The Unearthed by Evan Ronan

By: Unknown on Sunday, November 30, 2014

Title:  The Unearthed
Author:  Evan Ronan
Published:  September 18/14
Length:  282pgs
Format:  ecopy
Genre:  paranormal thriller
Shelf:  review
Rating: ★★

Back Cover Blurb:

Three years ago, a father, mother, and son murdered each other at home—a bloody tragedy that would later be known as the Moriarty Massacre. Only the youngest son, Eamon, survived that horrific night.

Now the Rossellis, the family currently living in the home, are experiencing strange phenomena. The phone rings randomly, a bloodlike stain continually reappears in the dining room, and their son, Billy, is talking to someone. Someone nobody can see and only Billy can hear.

The Rossellis hire Tim and Eddie McCloskey, local ghost hunters, to investigate. As the case quickly develops, their investigation takes dark turns as they race against time to find a missing boy. And as Tim and Eddie discover some terrifying similarities between the Moriartys and the Rossellis, they realize another massacre might be around the corner, and only they can stop it.

My Review:

It took me a while to get used to the author’s writing style. The short, choppy sentences just didn’t work for me. It worked ok with the storyline, but didn’t really have the effect that the author was going for. I personally would have preferred more details in the description. I spent a lot of time trying to imagine the scenes that Ronan was setting up for us based on the details given. There were also a few discrepancies in the story itself that I found myself trying to sort out. The manner in which Ronan combines the supernatural with reality brings your focus to the possibilities that he opens up. That said, he doesn’t go into great detail about the paranormal events, focussing more on the characters’ reactions. I also wasn’t completely satisfied with the ending. Ronan left me with a feeling of ‘ok, it’s done now..’ rather than a sense of completion.

The individual character development in this novel was quite well done. Readers get to know everyone in the past and present. The differing personalities of the major players in the novel assure that there will be someone for everyone to identify with. I found the author giving himself a cameo appearance in the novel was quite odd. It definitely threw me off for a bit. Also, the dialogue was off for me. There was too much ‘he said…’ followed by a short exclamation for the conversation to flow properly.

As a whole, this story just didn’t do it for me. I understand why many other readers will enjoy it, but it didn’t hold my attention and I found myself questioning a few too many things.

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