next. It was very jarring. Some chapters ended with what would be cliffhangers, but then I had to reorient myself with the story of the next chapter, and it dampened any scare. That being said, I also found the way the story was told to be confusing. I had to reread several sections because I felt like I missed something. We would go from like Mason doing something, to him thinking about his past, to something else...all on the same page. While Scott has some very beautiful writings, it got jumbled in trying to put too much in the story. I really didn't care about hearing about Mason's mom or Anne's anger toward her ex every time they were on screen. It got in the way of the story. The scenery he did fantastically and jumping into back story or following some train of thought in an ADD-like track pulled me out of it. All in all, this was a better book, and I have one more to review. It took three books to fully understand Scott Nicholson. I suppose, if you like haunted house stories (which, honestly I do), this book isn't bad. It could have been better if half the characters were never there and we spent more then one chapter at a time with a character. Other then that, it okay.
review 2: I'm a big fan of Nicholson...and I like a good haunted house story as much as the next person. I didn't find this to be his best work, however.It's not a bad book, as I said it's a solid novel. It just seems a little..predictable. I thought the characters were well developed which is impressive considering there are quite a few of them and the book isn't a door stop of a read. Nicholson is always tops at fleshing out characters so that's no surprise.I liked the setting. Creepy old mansion in the Appalachian mountains with rooms populated by the man who built it 100 years ago as if he's watching every single move of the occupants. Pretty cool.I could just see all the 'unanswerable' things going on as pretty answerable. I don't always mind that. Sometimes a book is so well written that being able to see certain twists and turns doesn't take away from the enjoyment. This is just a difficult book for me to review because I can't quite put my finger on what it was that I didn't like about it, thus the 3.5 star review. (not much of a useful review I suppose but I write it nonetheless).I think fans of Nicholson will take away enjoyment in some degree from the book that's for sure. I just don't think it's his best work to date. I suppose not every book can be a Red Church which I find to be the pinnacle of Nicholson's work to date.Very much worth a read for Nicholson fans and fans of ghost stories alike however. less

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