I read Reap the Whirlwind soon after finishing the great start Bleeding Hearts. Unfortunately, all of the greatness of the first book seems left out of the second as a new narrator is introduced along with a complete new set of characters and issues. Here Killian’s distant cousin, Aidan, gets a new roommate in Will. Although Aidan is newly identified as gay, Will is struggling with his sexuality. Will’s best friend Laura helps Will to recognize that his adoration of another good friend is actually love and Will is gay. Will doesn’t handle this realization well and spirals into a deep depression and actually attempts suicide twice. Complicating matters, Joey is soon found dead and Will is convinced it wasn’t an accident.The same formula as the first book is applied again here but without such a positive result. There is an important murder, a lot of coming of age angst and drama, and a group of friends trying to find the answer to the murder. Unfortunately the first person narrator here, Will, doesn’t have the same charm that infuses Killian. Will is by turns obtuse, selfish, immature, and all of his problems are solved for him with incredibly easy solutions. Will doesn’t actually take control and make decisions for himself, instead letting everyone direct his life for him. He also has numerous too stupid to live moments that aren’t as easily forgivable as Killian’s. Will spends the book crying and immersed in his personal drama and angst, to the point that he neglects his friends and takes his mostly easy life for granted. He becomes a difficult narrator to like and ultimately his actions are a large part in the story’s failure.Aidan is Will’s roommate and love interest but he falls pretty flat. He is rather one dimensional with his constant love and support for Will in the face of Will’s oblivious, slavish love for a dead man and his selfish actions. The relationship that eventually builds between Will and Aidan feels false. Will seems to accept Aidan’s love because it’s always been there and why not, instead of a deep reciprocal emotion. The events surrounding their relationship from the start to marriage (a few weeks), including the ending is over the top, ridiculous, and ruins a lot of the positive qualities the story introduces. The short time frame, lack of connection, and final ending resolution just highlights what Will lacks as a character. Coupled with Aidan’s weak personality, the story produces a main couple that fails to engage or keep interest.Furthermore there is a large cast of new characters and a few mentions and cameo’s from Killian and Asher. Here I really question bringing in a couple of young high school students to help solve a murder and Killian’s obsession steps the character back from his recent maturity of the first book. Killian’s involvement feels artificial and thrown in to connect the first book but offers very little progression for any of the previous characters. Instead they all seem to buy into the ridiculous antics of the story and ignore the obvious signs to solve the mystery. There are other elements that are used to tie up problems very easily such as the resolution to Will’s family, Will’s new art career, and his part time job. Each of these offers an easy solution to problems presented which makes the actual problems seem weak and included only for the sake of more drama and hysterics.The actual murder mystery could have been decent but is ruined by the inclusion of a psychopath that is easy to identify as soon as they are introduced. Will’s ridiculous actions surrounding this character highlight the improbability of the situation and never let up, so the actions of the group as a whole while trying to solve the murder make Scooby-Doo’s crew look brilliant. This is really surprising given the much more subtle and deft touch employed in the previous book and part of that clumsy execution is do to the poorly executed narrator. The ending is a shock and one I wasn’t expecting, though Will is a character I hope doesn’t appear again in the series. The attempt to make him sympathetic and brutally honest ultimately fails even as the mystery is more involved as a main part of the plot.Where this particular story shines is in the detail orientated setting. The vivid descriptive prose shows a real strength while keeping the book easy to read and quick. Some of the characters are interesting and leap off the page while the intensity of the drama has some real poignant moments. Will’s suicide attempts are brutal and intense and the scenes are well drawn and executed. The mystery could have been really well done – just take out the obvious psycho in my opinion – so parts of it held my interest. Although this particular offering is unsuccessful, I’m looking forward to continuing with the series. Returning to the more successful narrator of Killian I think will go a long way to correcting the problems presented here. But again, this is just one person’s opinion and Reap the Whirlwind won more than one award, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
!!Warning!! If you haven't read the previous books this review can contain spoilers.I had my complete review in my head on all the things I wanted to say. I was again in awe of the likeable and personable characters Josh Aterovis brought to this tale. How the suspense was a subtle tension throughout the novel, keeping me on edge at all times. I wanted to tell you the great odds Will Keegan had to overcome, how he tugged at my emotions and what a fantastic opposite Aidan was to Will. Will was a troubled young man going through a life changing period and Aidan was the quiet center. He was strength, he was joy, he was love and laughter even though he also knew pain and doubts. The balance Will and Aidan created, the internal conflicts they had to meet head on, forged a bond between them that swept me in to all their separate and shared emotions.Next to the blooming relationship I wanted to tell you I couldn't get enough of the whodunit plot. Josh Aterovis managed to gradually set the stage for a cruel murder which struck at the heart of a group of friends. Will, Laura and Joey have been the three musketeers all their life but events rip them apart and emotions where all over the place. Characters from Bleeding Heart also came into play, furthering overall character progress of people I already cared about. Will and Aidan where at the heart of this story where art, religion, friendship, suicide and more subjects where incorporated that captivated me. The author never stood on a pedestal when it came to the religion aspect, instead he allowed it to become a part of various characters in a natural way. The art was a tool for Will to express himself as he was struggling to deal with his suicide attempt. The support of, and help in the investigation from friends, tightened but also challenged friendship among various characters. I wanted to rave about the knack this author has for creating an absorbing storyline. There wasn't a moment where I was not engaged in how someone would react or how a situation would develop. But then, as romance and plot got to a pique...I was delivered a 180 degree twist which plummeted my enjoyment of this story so far!At first I got this beautiful, romance rife scene unfolding in front of my eyes where I was crying my ever romantic heart out, rejoicing in the love. But only a chapter or so after that my romance brimming heart was ripped out, thrown on the floor and stomped upon! I was screaming in my head, flipping the final page back and forth. This was it, THE END! No more continuance in a next story. I felt so betrayed by the author! How could he have let me go through all those emotional struggles with the characters? Made me feel a powerful connection alive with love and then give me a moment where various actions set a chain of events in to motion that is such a let-down. Reap The Whirlwind will never be remembered by me as a beautifully told romantic mystery tale it was 96% of the story, but for the excruciating ending that made me scream; Nooooooo!Josh Aterovis left me with a bleeding heart after I read the ending of Reap The Whirlwind. His writing style is grabbing! The dose of realism almost too much to bear. His characters are engaging, his plotting tight and it all blends into a story that is addictive. He is pushing the envelope and searching my boundaries to casually step over them and give me something I never saw coming! 3.5 starsThe quote for you to sample:Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boast-ful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends; as for prophecy, it will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
What do You think about Reap The Whirlwind (2007)?
I liked this book more than I thought I would at the outset but was a bit disappointed by the ending. The novel is a hybrid. It bills itself as a mystery but 10 chapters into the 22 chapter book there was no dead body yet, nor any real forshadowing that there would be. That was fine by me as I'm not that much of a mystery buff. The characters that I did meet and the stories that were begun were more than enough to keep me interested. However after the mystery starts to be be revealed, I was torn between wanting the continuation of the story I'd started to like and the conventions of what a mystery is supposed to be. Overall this is a very engaging, quick read and well worth your time, but be forewarned that the typical mystery enthusiast may dislike it.I mentioned that I was disappointed in the ending of this novel, but that's probably as much a problem with the genre as with this book itself. Being torn between the mystery aspects of the story and the coming out aspects of the story was interesting as a reader but the denouement was tough to take. I didn't know when I started this that it was actually the second book in a series but the two stories are very separate and I don't think that I missed anything by not having read the first one first. I did like this one enough to add the ealier story to my to-read queue.
—Stephen
